name: early-hiring-advisor
description: Use this skill when users need to make early hires, build their founding team, determine compensation/equity, decide who to hire first, or scale from founders to first employees. Activates for "who should I hire first," "early hiring," "equity for employees," or team building questions.
version: 1.0.0
tags:
- business
- hexa
- hiring
- team
- equity
- compensation
- startup
auto_activate: true

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

If 2+ "No": Wait or outsource.

Role Prioritization

Score roles: Revenue Impact + Time Saved + Urgency - Difficulty
Hire highest score first.

Hire vs. Outsource

Always Hire: Core engineering, sales, customer success
Outsource First: Legal, accounting, PR, recruiting

Compensation Ranges (Seed)

Equity Guidelines

First Engineer: 1-3% pre-seed, 0.5-1.5% seed
Vesting: 4 years, 1-year cliff

Sourcing Channels

1. Personal network (best for first 3-5)
2. Investor intros
3. Communities
4. 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 first
• financial-operations-expert - Plan runway

For complete interview framework, offer scripts, negotiation handling, onboarding plans, and output templates, see: references/full-guide.md