The council recommends
On: "Should I hire a second engineer now or wait two more months of runway?"
Top pick
Start sourcing/interviewing now, but delay the actual start date and salary commitment by two months, tied to a clear hiring trigger
Don't add the second salary to payroll today — your runway is too precious to spend on an unvalidated bottleneck. But don't sit still either: begin actively sourcing and interviewing candidates this week, since a quality technical hire typically takes 6-8 weeks to find and vet. Use the two-month window to gather hard evidence — is the current engineer actually blocking signed revenue, a committed launch, or critical reliability work? If yes, you'll have a vetted candidate ready to start right when the evidence and (ideally) a revenue/funding milestone justify it. If the bottleneck turns out to be prioritization or product uncertainty rather than raw capacity, you've saved two months of burn and can still use the pipeline later. Define the trigger now (e.g., two consecutive missed revenue milestones traceable to engineering capacity) so the decision isn't made emotionally under pressure.
Runner-up
Hire a contractor for a tightly scoped urgent project instead of a full-time engineer — gets you capacity now without permanent burn, and can convert to a full hire if it proves out.
Wildcard
Negotiate a delayed-start offer with your top candidate now (e.g., signed for a start date 8-10 weeks out) — locks in talent in a competitive market while your validation window runs in parallel.
Best time
Start sourcing/interviewing this week; set a hard decision checkpoint at the 6-week mark to review evidence against your hiring trigger, so you can extend an offer with 2 weeks to spare before the two-month runway point.
78%
aligned
All three experts agree that delaying the actual salary/onboarding cost is prudent, but they diverge on whether the sourcing/interview process should start immediately or also wait.
Where they agree
✓Don't put a full second salary on payroll right now given limited runway
✓Use the two-month window to gather more evidence (revenue, funding, milestones) before committing to the hire
✓Start building a candidate pipeline in parallel rather than waiting to search until the money is confirmed
✓A contractor or scoped interim solution can bridge urgent engineering needs without a permanent commitment
Where they diverge
↔OpenAI frames the two months primarily as a validation period for whether the bottleneck is real and revenue-critical, only sourcing candidates as a hedge
↔Anthropic frames it as building leverage for a better offer/negotiation once a milestone is hit, with a contractor as a serious middle-ground
↔Google is the most aggressive on timing, explicitly recommending the search start immediately because hiring pipelines take 6-8 weeks, calling waiting-to-even-search a growth risk
↔Confidence levels vary meaningfully (62-85), reflecting different risk tolerance for burn vs. pipeline delay
The 3 takes
GPT-5.6 TerraLens · bottleneck validation
Wait to actually hire, use the two months to prove the engineering constraint is real and tied to revenue, and start sourcing candidates as a hedge.
72% confident
Claude Sonnet 5Lens · runway & negotiation leverage
Wait to make the hire, but interview now so you can extend an offer the moment revenue or funding milestones are hit; a contractor is a viable middle path.
62% confident
Gemini 3.7 FlashLens · hiring pipeline timing
Begin recruiting and interviewing immediately, but delay the official start date two months so runway isn't burned before validation, while avoiding a pipeline-caused delay.
85% confident
Synthesized from 3 independent expert passes. Treat as informed input, not a guarantee — your own judgment is the final vote.