From my experience working in smaller companies just beyond the startup phase, if the person caught on quick and was able to contribute, even if their contribut

From my experience working in smaller companies just beyond the startup phase, if the person caught on quick and was able to contribute, even if their contributions had a lot of issues, that was still valuable work. Some people would, however, just get stuck and never seemed to know what to do or what was expected of them, which doesn't work well in a small group but is much more acceptable at a large corporate internship. It goes back to the author's point on who to hire, but my impression is that this is a bigger problem with students who don't have much actual work experience. Work, especially in a startup, is much different than school, where you are shooting for a fairly well-defined goal, work is doled out in carefully measured chunks, and you can often just show up and get your grade if that's your motivation. The point that struck me in this was your 3-4 year figure; I would expect someone to hit the ground running, or at least moving at a steady pace, even if they ran into a few walls along the way. I didn't really address your question directly, many startup founders are at this same point in their lives, I would be curious to hear from people with direct experience hiring interns in the startup scene.