For the last few weeks, I’ve been releasing an episode on Tuesdays and Thursdays, to gear up for MicroConf the world’s biggest conference for self-funded software companies. These episodes have been focused on self-funded, often solo-founders. Some are on the smaller side, while others have ARRs over 7-figures, but they all have valuable lessons to share for any founder and these week we are wrapping up with the final 2 episodes of the series. Today, I’m talking with Josh Nielsen, the founder of Zencastr, a SaaS startup that makes it easy to record remote interviews in studio quality and it’s what I personally use to record most of these interviews. In our chat, Josh shares why it took 2 years before he started charging for the product and what the transition from free to freemium looked like, but where we really dive in is how Josh is preparing to make his first few hires. The first employees of any startup are absolutely crucial to success and Josh shares a smart approach to making these hires that any founder can learn from. If your startup is going to be hiring in the near future, then this is the episode for you.