Ask HN: Technical founder here; who do I need to hire?

1 pointsby giftgaming11 anni fa4 comments

Background: I am a sole founder, I've been running my non-intrusive in-game ads startup (www.giftgaming.com) now for 15 months. We are about to start generating revenue, and are launching with our first game publisher client in the next few days. We've raised over £50k to date, and I am going to raise more funds soon via crowdfunding.

I enjoy building things, hacking, product development and I also love pitching, doing sales and meeting clients at conferences. We have 2 loyal in-house advisors who help with the business development side, and we are attached to an accelerator in Cambridge.

Right now, I am at a bit of a loss as to what kind of role I need to hire for (but I know a need a team). I've gone through a few team members coming and going during the last 15 months.

Advice I have received so far (all of which I'm sure have an element of truth):

"You're a technical person. Don't hire someone who is like you. Don't make your team full of technical people. The best teams have a mix of personalities and skills."

"You need to hire more engineers as you are a tech company."

"You don't need to hire a salesperson! Founders like you are the best people to do customer development and selling."

"You need a cofounder, not a subcontracted-out person. You cannot do this alone, and a cofounder would be more committed if they had an equity stake in the company."

"The company is already founded; you can't really get a cofounder now! Plus giving shares to them now would incur a tax liability for them, because the shares have value. Hire people instead."

Like a lot of advice I receive, this above is clearly contradictory, and everyone seems to have their own idea as to how my team should grow.

So, I would love to hear what HN has to say on my situation, and what type of role I should be looking for.

2 comments

gamechangr11 anni fa

If you want a casual opinion, it sounds like you are a technical founder who needs a business partner.

You would have a salesman, a mix of personalities, and might have less turn over (I've gone through a few team members coming and going during the last 15 months.)

You would also have the brain space to know exactly what you need for your next engineering hire.

giftgaming11 anni fa

Cheers for the insight. Yeah, I guess a business partner might be better, committed, for sure.

I don't want any old business partner of course, and may take some time to find the right one...

grizzles11 anni fa

It's not what sort of role you should be looking for. It's what sort of people you should be looking for.

Obviously you need business & tech ppl. Since you like doing both, just find the best hire you can right now and take on whatever they can't handle for yourself.

giftgaming11 anni fa

Thanks for the suggestion, that sounds like a great way to frame it. I suppose role is irrelevant and could change, (and probably should, with any startup in 'search mode'). So I guess I need someone who is ideally business savvy, hungry for success, can adapt, is comfortable with uncertainty and is eager to learn...