Questions regarding practices of recruiting new employees for the business.
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 ...
2
votes
1answer
580 views
How to hire your first employee in the UK
We are on the brink of hiring our first staff member in the UK.
We know there is a lot of paperwork to be done, but have no idea what that paperwork is and which things are crucial and which are just ...
2
votes
3answers
114 views
Hiring a Commercial Office Cleaner
Has anyone hired a commercial cleaner in the past? If so, how did you choose the right cleaning company? What was important for you when looking for a commercial cleaner? Also, what where the ...
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. ...
0
votes
1answer
129 views
Should I suspend my startup? [closed]
I was working for a large financial firms as Senior Technical Architect, spending almost 15 hours a day. I quit my job around 18 months back to start this startup and taking an underpaid/under skilled ...
2
votes
1answer
65 views
When a startup should hire a sys admin?
The startup is growing and you have now 5 full-time devs on your team. You have an older application which is up and running in production and a new web application almost ready to be released. You ...
1
vote
2answers
80 views
Good resources to hire developer on a work basis
Is there a place where I could hire a developer (or a team) based on functional specs I would submit. What I am envisioning is a site where I would submit a description of my project and get access ...
5
votes
3answers
123 views
Hiring from Competitors
I am thinking of hiring my staff from my competitor's firm, are there any legal issues in doing so? Both for my firm and for the new joining staff member?
Additional details: To be more specific, I ...
5
votes
1answer
195 views
What does employment at will actually mean for an employee?
I've recently (5 months ago) signed and employment-at-will contract with a largish company. I start in 2 months. Given different scenarios, I want to figure out not only what this legally means, but ...
1
vote
2answers
291 views
Bringing part time hacker on-board for equity only. How much equity is fair?
[Disclaimer: This question was also posted on Hacker News]
Howdy,
Just 6 weeks ago my co-founder and I began working on our startup full time. We want to accelerate development and have talked to a ...
3
votes
3answers
519 views
Head count planning for a growing start up - any processes, books, templates?
As a growing start up, we need to plan for new people in every deparment (some of these are just 1 person, but future departments).
So Sales has its plan to double sales this year; meanwhile other ...
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 ...
8
votes
15answers
1k views
To be a great software company, you hire the best developers… how?
Joel Spolsky is always writing about how companies should treat and offer the best to their developers in order to be able to get the best of them... as a startup, when time comes and you do need to ...
1
vote
2answers
105 views
Hiring a developer - Agreements and other formalities
I run a software startup based out of India.
To write a module of my application I am talking to a developer. To make things formal I wanted to sign an agreement.
The agreement should talk about ...
2
votes
5answers
571 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
240 views
What is the best startup hiring book?
I am starting to hire people int our startup. We actually need to hire very quickly and effectively at the same time as we don't have a lot of chance to make mistakes.
What is the best book anyone ...
3
votes
6answers
883 views
How can you hire great developers for startups?
There is a lot of advice on how to hire great developers, which I don't think is quite relevant as far as startups are concerned.
The reason why I am saying this is because we--as a startup in the ...
2
votes
3answers
859 views
Hiring contract developers to bootstrap a startup
We are developing a music service with a certain implementation model & revenue model in mind. Its nothing out of the blue, but a combination of best of everything, in a nice way. We have external ...
3
votes
11answers
1k views
Does a small startup really *need* someone with an MBA?
Inspired by this question, I want to know if people think a small startup (3-5 people) actually needs someone with an MBA. Especially if the group has reasonably diverse skills and isn't going the ...
3
votes
1answer
430 views
Estimating Startup Costs / Pro Forma
I'm working on a business plan and estimating startup costs. I know the numbers vary wildly from enterprise to enterprise, but I'm trying to identify in my estimates how many people I would need to ...
6
votes
7answers
295 views
How do I find a bona fide Social Media consultant?
Everybody and their brother claims to be a social media "expert" these days.
How do you find a consultant who actually knows what they are doing?
How much should they cost?
What should you get for ...
2
votes
2answers
168 views
Potential employee's F-1 student visa expires in October…How “hard” would it be to get him sponsored?
Currently operating a very small, early-stage startup. Just received first round of seed capital and looking to expand operations this summer. I have been looking for a developer (employee #2) to ...
2
votes
4answers
1k views
Starbucks Interview Process - Hiring Happiness?
As a big Starbucks fan and avid traveller I have noticed a trend while travelling whether its from Toronto to Texas to California... All Starbucks employees seem to have a very similar personality ...
5
votes
3answers
75 views
Do you have rules in place for doing something manually vs. creating an automated system?
I've heard from many successful entrepreneurs that only your job as a startup founder is to constantly be creating systems; However, There's a huge trade-off though between trying new experiments and ...
4
votes
3answers
242 views
Where did your star developer come from?
If your startup has a star developer:
what was he/she doing before joining your company?
How did you find and get into contact with him/her?
10
votes
5answers
2k views
Is it illegal for me to only consider women for a position I'm about to advertise for?
My startup's products will primarily be purchased by women, and thus I'd like to hire a sales and marketing director who is a woman. Is it against the law for me to advertise this position that I'm ...
3
votes
2answers
253 views
How does section 409A impact how startups pay new hires?
In 2004, Congress passed a law that changed how deferred compensation was taxed. If a compensation package satisifies the rules in Section 409A then when stock is used as compensation, it is taxed ...
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 ...
1
vote
2answers
300 views
What test-assignment to give to a distance-working developer/freelancer to determine his/her quality
So let's say you are trying to find a freelancer on the internet to do some coding/developing for a web application or a more generic type of aplication (like a c++ developer).
What would be a good ...
4
votes
4answers
446 views
How to Assess Integrity of a Potential Hire?
Warren Buffet says, "Hire people based on Passion,Intelligence and Integrity." People's passion is visible in the first meeting, and intelligence comes out in a couple of hours in a discussion, but ...
9
votes
11answers
2k views
Build in-house or outsource?
I'm working with a SaaS business with a non-technical founder/CEO and am looking for pros and cons for (1) building the software in-house vs (2) outsourcing version 1.0 to a consulting firm.
From ...
1
vote
2answers
3k views
Startup CFO contract / stock compensation?
I am looking for a sample contract for a CFO position in a startup company. Also, What is an appropriate amount of compensation to give a CFO in terms of stock.
Thanks!
1
vote
1answer
278 views
How does option pool size at the time of incorporation impact valuation and funding
Suppose someone needs to incorprate a C-corp, for a high tech high growth business.
How does option pool size at the time of incorporation impact valuation and funding. Or it only matters how ...
4
votes
4answers
706 views
Can one person do both Marketing & Sales/Business-Development jobs?
Context: We are a small 3-developer company that sells Windows desktop software for small businesses on our website.
We believe that we need both:
"Marketing" - i.e. one-to-many interactions, e.g. ...
1
vote
2answers
78 views
How to hire /recruit online for an online based company?
Specifically
•How did you find them? (craigslist-social networks-newspaper ads- etc)
•How did your interview them? (Phone/Skype video chat etc)
•How did you get passed the skepticism barrier? ...
2
votes
2answers
75 views
Any reliable site where *hardware* engineers can be hired for small (work-from-home/telecommute) projects?
For software hackers/developers there are many.
However, I need a hardware guy (or girl?) for a relatively small project.
Is there a site where I can search for people and see ranks, recommendation, ...
5
votes
4answers
204 views
When is it wise to start hiring other programmers?
I'm a programmer and a student and I've got lots of ideas/proposals etc for projects. At what point do I start hiring other programmers to help out?
1
vote
3answers
291 views
What's the legal framework for a US company (Delaware LLC) to hire a full-time remote developer (e.g. India, Sri Lanka)?
We don't need a one-shot collaboration (see elance.com, odesk.com) but a long-term remote developer.
We don't know, legally speaking, how to proceed and which are the needed steps.
Thank you
4
votes
2answers
2k views
1099 limitations of how much work you can give a contractor. Need some help with that
I think I am pretty good (having dealt with tons of contractor developers) at staying within independent contractor rules and keeping the Labor Department at bay, when it comes to using ...
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 ...
5
votes
7answers
214 views
Which is more difficult to hire, techie or marketing?
I know it's dependent on the employer's background, but in general is more difficult to hire great marketing staff or product developers?
3
votes
8answers
738 views
Best place to find software development interns?
So you have decided to hire some interns... You don't have much time to go to a college/university and get the word out... where do you find the best interns for software development? I know of ...
3
votes
4answers
866 views
When hiring a consultant, what criteria do you use to evaluate them?
Over the years, I have had mixed results with hiring consultants for various jobs. I used to think that if they were referred, then that was good enough but that's not as consistent as I would like. ...
2
votes
4answers
315 views
When do I need to register a company for my start up
I have an idea for a start up but would like to get a POC solution developed for feedback purposes before I spend time and money on the full product development.
Since I cannot develop the POC myself ...
4
votes
3answers
128 views
To reject or to ignore?
I think we are all faced with this issue: we got an application from someone and we don't want to accept it. The most typical case is for employment. In my project I get many more types and very ...
1
vote
4answers
258 views
Do I hire a part time programmer or consultant
So here's the deal..I have a developed product and for the next few months all I need is someone to support me with a presales call if necessary and or keep my demo and infrastructure going until I ...
2
votes
4answers
148 views
Where to find SR developers to join your start up?
Though I have come across many developers, I still cannot find where there might be a place where Senior developers who love to work in start ups can be found and who understand financial constraints ...
2
votes
3answers
171 views
Any Recommended Job Posting Sites for Startup Leadership (CMOs, VPs, etc.)
We're doing some hiring at a very high level for a VP Marketing candidate and I'm aware of the general advice that it's best to network into folks for roles like these (we had lots of success doing ...
2
votes
2answers
115 views
How Do I Hire/Find A Knowledgable Ghost Writer For My Firm's iPhone Blog?
How Do I Hire/Find A Knowledgable Ghost Writer For My Firm's iPhone Blog?
