It was June 1999. I had recently co-founded India’s first e-commerce company with five friends. We were all constantly running around at a frenetic pace, working hard to launch the business, and needed someone to manage our one-room office at a business centre. I was in charge of hiring and met several candidates. Most of the meetings ended like this:
“We want to make you an offer? When can you join?
“Thanks, sir. I have a question first.”
“Sure, go ahead.”
“You said you are launching a music store to retail CDs and cassettes. What’s the address of the store?”
I shared the website address.
The candidate gave me a puzzled look and said, “Sir, I need the address of the shop.”
I patiently explained that the address was on the internet.
The candidate politely declined the job offer and walked out, seemingly thinking I was mad. Another promising candidate was gone and I was tired.
Books, articles, blogs on entrepreneurship and talks by start-up pundits focus on the first product version, the first customer, first invoice, first incoming payment, first fund raise... No question, these are important milestones. But equally important, and not talked about enough, is the first employee. It’s hard enough appointing the first hire in start-ups where the business model is sharp — like banks, FMCG, software, logistics, media and so on. Ours was a greenfield venture at a time when hardly anyone knew what e-commerce meant.
Irrespective of their background, entrepreneurs must be top-class salespersons. Hiring the first employee is probably one of the toughest sales jobs around and only a founder can get this done. Just imagine yourself telling a person that she is about to join a start-up that will go on to change the world, become a huge global brand, have several hundred thousands of customers growing rapidly, millions of dollars in revenue, and billions of dollars in valuation, and she is going to own a piece of this. And while you pitch this passionately, at the back of your mind you will know that this may take several years and the outcome is uncertain.
It is said that the most difficult product to sell is life insurance, because how do you convince someone to buy a product that will fetch them lots of money when they die. I strongly believe that isn’t as tough as selling an incredibly rosy future to a confused first employee in a start-up.
Incidentally, the first employee is also an endorsement that there are people beyond the founders who believe in the company’s prospects.
(The writer is a serial entrepreneur and best-selling author of the book ‘Failing to Succeed; tweets @vaitheek)