How to find a Hustler?

Hustler is the new Rockstar! How about a salesman?

First the hackers need to learn how to hustle (do sales) themselves. This way you'll figure out what works and what doesn't, and you'll be in a position to evaluate whether potential candidates are suitable for the job.

If the person doesn't work out, fire them. The first few hires are super risky, which is why you shouldn't hire anybody unless you absolutely need to. When you hire somebody to do a job you don't understand you're setting yourself up for failure.

If the product sales itself, then why do you need a hustler? You need to spend more on advertising and promotion. If the product needs some help selling itself, then you need to look for a sales rep who has worked in a startup environment before. Trust me, hire someone from a big name and you are heading for disaster. If you are looking to add resellers/business partners look for companies where your product helps them sell more of their product.

Outsource to East Europe. Have a look at Estonia and Latvia (don't mess with Litheania). Despite dict-p in Belorussia goverment there strongly supports outsources. In Russia look at Novosibirsk - a town of science (Moscow and St.P. are very expensive - USD3000 and USD2500 per month respectively).

if you dont want risk then close the company.

A hungry horse is better than a fat elephant. Unfortunately you're going to have to keep trying people until you find one that works. Look for smart, hungry people that have ridiculous hustle stories and get your product. Don't be fixated on prior experiences / titles.

You haven't said salesperson, you've only said Hustler. But to clarify, I don't think you want to hire a salesperson. Here's why:

As a hacker myself, I think it's really tough to manage the technology and the business. Personally, I would make it your goal to change the markup of the team such that one person is running the business (making sales, setting vision, building audience) and someone else is managing the technology.

Two ways you can do that:

Hire another hacker, and one of the existing team members becomes CEO.
Find a CEO

Find other software startup CEO's you respect, and ask them about their day to day to find out what being a startup CEO is really about. A CEO of a small team is really cheif executive, finance and sales officer. Sometimes marketing too, depending on your business model. You'll need marketing eventually. A lot of teams usually make someone else on the team chief of technology and product, which is difficult in it's own right.

Really, its however you want to divide up the roles. I've just found that trying to be CTO/CEO is really hard. I think you already know that CTO/CSO is tough. Honestly, CTO/CPO can be at odds in the same person, but startups seem to make it work.

Hopefully this helps you determine the roles your team is lacking, and what you should be evaluating for. <em>Actually</em> evaluating for those things is beyond this anonymous answer, but talk to people who you respect and have been through the early stage already.

You're looking for a "Maverick"....

Read this: http://www.bothsidesofthetable.com/2010/04/08/journeymen-mavericks-superstars-understanding-salespeople-at-startups/

Then get on angle.co (and others like it) and post your role. Also, visit Kima Ventures for some cash to pay incentives to your maverick sales person.

OP here. Thanks for the answers!

On "it sells itself": what I meant was: our current (limited) turnover is not the result of us doing sales, because we don't really, so it must be because we build something people need.

I did not mean that we hit the motherload :)