I wanted to get some opinions on this topic. I own a SaaS B2B company and we need some technical work completed asap to hit our product roadmap goals. I was approached by a Principal Product Manager at a major publicly traded tech company who is looking to get a VP of Product at another company. 

I explained to him that I would love to have him, but I can't afford his salary right now. However, the thought came up...What if he did some work for my company for free in exchange for me giving him a VP or Product title that he can use to get his dream job?

Has anyone run across this idea before?