Only hire A if he completely loves what you are building. If he thinks he is "above" your real problems he'll be brilliantly, independently kicking ass at somet

Only hire A if he completely loves what you are building. If he thinks he is "above" your real problems he'll be brilliantly, independently kicking ass at something that you didn't ask him to do and isn't helping you succeed at all. Worst case, they'll actually make it worse, since he might build complicated systems you will have to work around. Only hire B if they would rather jump off a cliff than come in late on a project or be a missing link. In a startup, finishing is of utmost importance. Also, only hire if he is motivated to learn. Mediocre people who work hard but aren't interested in learning new things are pretty dangerous as well.