Entrepreneur Edge

Hiring is often framed as growth.
In early startups, it is usually risk transfer.

Hiring Too Early

Founders hire early to:

• Reduce workload
• Appear legitimate
• Move faster

But early hires amplify ambiguity.

Without clarity:

• New hires invent roles
• Founders manage instead of build
• Burn rate rises without leverage

People do not solve unclear problems.
They multiply them.

Hiring Too Late

Delaying hires creates a different failure:

• Founders become bottlenecks
• Quality degrades
• Opportunities are missed

The company stalls—not from lack of demand, but from lack of capacity.

The Right Question

Do not ask:

“Can we afford to hire?”

Ask:

“What decision or process breaks without this role?”

Hire when:

• A repeatable task exists
• The cost of founder involvement exceeds the cost of delegation
• Outcomes are measurable

Hiring Is Design

Every hire hardens structure.

If you do not intentionally design roles, culture will design itself—often poorly.