When should a startup wait to hire?

The skill advises waiting if you lack PMF signals, have less than 18 months of runway, or haven't attempted to do the job yourself first.

Does it provide specific equity and salary numbers?

Yes, it includes standard ranges for the first 10 hires, such as 1-2% equity for the first two hires and salary benchmarks between $80K-$150K depending on the role.

How does the advisor determine who to hire first?

It uses a scoring system that weighs revenue impact, time saved, and urgency against the difficulty of the hire to identify high-leverage roles.

Does it help with the difference between contractors and full-time employees?

Yes, it provides a framework recommending that core engineering and sales be hired, while legal, accounting, and PR should be outsourced initially.

Early Hiring Advisor

Name: Early Hiring Advisor
Author: shipshitdev

byshipshitdev

•

Collaboration Tools

Guides founders through the critical process of making their first ten hires, including role prioritization and equity allocation.

The Early Hiring Advisor is a specialized skill designed for indie founders and startup leaders navigating the transition from solo operation to building a founding team. Based on Hexa principles, it provides structured frameworks for determining hiring readiness, prioritizing roles based on revenue impact and urgency, and establishing competitive compensation and equity packages. Whether you are deciding between a contractor or a full-time employee or need specific benchmarks for seed-stage equity vesting, this skill ensures your team-building strategy is data-driven, sustainable, and aligned with long-term growth.

Key Features

01Standardized compensation and equity benchmarks for seed-stage startups.

02Tiered sourcing strategy focusing on personal networks and investor intros.

03Role prioritization scoring based on revenue impact, time saved, and urgency.

0410 GitHub stars

05Hiring readiness checklist to prevent premature scaling and burnout.

06Hire vs. outsource decision framework for core engineering and support roles.

Use Cases

01Deciding whether to hire a sales lead or a marketing lead as the first non-technical employee.

02Assessing if current runway and product-market fit signal justify making a full-time hire.

03Determining the specific equity percentage and vesting schedule for a first engineer.

What are Skills?·How to Install

Install with 🐟 Skill.Fish

npx skillfish add shipshitdev/library early-hiring-advisor

For use in Claude.ai and ChatGPT

Download Skill