Hedge funds have always been able to recruit analysts and traditional stock-picking portfolio managers from investment banks, but have run into trouble convincing coders and data scientists to choose Wall Street over Silicon Valley, industry observers say. Just "throwing money" at top graduates from Ph.D. programs has not worked because, industry sources say, hedge funds are being outbid for this type of talent. Funds are now getting creative with the ways they recruit this type of talent, with Silicon Valley-like hack-a-thons or guarantees to work on a new internal product that is more start-up-like.