Ask HN: If money no object, how do I find the very best freelancers?

If money was no object, I'll use said money to buy more time. With that time, I'll create an opening on my website/Twitter account or what-have-you and maybe post a video saying "I'm willing to hire a freelancer", add overall and selected specific details about my company and the work environment as well as list off a bunch of requirements.

A college degree would not be one of the requirements.

Depending on who contacts me, I'll ask about my specific needs and avoid any stupid mental tricks and riddles or the like seen in numerous interviews that do nothing to measure the candidate's actual competence within the scope of my needs. That last bit is extremely important.

Then I'll have a face-to-face or Skype meeting to see how the candidate will perform when speaking.

Social interactions are a vital skill; has nothing to do with being introverted, borderline (usually self-diagnosed)Aspie etc... and I need to see whether this person will do the best they can within or beyond my expectations without derailing the project and/or murdering a coworker or worse, me. Then, skills:

Following up on the above brief on my actual needs, I'll create a problem set (which won't involve Twiter, Facebook, Google etc... because "Big Data" doesn't exist below 16Tb) that deals with where I want to go with my project/product/business and where I will see the company going in 2 - 5 years.

Following these recommendations, you will not only find a good freelancer, but one that will actually be worth hiring and, more importantly, you won't fly your project into the side of a mountain.

[Source: 12 years of freelancing]

Pay the ones you like to do the same task. Judge by the results.

Another option is to look at credible free lance sites such as odesk, elance etc. Generally you can search for contractors with 1) top notch past feedback in projects of area you are looking for 2) scores on relevant tests on those websites 3) Interview candidate and possibly assign a paid test job.

Really no object? Find someone on github who has a great open source application or module with code that you really like. Find 2-4 of those people and offer them each $1 million to work on your project. You will probably find one who is able to make time to help you.

1. Hire someone with a great reputation. Ask him to hire a freelance team for you. Pay them well.

2. Hire 5 freelance teams. Have them do the same thing for 1 month. Kick out 4, keep the best. Pay them well.