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Don't do it. Go with contractors. Here's the thing: a contractor is running a business, just like you are. If you don't work with them any more, they are not ou

Don't do it. Go with contractors. Here's the thing: a contractor is running a business, just like you are. If you don't work with them any more, they are not out of "a job." Their livelihood is no longer your responsibility. You are only responsible for paying a set amount you agreed for specific work. If they do not deliver, you do not have to fire them. If you can't afford them any more, you do not have to fire them… you simply don't renew a contract. If it turns out you don't like them, you do not have to fire them. 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!

zalambar 15y ago
I am a contractor and part of a larger consulting shop so I'm biased but I have to agree with ahoyhere. You get a reliable burn rate which is adjustable on a schedule you can negotiate. If you're hiring a team of contractors you should get a group who have proven that they have an effective and efficient process for working together which they can apply from day 1 and you can probably scale the size of the team based on your needs and budget. When your needs change or you pivot and you need an expert in a new technology which I don't know I'm happy to walk away or swap places with one of my peers who may be a better fit. I'm also fortunate enough to have coworkers lining up future projects so neither you nor I need to worry about what I'm going to do if you no longer need me or just need to slow down development an focus your resources elsewhere. I'm certainly not invested in your startup the same way an employee might be. I'm not going to work crazy hours and I'm not going to pull off long shot programmer heroics (well not unless that's what you ask for). Instead I can measure my success only by the quality of the work I produce and the value I can deliver to you immediately. Building the tools you need to validate a product-market fit or get a MVP in front of users is often my end goal, not an incremental step towards hopefully seeing a return on some equity share. If I'm lucky I'm helping a startup build a new product every couple of months. I think that offers a breadth of experience which relatively few prospective full time hires can match. 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.

zalambar 15y ago

I am a contractor and part of a larger consulting shop so I'm biased but I have to agree with ahoyhere. You get a reliable burn rate which is adjustable on a schedule you can negotiate. If you're hiring a team of contractors you should get a group who have proven that they have an effective and efficient process for working together which they can apply from day 1 and you can probably scale the size of the team based on your needs and budget. When your needs change or you pivot and you need an expert in a new technology which I don't know I'm happy to walk away or swap places with one of my peers who may be a better fit. I'm also fortunate enough to have coworkers lining up future projects so neither you nor I need to worry about what I'm going to do if you no longer need me or just need to slow down development an focus your resources elsewhere. I'm certainly not invested in your startup the same way an employee might be. I'm not going to work crazy hours and I'm not going to pull off long shot programmer heroics (well not unless that's what you ask for). Instead I can measure my success only by the quality of the work I produce and the value I can deliver to you immediately. Building the tools you need to validate a product-market fit or get a MVP in front of users is often my end goal, not an incremental step towards hopefully seeing a return on some equity share. If I'm lucky I'm helping a startup build a new product every couple of months. I think that offers a breadth of experience which relatively few prospective full time hires can match. 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.