Why? He's just saying that the guy should prove that he can (and is willing to) build something from end to end. That side project is a portfolio piece, essentially. That's reasonable if the guy has never done anything programming related outside of BigCo.
And he probably doesn't want teammates who are primarily motivated by money, because almost no startup can profit off of engineers at the same rate that large companies can. Being an employee at a startup is oftentimes not a rational financial decision, but it can definitely make the right sort of person much happier than working at a big company. You really need to understand that to judge this.
And he probably doesn't want teammates who are primarily motivated by money, because almost no startup can profit off of engineers at the same rate that large companies can. Being an employee at a startup is oftentimes not a rational financial decision, but it can definitely make the right sort of person much happier than working at a big company. You really need to understand that to judge this.