Read Peopleware. It’s more about finding teams that gel than individual high performers. Makes the task even more challenging, sadly.
Ask HN: As a first-time solopreneur how would you go about hiring the first team
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Re: Ask HN: As a first-time solopreneur how would you go about hiring the first team
#22If I were in your position I would start with people I know personally and I would define success criteria to hold them accountable against. I would evolve that success criteria as the mission evolves and use that as a frame of reference in hiring the next people. Prior experience in leadership and holding people accountable is required.
Re: Ask HN: As a first-time solopreneur how would you go about hiring the first team
#23Can't speak from experience, but my recommendation would be to never hire someone to do work you've not done yourself. (I believe Joel Spolsky mentions this.) So for instance try doing marketing yourself for a month. One benefit: you may discover you're good at it and don't need to hire someone, or hire someone freelance or part-time. The more important benefit: when you're interviewing a candidate, you know what you…
Do you have a good guide on how to "try doing marketing yourself for a month"? To me this shit is so alien, I can't imagine I'll even scratch the surface in a month.
1. Write a blog post on the topic your startup is related to.
2. Try to get people to read that blog post.
3. Try to get it ranked top 10 in Google for a very specific keyword (doesn’t matter how unpopular it is)
4. Reach out to 10 people and tell them about said blog post
That’s just one example
Re: Ask HN: As a first-time solopreneur how would you go about hiring the first team
#24Can't speak from experience, but my recommendation would be to never hire someone to do work you've not done yourself. (I believe Joel Spolsky mentions this.) So for instance try doing marketing yourself for a month. One benefit: you may discover you're good at it and don't need to hire someone, or hire someone freelance or part-time. The more important benefit: when you're interviewing a candidate, you know what you…
As a relatively successful founder of multiple companies over decades, I cannot say I would like to do this. It feels like this will make you waste time on things that potentially take a very long time to learn and it might put you in a situation where a little knowledge is a dangerous thing when trying to interview/hire.
Re: Ask HN: As a first-time solopreneur how would you go about hiring the first team
#25I started recently (2 years ago) and running a small consultancy, and using part of the revenue to build my own product.
What worked for me was starting to give out small tasks via , often giving the same tasks to multiple individuals and then decide with whom I am going to stick.
Has been pretty successful for finding talent, not sure how much my anecdote weighs in though.
Working together with friends is something I probably won't do again, it's just too easy to cross damage professional or personal part of the relationship when there are issues arising.
So if you can afford it and have the time, I would recommend starting on freelancer platforms. It also allows you to make mistakes as these relationships do not require commitment from any side. Down side of course is, that you might lose good talent as they are also not comitted to you.
Re: Ask HN: As a first-time solopreneur how would you go about hiring the first team
#26Watch Alex Hormozi on youtube
Re: Ask HN: As a first-time solopreneur how would you go about hiring the first team
#27Earlier quoted context omitted.
But doesn't doing X for 1 month make you a charlatan? For example, consider you only did frontend/ui/ux for one month. How much rubbish you would pick up over that time by googling for tutorials or watching youtube videos to get you started; and how alien a real front-end veteran would look to you.
That's the point. You can at least filter out the rif-raf because you'll recognize yourself in those people quickly.
Yes, powered by sheer hubris and imagined experience, your knowing gaze will pierce all deception.
Re: Ask HN: As a first-time solopreneur how would you go about hiring the first team
#28> Assuming that I don't know anything about or have zero experience in the skill-sets I am hiring for
My guess is that you need a co-founder that can fill the gap instead of employees.
Re: Ask HN: As a first-time solopreneur how would you go about hiring the first team
#29> Assuming that I don't know anything about or have zero experience in the skill-sets I am hiring for My guess is that you need a co-founder that can fill the gap instead of employees.
Then he won't be a solo-preneur anymore.
It seems like hiring people is much less risky than marrying them.
Re: Ask HN: As a first-time solopreneur how would you go about hiring the first team
#30[flagged]