Starting a company sounds fun and exciting for people who love building things. However after getting on TechCrunch and gaining some traction, founders transition from actively building to hiring and motivating people.

It’s a fundamental shift in the work that you do on a daily basis. Managing people is challenging, because the best talent always has amazing alternatives so its hard to hire and retain them. Many of the cofounders I know, including myself, think that they are working on the most exciting problem in the world and do not even understand why they would ever do something else. In reality, rarely, more like never, will you hire someone who has the same passion for the company that you, as a founder, have.

Your startup is like your child, there is no way a babysitter will love your child the same way you do. That said, you definitely want people who believe in your mission, who understand what you are trying to accomplish and why you are doing it. If a founder is excited about their business, and there is sufficient growth or funding for them to hire people, usually he or she will be able to on board good talent.

At this point, training, delegating responsibilities and allocating tasks becomes part of the founders job. For founders, who are perfectionists, this might be hard. Its like the first time you leave your child with a babysitter, and your scared to give up any control. Most founders, including myself, are overconfident, we think we can do a lot, but no matter who you are, you can’t do it all. Plus, you have to give people interesting work otherwise they’ll leave.

As you start hiring more people, all the knowledge in the company is no longer in the founders brain. You have to manage the knowledge in the company, make sure there is a good way to communicate, access and control information. A culture starts to emerge based on the first few people you hire. This makes the first employees extremely important for the future of the company.

You have to make sure that they have the right talent and complement the team well. Its hard to make this conclusion after a few interviews so you have to “hire fast and fire fast”. This is much easier said than done, but its extremely important and must be executed well. It needs to be clear to the whole company why someone was asked to leave.

So your role as a founder is much more than just getting on TechCrunch. Your role changes and hopefully one day, you’ll be running a public company and have to prepare for your quarterly earning calls.

— By Randy Rayess