Questions regarding all things related to employment of people in the company.
4
votes
1answer
442 views
New employee at startup and found problems
I started a new job at a startupish (2007) company, upon looking at how their system works. I found problems with their database, software, and overall project management. This isn't just errors or ...
4
votes
6answers
1k views
What do I need to know about hiring an intern?
My bootstrapped startup (Textaurant) needs some help with market research. Since we're so close to two of my alma maters (undergrad is ~1 mile, grad is ~5 miles), I figured I would reach out to their ...
4
votes
3answers
119 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 ...
4
votes
1answer
266 views
How is hiring and relocation handled for non-local job candidates of a venture-backed startup?
I am interesting in moving out to another city to work at a promising startup, particularly one with venture funding and user traction.
How do venture-backed startups generally handle candidates who ...
4
votes
1answer
692 views
The compensation equation - what's a good mix?
Here is the compensation equation, as I see it:
Equity - how much ownership one has, and when (roughly) it will be worth something
Wage - how much salary one recieves
Career - how the position ...
4
votes
2answers
183 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 a contractor or as an employee. I realize that there are many laws and logistics around hiring an ...
4
votes
1answer
106 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 ...
4
votes
3answers
236 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 ...
4
votes
1answer
446 views
How do I pay myself from a UK-based startup?
I've been self-employed as a sole trader for over a year, but now I want to form a private limited company and trade via that (I'm in IT, and some organisations here won't contract an individual ...
4
votes
1answer
151 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 ...
4
votes
3answers
500 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 ...
4
votes
4answers
670 views
How do I disclose a small startup I created on the side to my employer?
I am a lawyer in a mid-sized law firm and have founded a very small start-up to just sell one legal software program online.
I had the idea for the program, worked with a great software developer ...
3
votes
3answers
179 views
How to recover from the loss of a project?
I had a project where I had employed 25 people, and the client took back the project. Now all the employees are completely idle.
Any suggestions for how I can cope up with the sudden loss? I am ...
3
votes
5answers
458 views
Hiring and interviewing advice
I'm in the process of evaluating resumes for a web marketing / project management position. I've never considered myself very good at interviewing. Beware, my question is multi-faceted, so don't feel ...
3
votes
7answers
516 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 ...
3
votes
3answers
606 views
How to motivate team members?
I have recently formed an e-learning company. Things are doing fine however I feel I need to learn how to motivate others in my company and surroundings. When I try to do that people feel I am doing ...
3
votes
5answers
2k views
What are the US laws governing taxation of remote employees from other countries?
Hi Id like to ask what are US laws that govern taxation when you hire remote employees from
other countries specifically Argentina, Philippines, Venezuela and Poland?
3
votes
8answers
516 views
What qualification and/or skills should I look for while hiring a web designer?
I am about to launch a website, which I got created through a freelancer. However, I am not very pleased with freelancer's performance and plan to hire someone full-time to make required iterations in ...
3
votes
3answers
350 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 ...
3
votes
2answers
2k views
Small US company wants to hire one German employee in Germany
We are a small U.S. company with about 30 employees. We would like to hire one employee in Germany who is a German citizen and will work out of his home. He will primarily be writing software on a ...
3
votes
2answers
228 views
Invoicing while full-time employed
I'd need some help in understanding what I need to do, admittedly I am getting into this for the first time.
I am full-time employed in a privately held company in the UK. Recently, I started doing ...
3
votes
2answers
86 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 ...
3
votes
1answer
203 views
Example of Agreement (template) with Company for doing stuff in spare time
According to related topic:
If I'm working at a company, do they have intellectual property rights to the stuff I do in my spare time?
(and related : Intellectual Property and Side-Projects in ...
3
votes
3answers
315 views
If I launch a new division within my employer's company, should it be treated as a separate startup?
I've been working for my current employer for the past several years as CTO. I recently pitched them on starting a separate division that is more entrepreneurial and experimental to spin out ...
3
votes
5answers
383 views
What Are My Health Insurance Options When Hiring First Employee(s)?
My 7-year-old small business is about to graduate from being a
home-based business to moving into a small commercial office space and
hiring its first employee(s).
For the past several years, my ...
3
votes
1answer
939 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 ...
3
votes
4answers
150 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
3
votes
1answer
327 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 ...
3
votes
2answers
134 views
Planning to do a startup in USA from my country, were I can find employees?
Im planning to hire 3 employees in a soon to be corporation in USA, but I would be only a director because of my passive role as a non immigrant. How I can find qualified people, meet them in a trip ...
3
votes
2answers
286 views
Equity for strategic hires?
We're a small (but growing) consulting firm with software to be developed as a side stream (yes, I know this is an original story :)). 3 partners, equal equity.
We've worked with a few people in the ...
3
votes
1answer
198 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 ...
3
votes
2answers
115 views
Hiring an employee in the USA
We're an Israeli Company that wants to expand to the USA, we have already close the commercial details with a very experienced executive in the USA, now we have to decide how we can hire him, we asked ...
2
votes
9answers
357 views
How to Guide the Amount that Employees Work?
I run a well-funded startup. We're fortunate to have built a kick-ass team with a great product and good early traction. But I worry that our team's work ethic is sliding into stasis. Most of my ...
2
votes
5answers
383 views
Working as early employee but not get paid
I got hired as an early employee (employee #4) and considered as key engineer of the company. As compensation, I got some stock option grant (1%), and well below market salary (about 30% of what I can ...
2
votes
4answers
466 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, ...
2
votes
4answers
380 views
Can employee's pet projects help startup business's success?
As many of you know, companies like Google and 3M give the employees 20% of their time to work on something that really excite them the most.
I also been thinking maybe this can be a good strategy ...
2
votes
4answers
320 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
votes
5answers
261 views
When to say yes, I need to get employees to help me?
What are the terms to get new employees, I am asking about when regarding, money, salaries, place, and sure number of projects in hand.
And when to say no, I can keep going solo, or with the current ...
2
votes
8answers
1k views
Who owns the IP rights for a product you're making outside working hours (in USA)?
Does the company you're currently work for owns the IP rights if you are creating a product after work hours? Is there anything that can defend me if the company at one point claims that they own it ...
2
votes
6answers
287 views
Best resource for finding and managing freelance workers?
As a solo-preneur one really needs outside support. Consultants, freelancers, etc. Challenge is finding them, qualifying their experience, and tracking their work; as efficiently as possible as you ...
2
votes
5answers
566 views
Using a Staffing Agency - Is it a Bad Idea?
If you've exhausted your personal network (and friends' networks), and now need to hire people who have skills that you don't have, would you try working with a staffing agency?
I've heard a lot of ...
2
votes
2answers
747 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 ...
2
votes
3answers
2k views
To find out if someone has been fired from his previous job
How can an employer find out if an employee has been fired or left on good terms from a previous job at a large company?
2
votes
3answers
283 views
Considerations in setting up a payroll schedule (pay periods & pay days)?
I am setting up payroll for the first time. So far in my research I have discovered that the state of Arizona requires:
I must pay employees within 5 days of the pay period.
I must schedule pay days ...
2
votes
3answers
355 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. ...
2
votes
3answers
276 views
Identifying failing and bad start-up companies (for sofware developers)
I recently caught up with a former colleague, a mid-level software developer. For the last year, he has been at a failing (badly), self-funded, single-owner software startup.
According to him, the ...
2
votes
5answers
1k views
How do you reward for innovation?
It seems to me that encouraging innovation is extremely important for startups, but how do you reward it?
If one employee contributes 10 good ideas that never get across the line, and another ...
2
votes
4answers
229 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 ...
2
votes
2answers
521 views
Paying Friend/Programmer/Developer to code Startup Website. Also give Percentage? How to keep Accountable?
I have an income and a website idea. I know nothing about programming. I have a friend who is a programmer, comp-sci major, and so to get my idea created into a website I am paying them an hourly wage ...
2
votes
4answers
104 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 ...
