The Controversial First Role to Hire After Your “A Round”

I'd say if you find an office manager / administrative type that fits all of the criteria mentioned you should pick that person up immediately as part of your first 5 hires. A person with those people skills and willingness to do the minutiae across the board is a force multiplier for everyone else on the team. The difficulty is finding someone with all of the qualities listed in the article.

The list of priorities at the top is just mind blowing. 10-20 years ago you would invert it. Top priority would be a super-extroverted business type with sales&#x2F;marketing experience. Any tech talent on the team at all would be optional, and the rest of the team makeup would be heavily tilted toward sales.<p>E.g. in dot.com 1.0 it was common for a 100% MBA and sales team to get funded and then outsource all tech. I saw this happening as recently as 2008-2009.<p>What an unbelievable change in the industry...

And yet, this is often the lowest paid position at a startup. Most important hire. Lowest paid. Let that sink in.<p>People talk about how market rates are fair, and it makes sense to stick to them because you can always hire someone else. But you don&#x27;t get great people in key positions by paying them less than your other employees.

Can we get a less linkbaity title on this?

This was our first hire, full stop. Before the seed round closed, and a long long time before the A.

But this is obvious! Hiring admin assistant is the first thing to help the business. Where is the controversy there?

I believe an even scrappier idea is to start with a &#x27;virtual assistant&#x27;, like Zirtual, where you can start out with a small commitment and then ramp up as needed. When you need the full-time in-office admin, then you can go hire.<p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.zirtual.com&#x2F;plans-pricing" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.zirtual.com&#x2F;plans-pricing</a>