Employees Questions


43 Votes
12 Answers
27.6K Views
Using your startup on your resume while job-hunting?

I have a very new solo startup that doesn't make any money (yet...), but it's time to get a "real job" so that I can pay the bills. I'm very proud of the work I did on my startup and think that it...

asked Oct 16 '09 at 00:47
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Neil
318 points

2 Votes
2 Answers
4.01K Views
Pros and Cons of hiring remote contractors vs onsite employees?

What are some pros and cons of hiring full time employees onsite vs employing contractors on platforms like UpWork (ODesk)?Salary is one. In almost all cases remote workers are going to cost you...

asked Jun 16 '15 at 10:25
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Larry Lamas
14 points

5 Votes
4 Answers
3.12K Views
A lawyer offered service for equity and potentially joining the company

A lawyer offered service for equity and potentially joining the company full time as legal counsel/business dev guy. Is this reasonable? What percentage of the company should I offer him? It's a...

asked Jul 1 '11 at 09:50
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Jirad
105 points

98 Votes
36 Answers
36.6K Views
What fun and low-cost fringe benefits/perks would you offer to employees?

Let's face it. As startups, we can't really offer top-dollar salaries to our employees. But we can offer some fun benefits that the big companies can't/won't. Here are a few that we have that seem...

asked Oct 15 '09 at 12:20
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Alex Papadimoulis
5,901 points

337 Votes
21 Answers
500K Views
If I'm working at a company, do they have intellectual property rights to the stuff I do in my spare time?

I was interviewed by a lady from Zynga and she told me that Zynga doesn't allow developers to have side projects. Is this true for companies in general, or just a minority that Zynga is a part of?...

asked Jan 26 '11 at 16:35
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John
716 points

9 Votes
12 Answers
5.76K Views
What are the pros and cons of employees that work remotely?

What are the considerations as we consider employees that would work remotely? I'm particularly thinking about technical positions (programming, web site maintenance) that are remote due to...

asked Sep 21 '10 at 06:21
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Keith De Long
5,091 points

4 Votes
1 Answers
4.13K Views
Persuading software engineers to join a new startup?

I'm a non-technical founder who has been able to get by with outsourced consultants on ODesk for a while.But now that revenues are growing, I want to hire one or two PHP coders onsite. I've posted...

asked Jun 9 '14 at 18:10
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Sonya Dave
24 points

2 Votes
1 Answers
3.73K Views
Should you provide any bonuses to employees whose ideas make a significant contribution to the bottom line?

We're just getting started with scaling our business and one of the things we want to implement is a 4/1 work day. 4 days are spent working, and 1 day is for individual projects (just like Google's...

asked Jun 6 '14 at 15:27
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William Green
14 points

2 Votes
2 Answers
4.55K Views
Can you raise money from VCs if you're a solo founder and all your employees are ODesk contractors?

I have a solo founder (technical) who has hired 8 full time contractors on ODesk for my startup. We have launched an MVP and starting to get some initial traction.Would VCs reject such a startup...

asked Jun 13 '14 at 14:13
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Mark Ballard
14 points

2 Votes
2 Answers
3.93K Views
How to reject candidates after an interview?

What's the best way to say no to candidates who clearly aren't a good fit for the company?It's as awkward for me to do as firing someone. I would like to do it in a way that doesn't reflect bad on...

asked Jun 16 '14 at 23:45
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Connie Banes
12 points

2 Votes
1 Answers
3.7K Views
Does a candidates appearance / behavior on social media effect your hiring decision?

Before hiring someone, most startups try to find out as much as possible about them by hitting Google and checking their publicly available social media profiles (Twitter, Facebook, Instagram,...

asked Jul 8 '14 at 16:55
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Carl Rosas
12 points

1 Votes
1 Answers
3.18K Views
How to promote people in a small company of less than 20 people?

We are a small company of less than 20 people. How do we provide opportunities for people to move up the ladder? We are not growing in terms of company size as our business runs pretty well at it's...

asked Jul 14 '14 at 14:29
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Allen Sullivan
9 points

0 Votes
3 Answers
4.44K Views
What criteria should you judge candidates on when hiring?

We are looking to hire our first two employees and have no prior experience in recruiting.What are the most important things that we should look for in a candidate?The first would obviously be...

asked Aug 6 '14 at 15:42
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Dennis Fidler
2 points

1 Votes
2 Answers
5.2K Views
Should you give a negative review to a contractor if they go AWOL or have personal problems, but otherwise do good work?

When reviewing or rating or providing references to a contractor, should you factor in them going AWOL, not responding, having personal problems, being flaky, but otherwise doing good work? I've...

asked Nov 9 '14 at 05:28
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Starrychloe S.
83 points

2 Votes
2 Answers
3.71K Views
Is it possible to build and scale a startup with only remote employees?

It would save considerable overhead expenses on things like rent and health insurance in some cases (for those employees who are in other countries).What about VCs? Would they look upon such a...

asked Apr 20 '15 at 12:57
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Jason George
14 points

2 Votes
3 Answers
6.24K Views
Considerations in setting up a payroll schedule (pay periods & pay days)?

I am setting up payroll for the first time. So far in my research I have discovered that the state of Arizona requires: I must pay employees within 5 days of the pay period. I must schedule pay...

asked Sep 26 '12 at 19:13
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Clint
695 points

2 Votes
4 Answers
4.15K Views
Can employee's pet projects help startup business's success?

As many of you know, companies like Google and 3M give the employees 20% of their time to work on something that really excite them the most. I also been thinking maybe this can be a good strategy...

asked Nov 12 '09 at 10:07
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Jpartogi
1,342 points

1 Votes
2 Answers
3.46K Views
Free tools for managing employees and hours

I am creating a service (PC maintenance) business and I need a tool for keeping track of which employees are available at what times. This data needs to be exported or otherwise accessible by a web...

asked Dec 1 '13 at 07:25
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Joachim
6 points

1 Votes
1 Answers
3.06K Views
Should you judge a candidate on cultural fit if they wear a suit to the interview?

For startups, if a potential candidate comes for an interview wearing a suit, is that a flag that they might not be a cultural fit?

asked May 30 '14 at 22:45
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Ellen Davenport
7 points

3 Votes
2 Answers
3.03K Views
Process to let go of an employee?

We made a hiring mistake and need to terminate an employee. It's one of the hardest things I've come across as this will be a first. What the best way to gently let go of someone who isn't the...

asked May 25 '14 at 20:43
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Dorothy Taylor
16 points