[AmberShah]

My own startup is nowhere near needing that but my experiences with startups would say: not anywhere near that time-frame. For one thing, it depends on what you're thinking about in terms of marketing.

Are you thinking customer-development and incorporating feedback into the product? That should be done by the founders and product people.

Are you thinking of people who do things like social media and PR? For that you can hire a more experienced firm or consultant with a hire hourly rate but likelier to do more in that hour than some junior "marketing" major.

If I had to put some value on it, I would say: once you have built a "fully" viable product that is market tested and its value is confirmed.

[jblochjohnson]

It sounds like all these jobs are things we can and should be doing ourselves. It sounds like a full time person once the product is "done" AND there's an opportunity for much larger growth if we were more widely known, THEN it might make sense to bring someone on.