

Ask HN: Technical founder here; who do I need to hire? - giftgaming

Background:
I am a sole founder, I&#x27;ve been running my non-intrusive in-game ads startup (www.giftgaming.com) now for 15 months. We are about to start generating revenue, and are launching with our first game publisher client in the next few days. We&#x27;ve raised over £50k to date, and I am going to raise more funds soon via crowdfunding.<p>I enjoy building things, hacking, product development and I also love pitching, doing sales and meeting clients at conferences. We have 2 loyal in-house advisors who help with the business development side, and we are attached to an accelerator in Cambridge.<p>Right now, I am at a bit of a loss as to what kind of role I need to hire for (but I know a need a team). I&#x27;ve gone through a few team members coming and going during the last 15 months.<p>Advice I have received so far (all of which I&#x27;m sure have an element of truth):<p>&quot;You&#x27;re a technical person. Don&#x27;t hire someone who is like you. Don&#x27;t make your team full of technical people. The best teams have a mix of personalities and skills.&quot;<p>&quot;You need to hire more engineers as you are a <i>tech</i> company.&quot;<p>&quot;You don&#x27;t need to hire a salesperson! Founders like you are the <i>best</i> people to do customer development and selling.&quot;<p>&quot;You need a cofounder, not a subcontracted-out person. You cannot do this alone, and a cofounder would be more committed if they had an equity stake in the company.&quot;<p>&quot;The company is <i>already founded</i>; you can&#x27;t really get a cofounder now! Plus giving shares to them now would incur a tax liability for them, because the shares have value. Hire people instead.&quot;<p>Like a lot of advice I receive, this above is clearly contradictory, and everyone seems to have their own idea as to how my team should grow.<p>So, I would love to hear what HN has to say on my situation, and what type of role I should be looking for.
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gamechangr
If you want a casual opinion, it sounds like you are a technical founder who
needs a business partner.

You would have a salesman, a mix of personalities, and might have less turn
over (I've gone through a few team members coming and going during the last 15
months.)

You would also have the brain space to know exactly what you need for your
next engineering hire.

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giftgaming
Cheers for the insight. Yeah, I guess a business partner might be better,
committed, for sure.

I don't want any old business partner of course, and may take some time to
find the right one...

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grizzles
It's not what sort of role you should be looking for. It's what sort of people
you should be looking for.

Obviously you need business & tech ppl. Since you like doing both, just find
the best hire you can right now and take on whatever they can't handle for
yourself.

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giftgaming
Thanks for the suggestion, that sounds like a great way to frame it. I suppose
role is irrelevant and could change, (and probably should, with any startup in
'search mode'). So I guess I need someone who is ideally business savvy,
hungry for success, can adapt, is comfortable with uncertainty and is eager to
learn...

