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Ask HN: When to hire a non technical friend to your startup?

8 points by bo_Olean ↗ HN
You hired a non technical friend of yours in your startup, does that has anything to do with startup progress? The question is straightforward to most of you.. when should a startup "could" hire non technical person when in their struggling phase ?

10 comments

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ddagradi
It all depends on your situation.

Do you have ~1 year of salary for a new employee in the bank? You're probably doing alright then, and can definitely afford the risk. "1 year of salary" is, of course, just a suggestion, but you don't want to hire someone without looking really deeply at how it will affect your finances if you are in a "struggling" phase.

Do you spend an inordinate amount of time doing non-technical tasks that take away from your product? If so, a designer/salesperson/client-wrangler can be an extremely valuable asset in even a small company.

Essentially, if they fit a need you think you have in your business, there's nothing wrong with a hire. Don't just hire a friend because your friend needs a job though - that's a sure-fire recipe for disaster.

joman21
Don't ever get a non technical idiot.
gyardley
Don't ever get an idiot, period. There's no need to qualify it.

To answer the original poster, hire a person (non-technical or otherwise) when their benefit exceeds their cost by a substantial amount. I wouldn't recommend hiring a friend, though, without doing a search to see if there are better people for the role at the amount you can afford. You need the best person you can recruit - which might be your friend, but probably isn't.

bo_Olean
But: search to see if there are better people for the role at the amount you can afford

Quoted to remind myself. Thanks for the input.

rushabh
The friend has to be a real hustler, great in communication, specially written, should have a knack for closing deals and is willing to help in documentation and testing.
michaelpinto
You know what the problem is with your statement? It's not he fact that you refer to this potential employee as "non technical" but as a "friend". Yes you should enjoy to work with whomever you hire, but you shouldn't be lazy about their skill set. If the person is a designer, try to get the BEST designer — not a friend. If the person does business, try to attract the best businessperson — not a friend.

The curse of twentysomethings is to hire their best friends. They feel insecure and are afraid of failure. Hire someone great that you aren't afraid to fire. By the way this doesn't just apply to tech startups — it can apply to a band or staffing a restaurant.

bdrocco
As I once heard serial entrepreneur Tim Bucher say... "Always hire people who are smarter than yourself." It's an extremely difficult task since every entrepreneur wants to do something bigger and better than anyone else.

I'd like to think my friends are the smartest guys on the block. ;-) We founded a startup in 2008 that had a successful M&V, but our engineering team was already tried and tested prior to the company.

However, don't assume this is a curse of "twentysomethings," this is a problem that I've seen span generations.

bo_Olean
>> It's not the fact that you refer to this potential employee as "non technical" but as a "friend". Yes you should enjoy to work with whomever you hire, but you shouldn't be lazy about their skill set.

>> Hire someone great that you aren't afraid to fire

Got it, thanks.

crasshopper
It's important to trust the people you work with, and to be able to rally them to your banner -- but my personal experience hiring close and not-close friends has always been bad (luckily so far only on the work side, it's never damaged the friendship).

On the other hand, a friend who does a couple hours of favours doesn't cause a problem.

helen842000
If they have nothing to bring to the start-up then why hire them at all?

However if they have skills that other team members don't have they could be a valuable addition. The right time to hire them is when you realise the level of value they would bring is at least 2x upwards of their salary.