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I'm talking more about (roughly) employees #6 -> #30. At that point you have a product vision, but no concrete product.

I don't think this is true, at least not for consumer internet startups. If you can't build a concrete product in this space with 5 people, you probably can't build one at all.

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In addition, it'd be quite irresponsible to start scaling your hiring without that concrete product (proven, repeatable, scalable sales process).

If you have your first scalable product with 5 people, there's a good chance that after you start hiring up to 20-30 employees (not just engineers), the market and your product will make large shifts. You'll have to rework and rethink your product after you start scaling, too.

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