From Wikipedia: "A person in the service of another under any contract of hire, express or implied, oral or written, where the employer has the power or right to control and direct the employee in the material details of how the work is to be performed." Black's Law Dictionary page 471 (5th ...
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Equity when joining an established business
Given an offer to join an established company, earning at least a couple of million a year in revenue (under 10 employees) and which is a subsidiary to a multi billion dollar parent company; what is a ...
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1answer
110 views
The startup I work for is slashing my last pay periods paycheck without notice
This question is not directly related to a creating or running a startup, but I guess this is one of the things that can happen at a startup and I'd love to hear responses from both sides of the ...
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4answers
166 views
How to expand our workforce from 1 technical 'guru' to a productive team of 6
Like many fellow startups that we know, we've started like with one technical wizard who know a lot of stuff and who knows now where everything is and how it works. The system has undergone a lot of ...
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2answers
134 views
0.5% equity and 2k/month to be the #1 CDO in a startup
I really need your help.
It 's the first time I've been asked to work for a startup.
The company has already been made, founded by 2 partners, and has already received an initial investment, but has ...
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5answers
140 views
DIY Payroll Processing?
I have tried (and been rejected by) a few online payroll solutions. As I am about to start (very soon) working with real employees, I need to find a way to do payroll more or less manually (though I ...
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3answers
258 views
What effect does winning an office lottery pool have on the health of small companies
A couple people at my place of work (small-medium company with < 100 employees) are starting up a lottery pool, and it got me wondering about what would happen if they won.
So my question is this, ...
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3answers
252 views
Choose to pay the employees a little too much or a little too less?
We tend to think that the fair value of a work is the price of it, but it's hard to appreciate. As a web startup, what do you think is the best strategy, keep the pay a little too less to keep the ...
2
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3answers
161 views
Is it illegal to sell a software template created at work but duplicated and augmented at home?
I am an employee at a large company and I created a worksheet using my work computer. The worksheet helps me organize my info such as passwords and time-off records. I replicated it and then ...
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2answers
78 views
Hiring first person employee vs contractor
I have bootstrapped a startup in NY and am ready to hire a person. Should I hire this person as contractor or as an employee. I realize that their are many laws and logistics around hiring an employee ...
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4answers
66 views
Hiring someone as an employee AND contractor
If an employee wanted to clean our buildings above their normal responsibilities, could we hire them as an independent contractor for the cleaning work in addition to them being an employee?
Is there ...
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4answers
342 views
How do I motivate someone who values his time significantly more than money to come to work on time?
I'm looking for a strategy to negotiate punctuality with an employee who is quite skilled. However, I fear that docking his pay may not have an impact because he values his own time more highly than ...
3
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2answers
76 views
Looking to hire designer for a few days. What do I need to know?
I'm probably going to hire a freelance web designer for a few day to complete a project. The designer will probably be freelance so I will be paying a fixed amount on completion. Are there any legal ...
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1answer
84 views
Advice for early-stage hiring?
I am the CEO of a rapidly growing startup and our growth has begun to outpace our resources as a 3 person organization. So we have begun looking around for people to hire, both as programmers, as ...
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2answers
63 views
I can't seem to find this answer anywhere regarding LLC
I live in CT but I have office space in NH, where would I register for an LLC? I don't plan on moving there and have employees in NH, so what should I do?
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7answers
327 views
Should I hire relatives in my startup?
My sister and I started a small company. I don't mind working with her. So far, we've been doing well and have managed to keep our professional issues separate from our family life. The problem is my ...
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1answer
83 views
How to handle a leaving employee's shares
I have a question about what are the best exit options for employees that own shares in a company and want to leave after some time.
For example, let's say at the start of a company the first ...
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4answers
269 views
Do websites with pictures of people on the first page make the company look more “human”
Do websites with pictures of people on the first page make the company look more "human", therefore contributing to the success of the product or service the web site tries to promote?
Short story:
I ...
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3answers
73 views
Reasons to get local admin assistant rather than Virtual Assistant?
Under what circumstances might it make sense to employ a local admin assistant rather than a remote Virtual Assistant?
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1answer
129 views
Evaluating a startup
My question is, what is the best way to evaluate a software startup as a perspective employee from the point of view of viability i.e. economic viability.
I am more interested in hints related to ...
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2answers
53 views
What are some good resources on recruiting volunteers
I'm part of a volunteer organisation that is currently looking for ways to recruit more volunteers. While I've turned up plenty of resources on how to recruit employees, the recruitment of volunteers ...
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1answer
122 views
Where to post job for early stage startup
We are bootstrapping and offering equity. We're seeking a front end developer.
We posted on startuply.com but are looking for other places. We used one location on craigslist. Anywhere else we should ...
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2answers
62 views
If I can find someone who will work for an employee's salary rate as a contractor, should I hire them?
I am 1 year into my own Startup Software business and all is going well. We have enough money to hire someone and after pushing 90-130 hours a week for the last 4 months, I think it's a sensible ...
3
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1answer
311 views
What's a good ratio between founder equity and early employee equity?
I'm looking into the equity for the 2nd employee of an early-stage startup. I've seen lots of rules of thumbs out there (some people say 1%) but it's hard to apply because some rules of thumb refer ...
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3answers
156 views
How much profit-sharing should I give my secretary / marketer?
I am a part-time programmer contractor and usually I do everything myself, including meeting clients, writing the proposal, programming, the whole 9 yards. I would like to hire someone to split the ...
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4answers
826 views
Do employees get paid during the time a business is closed for renovations?
I'm curious if a company has to (or if it is normal to) pay their employees if they, for instance, close the business for a while for renovations.
For a specific case, say a restaurant closes for a ...
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1answer
196 views
How many employees do we need?
My co-founder and I are in the very early stages of launching our website. My day job is in finance, a highly-intense industry, to say the least. I very rarely have downtime during the day and our ...
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4answers
255 views
How to attract talent as startup?
What are the best ways in attracting talent to a startup? Is it salary, a cool brand, a cool office or something else? Equity is pretty much a standard so I'm looking for some other tips.
A while ...
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2answers
144 views
What title to give to a non-founder first person in company
This question is a follow up to another question but it stands as a question by itself so i decided to ask it separately..
i am a single-founder starting a company and hence looking for ...
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14answers
702 views
Employee abusing sick leave
We have a very important employee at our startup who has been consistently abusing sick days. Unfortunately being a small company we would have a very hard time replacing him at this point but his ...
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1answer
105 views
Intellectual Property and Side-Projects in Western Europe
Joel's answer on "If I'm working at a company, do they have intellectual property rights to the stuff I do in my spare time?" certainly was an interesting read. However, it was pretty much centred ...
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4answers
445 views
Why can't a startup “own” its employees when sport clubs can?
Soccer clubs (at least in Europe) "own" their players for the duration of the contracts. These players are working for their clubs in a very similar way to employees working for startups. My question, ...
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2answers
234 views
Why is free lunch so good for a company
I am in the process of trying to convince my boss to have catered lunches at work. The company is still in its scrappy startup phase so money is a little tight. I was wondering if anyone could point ...
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2answers
84 views
Legal issues in setting up an affiliate program?
Are there any legal issues with setting up an affiliate program? Basically a system where people can get rewarded for referrals.
Even if there's nothing major, are there any words you should make ...
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4answers
142 views
How do I know if a potential new employee is a “long-term” unemployed person?
This pertains to the president's proposed new tax breaks for businesses. PBS Newshour
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4answers
544 views
How to quit full-time job for startup?
My co-founder and I met each other at our current company. However, we are intending on quitting our jobs within the next few weeks for our startup. The startup and our current employer are in two ...
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3answers
106 views
How would you sell a development team?
Is there a site, or resources, for a development team in need of a start up?
I'm in a bit of a odd situation here, in that I built a development team of 6 people for a privately funded social ...
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2answers
219 views
Where to find designers / programmers for equity
Investors want to see the finished project (+ maybe private beta results).
I came a long way, but I have the feeling that I cant run the last couple of miles without being surpassed by competition.
I ...
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2answers
109 views
Should I do it all alone or co-operate with others?
I have builded some web startups earlier with medium winnings. I have to say that the whole work was done by myself as I have the ability to do it programmatically. However I think I am not the best ...
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5answers
310 views
How to convince employees of small business to make a difference in the world?
I am owner of a small start up web+mobile development company. We are 2 full time programmers (including myself) and 4 part time programmers. I asked my team a question: Do you think it's important ...
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3answers
219 views
Hiring siblings
There are 12 ppl in my organisation. Should I hire siblings of people already working for my organisation? I mean its not a big deal for a big company, but such a decision should be thought upon in a ...
4
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3answers
196 views
Code Quality in Boot Strapped Startup
I am running a boot-strapped startup with another technical co-founder and we are making revenue (not profitable yet) and things are extremely tight. We are both experienced programmers and my ...
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1answer
194 views
No employer contract, what IP rights do I have?
Ive been employeed by an Advertising agency for coming up on 3 years now as a web developer. Prior to my employment I was a subcontractor hired by this same agency for about 3 years. I have had many ...
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4answers
234 views
Should I use my company's IP?
I've been working for a company as a contractor for several months. While working for this company, I created some seriously sensitive IP. This is IP that is nigh on patentable.
My employment with ...
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2answers
380 views
Compensation for early startup employee - what is the right balance?
If my company is profitable and able to pay early startup employee at the market salary (compare to MSFT, Google, Apple etc) , should I still need to pay for significant amount of option to them?
...
6
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2answers
283 views
Is it ethical for an employee to start a similar business?
Is ethical for an employee quitting to start a similar business?
What do you think?
4
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2answers
219 views
What are the key qualities you look for in a candidate for startups?
I know that it is very difficult to gauge a candidate's attitude / work ethics from the start. What are the most important things you look for a candidate that will be fit for a startup software ...
2
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2answers
368 views
Founder stocks and Employee pool
Is it common to issue equity to CEO as Preferred stock but other co-founders as Common stock?
When setting up a 20% employee pool, it is common to have terms that the unissued equity will be issued ...
3
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2answers
274 views
Are co-founders employees? Do they need to be paid minimum wage?
If there is a co-founder with 20% equity in the company but no salary, what is his status in the company? Should he be considered an employee? What is the difference between a cofounder and an ...
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107 views
Technical Minded Team Experience Or General Work Experience
To preface this, I'm a kid in high school that enjoys playing with ruby and ruby on rails. During the summer, my web development passion gets close to 100% of my time, but during the school year it ...
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3answers
251 views
How much cash reserves should you plan to have before hiring?
We're at a point where we need to hire at 1-2 employees, and I'm not sure how much cash to have on hand. We're a SaaS product, with growing traction and on target to be cash-flow neutral next year. ...
