Was wondering if you or the folks at YC have thought of this. I know Andreessen Horowitz and Greylock Partners both have talent pools, where they connect interested developers and designers to startups they have funded.
As someone who is transitioning from being a student to wanting to work with a small team full-time, I would personally love to be a part of a talent pool that could connect me to promising startups funded by YC that are in need of my skills.
I also know a lot of the companies funded by YC are also looking to expand their teams and may have difficulty recruiting talent; so I think it’d be something beneficial for both sides. Have you all ever thought of trying something like this?
Have you checked out the "jobs" section here on HN? http://news.ycombinator.com/jobs
It's obviously a one-way tool and what you're describing is two-way, but it's a start.
There is something of a talent pool in recommendations between the YC startups. Get involved with one, and you'll probably be able to get more work out of it if you do a good enough job for them to remember it.
YC itself is effectively that. The good people from the startups that fail get picked up by the others. We also run http://workatastartup.org.