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What's the value of someone like this joining a team of engineers? What should their relationship be with the company? How long should we try to go without?
If you have a team already there is some sort of management going on. What exactly do you mean by bringing in with someone with management experience. Can you elaborate on why this idea came up? Are you looking for someone to manage the product lifecycle? Are you looking for someone who will market you product? Are you looking increase sales?
If as engineers you are progressing the business as a whole (not just the product and what you think it is), then you might be fine to continue on, but a bit of outside guidance can't hurt.
If you guys are struggling with lots of issues (related to the product or not), then you might want to bring in somebody who can manage those areas (manufacturing, partnerships, marketing, etc).
In general, I like to think about hiring a manager the same way most startups think about hiring a designer. While all programmers can do some UI design, many startups realize that they're not going to do UI design as well as they write code, so they hire designers. The same principal can apply to hiring management, hiring lawyers to handle patenting, etc: You can do it all on your own, but it might make your life a lot easier if you hire somebody who loves and excels at the specific challenges you're facing.
Maybe its because I'm a business student, but I think if there isn't someone with a perspective on strategy, finances, marketing and management in general the StartUp will fail because of lack of direction and the costs involved in changing direction later on (and I'm not saying it needs to be someone who has an MBA or something similar)
You ask what someone with management experience could contribute to your company. I would suggest that someone with a business perspective can help you to get a new perspective on things which might be quite different from your technical point of view. Also, as mentioned in other comments, a manager can ease the workload and help others to focus on what they are good at.
The hacker founder might not think of himself as a manager, because of the PHB stigma. But there's always management to be done.
I understand you didn't ask exactly this. You want to know when a "pure" manager should be brought on board. But if you realize that there're always things to be managed, the question becomes: Would this company run better if the engineers didn't have to manage? If they were free of worries about how much soda is left at the refrigerator, if the revenue/income ratio is sustainable, if John's productivity is better with one monitor or two, if there's money to buy these monitors, and if there isn't, when the budget will allow it, how to explain to John why the extra monitor will only come next month, actually research the monitors, price, negotiations with suppliers, the wall socket where it'll fit, etc...
IMHO, "pure" managers should join the ship when more work can be outputted with him onboard. BTW there's nothing wrong with "promoting" an engineer to management. S/he doesn't have to be a manager all day, and this person knowledge about the products will actually help with the management part.
But really, just mutate your question. It's not when, it's how.
I think a StartUp needs management from the beginning. Maybe its because I'm a business student, but I think if there isn't someone with a perspective on strategy, finances, marketing and management in general the StartUp will fail because of lack of direction and the costs involved in changing direction later on (and I'm not saying it needs to be someone who has an MBA or something similar) You ask what someone with…
The history of business is replete with examples of engineers, lawyers, authors, and designers running successful businesses. Take Apple, for instance.
There's also plenty of examples of "business"-types coming in and fucking everything up. Start with Ars Digita.
Someone in your company needs to keep their eye on the ball. It's easy to take your eye off the ball when you're chest-deep in commit logs. But there's no reason at all that person needs to have an MBA.
In every successful startup, even ones founded entirely by engineers, someone wears the pointy-headed hat. Unless one of you wants to take on that role, recruit a pro. A pro will cost you more, and there's no guarantee they'd be better at it than one of you, but you get to focus on the technology that way.