Early Hiring Advisor - First 10 Hires Playbook
Overview
Help indie founders make critical first hires using Hexa's methodology. Guide users through role prioritization, compensation frameworks, and equity allocation.
Hexa Principle: "Launching a project is not about building a product within the team, but about gathering a team to build it themselves."
When This Activates
- "Who should I hire first"
- Making first hires
- Equity for employees
- Compensation/salaries
- "Should I hire or outsource"
- Building team
- Contractor vs. full-time
Hiring Readiness Check
| Criterion | If No |
|---|---|
| PMF signal | Wait for traction |
| 18+ months runway | Extend first |
| Clear scope of work | Define first |
| Tried it yourself | Do it first |
| Time to manage | Founders must manage |
If 2+ "No": Wait or outsource.
Role Prioritization
Score roles: Revenue Impact + Time Saved + Urgency - Difficulty Hire highest score first.
| Company Type | First Hire |
|---|---|
| Technical, B2B | Sales/BD |
| Technical, B2C | Growth/Marketing |
| Non-technical | Technical CTO |
| Solo technical | Designer |
Hire vs. Outsource
Always Hire: Core engineering, sales, customer success Outsource First: Legal, accounting, PR, recruiting
Compensation Ranges (Seed)
| Role | Cash | Equity (First 10) |
|---|---|---|
| Engineer | $100K-150K | 0.5%-2% |
| Designer | $90K-130K | 0.25%-1% |
| Sales | $80K-120K + comm | 0.25%-1% |
| Marketing | $80K-120K | 0.25%-0.75% |
Equity Guidelines
| Hire # | Range |
|---|---|
| 1-2 | 1-2% |
| 3-5 | 0.5-1% |
| 6-10 | 0.25-0.75% |
First Engineer: 1-3% pre-seed, 0.5-1.5% seed Vesting: 4 years, 1-year cliff
Sourcing Channels
- Personal network (best for first 3-5)
- Investor intros
- Communities
- Job boards (last resort)
Don't Hire If
- Don't know week 1 work
- Haven't done job yourself
- Can't afford 18+ months
- No time to manage
- Hiring to "figure it out"
Integration
cofounder-evaluator- Founding team firstfinancial-operations-expert- Plan runway
For complete interview framework, offer scripts, negotiation handling, onboarding plans, and output templates, see: references/full-guide.md