Questions regarding all things related to employment of people in the company.
4
votes
2answers
445 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 ...
0
votes
1answer
92 views
Employee Payment - From an Investor's Prospective
In the development stage of launching a start up. I am initially outsourcing the development as I am not located in a place where there is an abundance of programmers. The dev timeline is 6 weeks. ...
2
votes
2answers
748 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 ...
1
vote
4answers
256 views
Will employer invest in my idea?
Let me describe a situation I happened to be in by now several times. I work in the field of detector/electronics/imaging systems development. I often get some new technical ideas and solutions, ...
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 ...
5
votes
7answers
427 views
As a potential employee, should I frown on “zerg hiring”?
In my job hunt, it's incredibly common for me to run into startups that have say 3 people and then have the CTO tell me "We just closed a round of funding, so we're looking to hire 3 or 4 more ...
0
votes
1answer
150 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 ...
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
2answers
171 views
Founders' reliance on IT manager/network admin
I am (co-)starting a company with the bought assets of my previous (software) company, dormant for over a year. The IT guy from the previous company is coming on board to help revive the server (needs ...
11
votes
9answers
1k views
How to deal with key employee who didn't show up for work?
I run a small consulting company, four people. Myself and another employee were out of the office on business today, the third was on a requested and agreed upon vacation. The fourth did not show up ...
11
votes
9answers
838 views
Tips for running a virtual office
Having a virtual company empowers you to hire talent anywhere in the world and manage a team of employees using the wonders of modern technology. I have personally worked this way since January and ...
5
votes
4answers
125 views
A lawyer offered service for equity and potentially joining the company
A lawyer offered service for equity and potentially joining the company full time as legal counsel/business dev guy. Is this reasonable? What percentage of the company should I offer him? It's a ...
3
votes
3answers
316 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 ...
2
votes
3answers
304 views
Remote employee in China?
My niche software developing startup needs specialist developers. I have located an individual in China with proven experience in my field. How can I best go about working with him?
I can't employ ...
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
2answers
522 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 ...
6
votes
5answers
232 views
How should the next generation of employees be?
I recently read a news article (in Norwegian) that "the ability to cooperate" was essentially the only requirement for applicants, which was just as relevant 50 years ago as it is today, while ...
7
votes
8answers
2k views
Why would someone work in a startup?
I think the most essential question to ask before recruiting someone to work for your startup is to ask their main motivation to work in a startup.
Those of you that have experiences with recruiting ...
9
votes
4answers
301 views
Contractors Vs Employees
As a UK based tech start up working on a social app, what are the pros and cons of hiring contractors on a full time basis to build the app, against hiring the same people as employees?
Edit:
Let me ...
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 ...
4
votes
7answers
1k views
How can I transition my employer to being a consulting client?
I'm thinking about different options for my startup. Currently I'm a full time employee at a company where I love to work, but I would also like to have something of my own. The idea is to have ...
11
votes
7answers
4k views
First employee at Y Combinator funded company
I may have the chance to be the first employee of a startup going to the YC summer 2011 program.
The thing is I think they are planning to cover my expenses but not to actually pay me or offer any ...
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 ...
1
vote
2answers
196 views
What can I do with 10 employees?
I live in DR, here the wage is very low, so I can get 10 employees at very low price (High school education/University student, good English, good typing skills, word/excel/etc knowledge, what else?). ...
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 ...
2
votes
5answers
569 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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
5
votes
3answers
393 views
Where/how do I find sales people, in the United States, to work for my start-up. Is there a website for this kind of situation
My start-up is finally coming together; however, I am in dire need of a solid sales team to go out into the market and attract customers. I want to pay them per store they sign-up. Can anyone refer me ...
4
votes
4answers
671 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
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 ...
2
votes
2answers
180 views
What should I ask a startup's investors as a potential employee?
So, I was reading Guy Kawasaki's questions to ask a startup. One of them is to ask if you can speak with one of the investors on the Board of Directors. A startup that offered me a job asked me if I ...
5
votes
2answers
1k views
Compensation for co-founders and employees in a startup
In my earlier venture attempts, the scenario was something like 3 guys, each of whom would get 33.3%. I found out soon that this was silly because as soon as one of us lost interest, he could do ...
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 ...
6
votes
3answers
3k views
How much in stock options should we offer new employees?
We're a software startup with annual revenue in the ballpark of half a million. We're completely bootstrapped, and have no current plans to take funding. We currently have 4 employees. We're ...
15
votes
10answers
2k views
Have you seen problems with “unmetered” paid-time-off?
I've never been a fan of counting vacation days, sick days, personal days, or whatever you want to call them. It's irked me to no end that, given X number of paid-time-off days at past jobs, I'd have ...
6
votes
8answers
859 views
As an employer should we care about the employee's welfare?
Do you think as an employer we should care about the employee's welfare? Should we care about our employees' financial difficulties, and raise their salaries [i.e because prices are going up] or lend ...
1
vote
4answers
91 views
Starting New School 2nd Question
Also,
Initially we will be starting as a business/entrepreneurship school. I've toyed with two ideas for teachers. Experience entrepreneurs or somewhat experienced generalists that have great and ...
5
votes
3answers
130 views
Holiday gifts for employees
I am pretty bad with gifts and in the past years I was awarding monetary bonuses to folks who work with us. I am not particularly keen on the idea of bonuses mostly due to the fact that we can't quite ...
1
vote
4answers
290 views
Does A Startup Need A Full-Time CIO For Making Investors Happy?
Here's the scenario: there's a startup with two founders (and a couple of other participants) in it working part-time while keeping their full-time, primary jobs. They are building a ...
2
votes
5answers
121 views
How to handle external help in a startup
We're a startup that is made up of 4 students. 3 graduated and 1 in his final year. One has taken a job for 4 days a week and is willing to work on our projects the other 3 days. So we have 2 ...
2
votes
2answers
224 views
Examples of Ex-Googlers/Ex-Microsofters Build Successful Companies and Have a Solid Relationship with Their Former Company? [closed]
I am looking for examples of ex-Googlers or Ex-Microsofters ( or other big companies leavers) who, after leaving the established company, went on to build their own, became hugely successful in their ...
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 ...
26
votes
8answers
6k views
Ideal office space layout - open or offices?
I have worked in a variety of environments wanted to share my opinions and see what others thought on the subject of ideal office space layout. Once our lease is up (in a few years) I am thinking of ...
1
vote
3answers
72 views
Hiring an in-office writer
I am in the process of moving my home website business into commercial office space because I need to hire an employee (or two) to help with all of the work.
I need to hire a writer - but the person ...
4
votes
2answers
480 views
Staff numbers “rules of thumb”
I am looking for "rules of thumb", or estimates for the numbers of staff required for a startup through growth.
For example how many developers per manager, how many support staff per customer, how ...
1
vote
1answer
166 views
What are Keogh Plan Implications When Hiring First Employee(s)?
My 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).
In 2004 and 2005, the business had ...
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 ...
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 ...
11
votes
6answers
1k views
How to reward early employees?
In many startups there are some #1 or #2 employees who helped the whole business all the way.
I've got couple guys like that, I'd love to give them more than the salary (even though our salaries are ...
