your first 5 hires decide everything.
not your idea — ideas are cheap and they change. not your funding — money is a tool, not a strategy. your people. the humans who show up every day and make thousands of small decisions that compound into your product.
why the first 5 matter disproportionately
each of your first 5 hires will eventually manage a team. their taste, their standards, their communication style — all of it becomes the culture. you're not hiring employees. you're hiring future leaders whether they know it or not.
what to optimize for
hire for taste over skill. skills can be learned in months. taste takes years to develop and is nearly impossible to teach. someone with great taste and medium skills will outperform someone with great skills and no taste every time.
the second thing: hire people who write well. clear writing is clear thinking. if someone can explain a complex idea in simple words, they can probably build a complex system with simple architecture.