Long-horizon business incubation and consulting

Search the site
Start a readiness review
Start a readiness review

Executive brief

First hires for founders

Employee or contractor, what to sign and what to have on file by day one

Request this brief See the outline

The first person a software company brings on raises questions that a job post does not answer: whether the person is an employee or a contractor, what has to be signed, and what has to be on file before the first day. This brief takes them one at a time, as a founder tends to meet them.

It sets out what United States federal agencies and statutes say about telling an employee from a contractor, about overtime, about work authorization and tax forms, and about who owns software a worker writes. It separates those reports from analysis, and it recommends no pay level, role type or hiring plan.

It covers federal rules only. State and local rules can differ and add to them, so the brief ends with questions to take to an employment lawyer and a list of what it cannot tell you.

The brief is general information for founders, not legal advice.

The brief at a glance

The chapters in reading order, and one public figure that frames the question the brief answers.

The chapters, as a constellation

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12

7.5% 1

of 2021 U.S. business applications became employer businesses within two years

2.29 quarters 1

on average from application to first payroll, for 2021 applicants that hired

  1. U.S. Census Bureau, Business Formation Statistics

These figures describe all new U.S. businesses, not WE's results.

Format
Written brief
Updated
October 11, 2026
Sections
12

What the brief covers

The sections of the full brief, in order. WE sends the full text by email to the address you give.

  1. The question this brief answers
  2. About the evidence
  3. Choose the role before the contract
  4. Employee or contractor
  5. Overtime and how the job is classified
  6. What the written agreement covers
  7. The paperwork on the first day
  8. Paying a contractor
  9. Onboarding the first hire
  10. Questions to ask counsel
  11. What this brief cannot tell you
  12. Sources

Request the brief

Request the brief: First hires

WE sends the brief by email to the address you give.

WE sends the brief to this address.

Optional.

Optional.

Read the privacy notice. WE sets no cookies and loads no third-party scripts.

This brief gives considerations for founders. It is not legal, tax or investment advice.

Executive brief

Funding paths for founders

Seven ways to pay for early software work, compared by what each asks of the company: customers, awards, loans, shares, convertible instruments and crowds.

Updated October 10, 2026. 15 sections.

Executive brief

Company setup for founders

Seven choices a first-time founder makes when forming a company: legal form, state, tax treatment, founder shares, ownership of the work, name and tax number.

Updated October 10, 2026. 14 sections.

Executive brief

Building an AI-native product

Six considerations for founders building on a language model: risk process, attacks, authority, evaluation and law, and what each asks of the design.

Updated October 10, 2026. 13 sections.

Start a readiness review

Tell WE where the company stands. WE replies to arrange a conversation and a written read of your company's timeline.

Start a readiness review Get the timeline brief

A short PDF of the charts and sources, sent by email to the address you give.

Talk to WE : A question that does not fit a form.