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Hey lsc, thank you so much for your advice about hiring techs on a contracter basis, it's such an eye-opener and I think this might be something I can pursue! (

by tyng 16y ago

Hey lsc, thank you so much for your advice about hiring techs on a contracter basis, it's such an eye-opener and I think this might be something I can pursue! (Only if I could upvote multiple times, I'd upvote you multiple times!) Out of curiosity, does it work the same way for you as a hacker hiring a biz type? For example, if you hire a sales and later fires him, there's the chance that he/she will take your clients away. Thoughts?

lsc 16y ago
>Out of curiosity, does it work the same way for you as a hacker hiring a biz type? For example, if you hire a sales and later fires him, there's the chance that he/she will take your clients away. Thoughts? I wouldn't know. I'm in a business where face-to-face sales doesn't matter. the value is in the price and reliability. I mean, if someone else wants to build something better and cheaper, I might have a problem, but I don't think anyone would get very far just calling my customer list. Also, when I do advertise, or "sell" I mostly focus on brand building rather than selling to individual customers, and I own the brand much more than I own the customer list. If more of my perceived value was in individual customer sales, of course, this would be different. You do bring up an interesting point, though. most of the people I do this with, I can train, to some extent. I mean, every now and again I'll find a webapp dev who is better than I am at that right off the bat, but most people I've hired required some training from me to get to that point, so it might be that you need to do this with people in your skill area? on the other hand it sounds like you've got some basic tech skills, so it's probably worth a shot. The closest thing to biz types I've hired are accountants and bookkeepers. I've actually done okay, I think, hiring bookkeepers; as for my accountant, I pay full price just 'cause of the incredible badness of screwing up your taxes.
- tyng 16y ago
  Accountants and bookkeepers weren't really the "biz type" I was talking about (though they are important), I was talking about sales, marketing and finance guy. Granted, a smart techie willing to learn can learn those stuff too. But I think the type of business really determines whether you'll need to find a biz type cofounder early on, which in your case, a marketing/sales person is useless during the startup phase. Something like Groupon for instance, would probably need sales people early on. Thanks for the discussion, I found it really stimulating. :)

by tyng 16y ago

lsc 16y ago

>Out of curiosity, does it work the same way for you as a hacker hiring a biz type? For example, if you hire a sales and later fires him, there's the chance that he/she will take your clients away. Thoughts? I wouldn't know. I'm in a business where face-to-face sales doesn't matter. the value is in the price and reliability. I mean, if someone else wants to build something better and cheaper, I might have a problem, but I don't think anyone would get very far just calling my customer list. Also, when I do advertise, or "sell" I mostly focus on brand building rather than selling to individual customers, and I own the brand much more than I own the customer list. If more of my perceived value was in individual customer sales, of course, this would be different. You do bring up an interesting point, though. most of the people I do this with, I can train, to some extent. I mean, every now and again I'll find a webapp dev who is better than I am at that right off the bat, but most people I've hired required some training from me to get to that point, so it might be that you need to do this with people in your skill area? on the other hand it sounds like you've got some basic tech skills, so it's probably worth a shot. The closest thing to biz types I've hired are accountants and bookkeepers. I've actually done okay, I think, hiring bookkeepers; as for my accountant, I pay full price just 'cause of the incredible badness of screwing up your taxes.

tyng 16y ago
Accountants and bookkeepers weren't really the "biz type" I was talking about (though they are important), I was talking about sales, marketing and finance guy. Granted, a smart techie willing to learn can learn those stuff too. But I think the type of business really determines whether you'll need to find a biz type cofounder early on, which in your case, a marketing/sales person is useless during the startup phase. Something like Groupon for instance, would probably need sales people early on. Thanks for the discussion, I found it really stimulating. :)