When to Hire Your First Employee (and Who)

Every founder hits the point where they're drowning in work. You're coding, doing customer support, running marketing, and answering emails until midnight. The obvious solution: hire someone.

But hiring too early kills startups. Here's how to know when you're actually ready.

Don't Hire Until You Have to

The best time to hire is later than you think. Most founders hire out of exhaustion, not necessity. They're tired, so they assume they need help. But fatigue doesn't mean you need an employee—it might mean you need to cut scope.

Before hiring, cut everything non-essential. That nice-to-have feature? Delete it from the roadmap. That marketing campaign? Pause it. That admin task? Automate it or stop doing it. If you're working 80 hours a week, 40 of those hours are probably wasted on things that don't matter.

If you can't cut anything else and you're still buried, then consider hiring.

The Money Test

Can you afford this person for 12 months, even if revenue stops growing? Not 6 months. Not "hopefully revenue will cover it." 12 months minimum.

Early hires need time to become productive. It takes 3 months before they're fully ramped. If you hire on a 6-month runway, you'll panic when they're not immediately valuable, or worse—you'll run out of money and have to lay them off.

The rule: only hire when you have 18+ months of runway, and the hire doesn't drop you below 12 months. If hiring someone pushes your runway under a year, you're not ready.

The Repeatability Test

Are you hiring to do something you've already figured out, or to figure something out?

Only hire for repeatable work. If you've done sales calls 100 times and have a process that works, you can hire a salesperson. If you've written 50 blog posts and know what drives traffic, you can hire a writer. If customer support takes 10 hours per week and follows a clear playbook, hire for support.

Don't hire to solve an unsolved problem. If you're still figuring out your go-to-market strategy, don't hire a marketer to figure it out for you. If you don't know what to build next, don't hire a product manager. Early employees execute, they don't strategize. You need to know what works before you can delegate it.

What to Hire For First

The answer is always: whatever is preventing growth that only takes time, not skill, to fix.

If customer support is eating 20 hours per week and you've documented the answers to common questions, hire for support. If you're turning down sales calls because you're too busy, hire a salesperson (but only after you've closed 20+ deals yourself). If you're manually doing the same task daily and automation isn't feasible, hire for that.

Don't hire for your weaknesses. Founders often think "I'm bad at sales, I'll hire a salesperson" or "I'm not a designer, I need a designer." Wrong. Early-stage startups require founders to do everything badly until they figure out what works. Once it works, then you hire someone better.

Contractor vs. Full-Time

Start with contractors. They're lower commitment, easier to part ways with if it's not working, and force you to define the work clearly. If you can't write a clear scope of work for a contractor, you're not ready to hire full-time.

After 3-6 months with a contractor, if the work is still critical and they're doing a great job, convert them to full-time. But start fractional. Test before committing.

Equity vs. Cash

Pay cash if you can. Equity is expensive long-term. A 2% grant could be worth $2M at a $100M exit. Use equity sparingly, only for people truly building the company with you—not contractors doing a job.

The Decision Framework

Ask yourself:

1. Have I cut everything I can? If no, cut more.
2. Can I afford 12 months? If no, don't hire.
3. Is this repeatable work? If no, don't hire yet.
4. Will this directly unlock growth? If no, wait.

If all four answers are yes, hire. Otherwise, stay lean and keep grinding. The companies that survive aren't the ones who hire fast—they're the ones who hire right.