Judging from most of the comments here, I'm in the minority, but I applaud Mark for taking such a personal approach to recruiting desired talent. Sure, it can be seen as cheesy when you read about it - but I'm sure each person who got this invite was somewhat impressed and/or flattered by the personal attention.
I once wooed a great developer by taking photos of people from my team holding a sign saying, "Hi $Persons_Name!" (where $Persons_Name was the actual candidate's name, of course). Seeing it now, it sounds kinda cheesy and dumb, but it worked. He took the job and rose quickly in the company.
This approach may not work for everyone, but it's still admirable that Mark is taking time out of his hectic schedule to try attracting these candidates.
I once wooed a great developer by taking photos of people from my team holding a sign saying, "Hi $Persons_Name!" (where $Persons_Name was the actual candidate's name, of course). Seeing it now, it sounds kinda cheesy and dumb, but it worked. He took the job and rose quickly in the company.
This approach may not work for everyone, but it's still admirable that Mark is taking time out of his hectic schedule to try attracting these candidates.