| This question is sooooooo relevant to me (sorry to stress on the "so"). 1. This is the hardest one but all the 5 people MUST share your vision for the company and product/service. If they don't, you may still be ok but will be a long ride for you alone because they will just be employees who want to clock out at 5 PM. Again, nothing wrong overall but first 5 people should have more skin the game and must have that attitude. You also need to try and compensate them the best way possible. 2. I would look for behavior more than skills. Hear me out. I know that skills are needed but to build a company, you need people who have the correct attitude and mindset. Look for curious, always looking to learn, hungry to achieve something type people who don't need to be always told what to do. Again, you have to compensate them as well as possible. Skills can be learned but attitude/temperament/ambitions cannot be. 3. Kinda contradictory to #2, but 1 Person should be very skilled/experienced at the product/service/business domain. If that is only you, it's fine to start but need 1 more. But again, 1 person other than you at start is fine. 4. Look for previous track record. Just because someone says they are very ambitious doesn't mean anything. Ask open ended questions. Instead of asking "so do you learn using youtube", ask "what do you do when you cannot figure something out on your own" type questions. Look at their body language and how they go about solving problems. 5. People who care about Titles are usually not a good fit for early employees/partners. If prestige is important to them, they can be an employee some day but ideally not the first 5 hire. Source: Bootstrapped founder for 6+ years who has done terrible overall in finding the top 5 people based on what I wrote (but I learned the hard way) but still made it to a team of 15+ and counting. |