One thing that made me luck out in this case was the recession. My old friend, and first employee, is too risk averse to join a startup in a normal environment

One thing that made me luck out in this case was the recession. My old friend, and first employee, is too risk averse to join a startup in a normal environment. But since the company he was working for went bankrupt and he wasn't able to find a job for months, he gladly came to work for me and it has worked out very well.