Ask HN: I'm about to hire the 1st employee for my startup. What should I know? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: I'm about to hire the 1st employee for my startup. What should I know?

5 pointszakdances6 comments

I'm very close to hiring a first employee for my tech startup. This potential first employee has a legal background (as an attorney) and is a friend. I want to bring this person on as an important assistant and CFO (an executive position). How should I determine salary and stock options? What dangers or common pitfalls should I be aware of? What should a job offer look like exactly (written letter, email, etc)?

View on HN

+ Have a 4 year vesting schedule with a 1 year cliff, so if they don't work out they're not a shareholder anymore.

+ Offer them multiple options of equity/salary and let them pick what works best for their situation. Once you've agreed verbally write it up in an email as a non-binding offer letter, then have your lawyer make it legal.

+ Don't let them push you around. Lawyers are bred to be intimidating - keep that in mind. Don't get dazzled with bullshit. Do research and follow Silicon Valley best practices (like vesting). You'll regret it forever if they convince you to agree to something stupid.

+ Absolutely do not let them handle the equity/financing/control documents for the company. Get an external firm to do it for you, despite the cost. Having someone with a conflict of interest handle your legal documents is Officially Stupid.

+ Do a trial period first. Pay them $N to work for a couple weeks or a month. Don't even talk about it being for a long term gig. Just make it about the project and make it as well defined as possible. It'll be much easier to simply not continue after that then to fire them once they're officially hired.

Great suggestions, I especially think the trial period idea is interesting. There's a few things that complicate it a bit though...this person will have to move to a different city to work, so the compensation will have to be higher to account for the uncertainty. Also, if it does work out, I don't want to the person to line something else up before the 6 months are out....I suppose there'll need to a "buffertime" between when a permanent job is offered and the end of the temporary phase.

Perhaps, you should reverse the questions. If your potential CFO doesn't ask the following don't hire them: 1) Why do you want me as the CFO to manage the hiring of technical people? Isn’t that what a CTO should be doing? 2) Why are you looking for a CFO, when what you describe really is an executive assistant or office manager? 3) Why are you looking to hire me as CFO, but not provide any substantive decision making influence like a cofounder? 4) Why aren’t you hiring an outsourced, third-party that can act like a CFO combined with a little part time temp work to do your assistant stuff? 5) Are you legit?

Why are you hiring a CFO/executive manager if you don't have any employees? Who is your CFO going to manage? Shouldn't you be hiring engineers first?

Sounds like this person should be a cofounder, not an employee.

They're not a manager. The position calls for a great organizer who will help with general business administration, including the next round of hiring which will include engineers. Right now my most pressing concern is addressing my current skill shortfall, which is in finance and general administration. My engineering skills are solid and are able to keep the product shipping at the moment, but I need someone to take on general business duties. I'm aware that engineers are the heart of any tech startup, so I'm not taking this decision lightly. I'm confident this is the right position I need filled presently, but I need help putting together an job offer package and understanding the implications of all the details therein.

If any admins are reading this, I'm not sure if this question got in the right category...its suppose to be an Ask HN question but I don't see it showing up there.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com