Having experienced first-hand the hiring competition of Big Co's, I started recruiting second and third year Comp. Sci. students for internships. You have to invest a lot more time and effort in training and mentorship, but it pays to build a solid working relationship before they are recruited by the corporate competition (Amazon, Facebook). I have had some good results, but it is hard to scale. Other activities that make it easier to hire is to regularly speak about interesting topics at your local university and demo interesting projects. Deliver value, and others will follow.