"Every hire needs to be a generalist to some extent. In a startup everyone needs to be able to see the big picture, even while they're working on the small building blocks."<p>This is essentially saying that they need to have a business/owner mindset. A few hires like this aren't easy to find..let alone every hire.<p>"In addition to hiring those who are capable of that, try to foster it in your environment. At Sandglaz, our developers handle support because it helps them stay in touch with the customer's point of view on the product."<p>While this sounds great in theory, it leads to developers not being able to do their regular job because they are busy dealing with customer service requests. This really should be a separate position.<p>"Be wary of those who will simply google a solution."<p>Is this basically NIH syndrome? For many things, I use Google..even if I know I can creatively figure them out on my own. Why? It saves time, money, and headaches if someone ran into other issues).