I know a decent number of people I would want to be my first hire, and I think they might be interested. The biggest mental hurdle for me is "How can I ensure that I can pay them every month?"
Also, my father always taught me, "the employees get paid first." That means if it is just an employee you are hiring, the question isn't whether you can afford to pay them, it's whether there is money left over when you get done to pay yourself.
A lot of people have suggested contracting out work, which seems good but it has its own problems. I would rather have someone completely on board.
I have half a mind to just jump in the deep end and trust that I'll be able to swim, but having someone depend on you for income is much different than just putting your own well-being and comfort at risk.
Humans are such silly creatures...
That sounds awfully ridiculous.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Employment_discrimination_law_i...
On the other hand, state and local laws may add additional restrictions beyond federal laws and as I've mentioned... I am not a lawyer. And I don't condone people being dicks.
EDIT: In California, the "magic number" of employees below which you can be an open bigot is apparently five. See:
http://ag.ca.gov/publications/civilrights/01CRhandbook/chapt...
* Marital status is a protected class. You can't consider it when hiring. * Age is a protected class. You can't consider it when hiring. * Pregnancy is a proxy for sex, a protected class. You can't consider it when hiring [1]. * Parental status is a protected class, but apparently is not applicable to Employment cases [2]. So you could get away with avoiding parents in some places. But man, what a great way to violate the No Asshole rule. Frankly, I'd rather not work for a startup that would want to go down this path.
[1] http://users.aristotle.net/~hantley/hiedlegl/statutes/title7... [2] http://www.seattle.gov/civilrights/discrimination.htm
A 22-year-old hot-shot programmer brings to the table something very different than an experienced 45-year-old software developer who used to be a hot-shot programmer. The former can code circles around the latter, but the latter brings a perspective to the table which can save a lot of time, energy, and expense down the road.
I don't think I'd want a software team with an average age of 26, which looks down on or ignores the advice and feedback of more experienced programmers.
Our industry is developing in strange ways. I know a bunch of good programmers who are unable to find work because of their ages, and who then start their own businesses, and are successful there. Then, I suppose they get brought in to the people who might have otherwise hired them as "consultants!"
See, there are plenty of us who can kick ass and raise a family at the same time. Not to mention plan and budget responsibly. In fact, you might really want to hire people who are good at that sort of thing, rather than the Red Bull-chugging, couch-sleeping, college codemonkey stereotype. But I suppose stereotyping is what got us here in the first place, and that's not fair to Red Bull aficionados.
I guess I'd just rather you let me and other prospective employees assess the risks for ourselves. That means frank discussion about clear, accurate information. But don't curtail things because of personal bias.
With contractors, you can also afford to try lots of people without disrupting anyone's lives or running out of money. You have freedom and they have other clients.
Firing people is the absolute worst, I can tell you for a fact… and I'm a person who fully embraces difficult experiences and has no problem admitting when she's wrong.
Even if you want to keep the employee (and based on what I learned & then heard from EVERYONE, the chances you'll keep your first employee are about zero), you will have a hard time sleeping at night because they depend on you and you may find your whole job becomes ensuring you earn enough to pay them. (A good rule of thumb is that you must have at minimum 150% of their salary on a monthly basis. More for non-US countries.)
People will say xyz about contractors -- they're not invested, they have other pots on the stove, blah blah blah. The same is true of employees, but they are harder and so much more painful to get rid of, and it hurts them a lot more. The trick is the right people. Finding the right contractor is absolutely possible, and it's much less stress to be wrong than it is when you are wrong about an employee.
For one, you can hire people for small getting-to-know-you projects. You're not going to find it easy to do that with an employee. Moreover, once a person is an employee, their behavior may completely change… being employed (and being an employer!) brings out all kinds of crazy psychological crap you never would have believed possible.
So, yeah. Don't do it!
Startups will need employees and employees invested in and committed to their long term success. So while your looking for the perfect first employee, the one who has the combination of personality, skills, passion, and mindset you need, consider if the right contractors might let you get a lot done in the mean time.