I do appreciate that you are cautious about taking on financial obligations for a company that has not yet developed its first products or secured its first customer. Good employment agreements usually provide obligation relief for insolvent businesses.
The more likely scenario, however, is as you describe. You hire someone who does not meet job requirements. To minimize this risk, entrepreneurs should spend more time talking through the nitty-gritty specifics of a job rather than spending all their interview time selling prospective hires on the overall potential of the startup company.
Your candidate’s expectations matter, too. Conflicts tend to emerge as job requirements change with new business priorities, or first hires assume that they are destined for executive titles that are outside their scope of experience.
