The First Person You Should Hire

If you had the cash and the resources right now to build a super team, what’s the first position you’d hire for and why?

 

1. Front-End Developer With an Eye for Design

“Early on in the iteration-the lean startup phase of a company-I love having a front-end developer who has a really strong eye for design. That role is so helpful because it allows rapid prototyping and iteration without needing to involve two people. Guys like Danny Trinh from Path are really unique in that way. They are very difficult to find, too!”

- Eric Koester, Zaarly

doreen-bloch2. Data Scientist

“Data is a critical component of my business and also a trend at large. Having a dedicated data scientist on the team can have immense positive implications for your business, including facilitating more advanced testing to improve processes and mining internal data for inefficiencies or strategic opportunities. Hiring a data scientist can be a competitive advantage for many companies.”

- Doreen Bloch, Poshly Inc.

3. Stellar Salesperson

“I know that many companies are always looking to build out a top tech team, but in my mind, the most important hire would be an incredible salesperson. You can always find operators, technicians and engineers, but someone who knows how to generate rain is invaluable and a real key to business success. ”

- David Ehrenberg, Early Growth Financial Services

4. Right-Hand Man

“For a first hire, I really think entrepreneurs need a kick-butt personal assistant, even for just a few hours a week. I wish I hired one sooner. Right now, I’m needing a ‘mini-me’-a right-hand man who can take my ideas and implement them at least 80% as well as I could. Someone with a sharp marketing mind, crazy drive, and passion to grow with the company.”

- Trevor Mauch, Automize, LLC

5. Social Media Manager

“Hiring a social media manager is a great investment for any entrepreneur. Once you get going with social media, you’ll find that in order for your efforts to be effective, you need to devote a great deal of time to it. Hiring someone to oversee your social media marketing is a great way to free up more time, allowing you to focus on other areas of your business.”

- Andrew Schrage, Money Crashers Personal Finance

6. Someone in Marketing or PR

“First, hire someone in a marketing or PR position. Get your message heard. You can build the greatest product on the planet, but if no one knows about it, it will have all been for nothing. The saying goes, ‘If a tree falls in the woods and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound?’ You won’t get very far if no one knows about you.”

- Heather Huhman, Come Recommended

7. Office Manager/Assistant

“Now that I have all this cash on hand to build a super team, I’m going to have a ton of busy work interviewing people, scheduling times with people and, generally, a lot of low-value work. Someone to help manage that would make me way more effective at building a super team.”

- Wade Foster, Zapier

8. COO

“If I had unlimited resources, the first position I would hire would be a chief operations officer. This dream employee would be a jack-of-all-trades with experience negotiating contracts, dealing with suppliers and integrating new team members into the fold. A COO would help free up more of my time and my co-founder’s time to work on new business leads.”

- Brittany Hodak, ‘ZinePak

About The Young Entrepreneur Council

The Young Entrepreneur Council (YEC) is an invite-only organization comprised of the world's most promising young entrepreneurs. In partnership with Citi, the YEC recently launched #StartupLab, a free virtual mentorship program that helps millions of entrepreneurs start and grow businesses via live video chats, an expert content library and email lessons.

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