The Fortune 500 one is a bit disconcerting. I know there are a lot of Fortune 500 developers that would not fit well in a startup, but there are plenty of interesting projects within many Fortune 500s where you would find great developers who would be great startup employees. You do say that you look for something else that catches your eye... but its hard to know what that may be and is probably a lot of chance.
You also state that you want to see "passion" for the technology they have used. I don't really know how to put that in a resume. I have a lot of passion for most of the tech I use- I think that would show within minutes during a conversation or interview. But I'm not confidant my resume really communicates it. Putting "I Love Python!!!" in my resume seems a bit over the top...
The fortune 500 one I qualified (as I mentioned to a couple other people who objected to this.) I understand why it's disconcerting, but in my position (small startup, small team, need to not waste 3-6 months on a bad hire) I need to increase my chances for a successful hire. Lots of bigcorp devs are used to having everything laid out for them. Early stage startups are unlikely to give the same structure.
Passion for tech - you are right that this is hard to boil down to a formula. I'm looking for people who exhibit signals like (for example) they read HN, have interests in learning languages beyond the ones they're comfortable in, have maybe messed around a little with hardware, were in technology clubs in high school or college, learned programming as a kid, have a hobby project, etc. It's not so much about the hours that people will put in, but rather their engagement / pride-in-work / creativity / ability to propose alternate-solutions, all of which are good things to have, and are easy to qualify for with "enjoys technology."
At least at my current job at a "boring" Fortune 500, we don't work that way at all. I'm sure there are plenty that do though. I guess if you are getting enough hires using your current system, there is certainly no reason to change it.
I suppose I should consider a way to indicate the I read Hacker News on my resume :) Thanks for responding, I may be able to improve my resume some by considering how to show more of those things. Right now, I focus a lot on Python in my resume, because that is my primary language of expertise and what I use every day. But I am very interested in Rust and various functional languages in general too.
You also state that you want to see "passion" for the technology they have used. I don't really know how to put that in a resume. I have a lot of passion for most of the tech I use- I think that would show within minutes during a conversation or interview. But I'm not confidant my resume really communicates it. Putting "I Love Python!!!" in my resume seems a bit over the top...