Advisors / Visas / Hiring FAQs

All the Q&As we've collected around people ops

Any recommendations for a certified CPA to help us with our day to day work?

Anybody worked with good SEO/SEM consultant/agencies outside of the US? Mid-level to Senior with a reasonable price that early stage startups can afford.

Does anyone have any experience with a good executive / leadership coach? For founders at Seed+ stage companies.

Do we need to write up board approval for the SAFE and common stock purchase agreement signed at the start of Alchemist?

For people who hire in India, what's the salary range for a 10-15 year experience team lead (full stack) in India?

When startups fail, are there "layoff lists" others could use for their hiring efforts?

What sort of tools can one use to keep track of candidates? Preferably something that has a built-in workflow for moving candidate through the whole hiring pipeline.

Is $975 per hour an ok fee for San Francisco lawyers or is it a bit too high?

Does anyone have experience requesting IP Releases from pre-startup research partners? Looking for something along the lines of: "The company is being created, you don't want to be a part of it, so you are releasing all future claims on the IP."

What are the best practices in selling IP?

What type of agreement would this look like if the Principal Investigators of the lab (a part of an academic institution) will receive “X” shares in the company in exchange for writing grants, assigning post-docs/PhDs, etc.

We are looking to pick a sales coach with a hacker mindset and can offer actionable advice specific to our product. Any advice on this?

Is it common to ask for a coding task submission when hiring a JavaScript React Native (3-4 years experience) candidate?

Any advice on hiring developers from other countries to Delaware C-Corp? Is it legal to not mention authorization in Offer Letters?

Anybody have a good recommendation for a tech recruiter that can bring us leads on a contingency basis?

Any experience with a customer not paying their invoices? A customer owes us a significantly large amount way past due and now they are just ignoring our emails.

What's the best platform can we use to onboard several contractors from other countries and communicate with them/pay them?

Has anybody used any recruiting agencies for hiring SDRs?

A researcher from a university wants to use our application & software platform to conduct research. Any advice on how to work together?

Is B-1 Visa more stringent than regular H-1B?

What are good job posting sites to hire software engineers?

Any suggestions on good employee background screening service?

What do most startups pay in terms of employer contribution % and dependents?

How should I think about Goal Check Ins?

Are there any guidelines we can use when determining non-founding C-level team member's equity at Seed/Pre-Series A stage?

Does anyone filed a provisional patent without a lawyer?

What is a simple way to explain to coaches outside the Alchemist network how they’d be compensated if selected?

We need to step up on the tech side; is there any incredible tech person you've come across lately (founder, engineer, anyone)? Depending on the expertise and seniority, we're open to offer them a co-founder position.

Any advice on trademark infringement?

Any recommendations for IP lawyers?

How long does it take to process E3 visa and roughly how much do you spend for the process?

Any recommendation on tax accountant for a small startup incorporated in the US?

Do you conduct formal board meetings in a pre-seed / seed stage? If so, is it just a matter of writing something up / recording a call on Zoom etc?

Does anyone have recommendations on cost-effective SDR options outside of the U.S.?

Does anybody have any sample employment contracts for interns that they'd be willing to share?

Has anyone engaged with consultants on a pure equity deal? Is there an agreement template available?

What are your onboarding processes for new engineers like? Would love example agendas or things you like going over.

We're debating whether to have the hire split be 2 backend engineers and 1 dedicated devops engineer, or 3 backend engineers that each have devops experience. Does anyone have any experience or insight about their approach and how it worked out?

I'm interested in hearing about approaches where OPS is outsourced for on-demand tasks where the team/engineer is reliable and can be trusted.

Anybody have a template for internal privacy policy that can share with me?

We're putting together an advisor agreement and want to make this milestones-driven over a short duration e.g. 6-12 months. What are realistic milestones to include?

I'm trying to find some data on total salary costs for employers in the US and from what I can find, it's about 1.1x the gross salary of an employee. Can anyone confirm?

Does anyone have guidelines for determining a reasonable number of shares to give to an advisor?

We are about to sign an agreement with a sales/marketing consultant. Is it normal to say: In no event will Company be precluded from developing for itself or for others anything that is competitive with, or similar to, the Services?

Is it healthy to promote an engineer to a manager role? If yes, what would be the top key qualities the employee needs to have?

Is there a sample template to track or target new hires?

What are some good questions to ask when interviewing senior product managers?

Hiring people overseas as contractors

How do I best interview for a FT react/js dev? Take home project, react/js “quiz questions”, e.g. describe the react component lifecycle? Any recommendations for a web-based collaborative react editor to test things like redux/mobx & jsx knowledge?

Qualifying early engineering hires

Does anyone have any data or resources (i.e. salary/equity) for seed stage startups they use when hiring engineers outside the resources on Alchemist’s Google Drive?

Does restricted stock get taxed as you vest?

What wording do you use when issuing stock to employees?

We just met a really cool engineer but he doesn't have a work Visa. Anyone familiar with these situations and can provide some info?

I have an applicant asking if it’s possible to have an acceleration clause for mergers/terminations. Has anyone added one of these, what are the pros/cons of having one?

Where’s a good place to find experienced SDRs?

Would love any thoughts / advice on hiring our first sales person. Interview process, sourcing , other ways to gauge if they'll be good at the role, etc

Wondering if anyone have any tips on hiring or know where to source enterprise sales reps? I’ve been going through LinkedIn, but curious if there’s anywhere else we can find a pool of AE candidates?

How do you set up the valuation of the company re:option agreements with employees/advisers to get exercise price per share?

2 questions on H1B visa transfers: a) how much can I expect these transfers to cost and are attorneys willing to do it for a fixed price? b) does “market rate compensation” only consider base salary or will a hefty stock package also be considered?

I’ve been researching some offshore talent for awhile and have settled up on the Ukraine as having the best talent:cost ratio for backend Golang and Ruby Devs. Does anybody have any stories, pitfalls, helpful resources about this topic?

I want to set specific deliverables in the advisor agreement, but not sure how specific it should be. Thoughts?

What's market equity for BOD? If they're also an active advisor/coach?

For a cash strapped company, is there guidance on how the founder should price the common, assuming the company is still very early (pre-revenue, 1-3 FTEs, no funding except maybe $60K from Alchemist and others?)

How should I fire an employee that has been with the company for a long time?

In order to raise capital, you need to have a great team. In order to have a great team, you need to have capital. Do you show commitment to investors (i.e. people LOIs), bring people on (i.e. pay less) or have you seen another approach be successful?

What should the equity split be for co-founders?

What should the equity allotment be for early hires?

Does anybody have an opinion about giving advisors `Options to purchase Common Stock` vs `Restricted Common Stock` (before a priced round)? We know that both has tax implications ultimately, but is there any recommendation on what option is smoother?

At what point do you think about hiring VP, Sales?

An advisor wants to be hands-on & knows VP & C level execs at target companies. I offered 0.25% equity over 2 years, but he would like some incentive built in for contracts he can get us. What is a fair cash/equity compensation to give based on ACV?

When to hire an SDR?

Would love any thoughts on sales comp - structure, base / OTE split, weighted comp for new leads vs. closed deals? other objectives / considerations for adding our first remote salesperson to a small (but revenue-generating) co?

Coaching and Advisor Agreements

Mentor Tiers at Alchemist

Alchemist 2 Coach Policy

Using Recruiters with Contingency Fees – What You Need to Know

Developers in LATAM

Advice for International Founders