review.firstround.com · 2023-02-14
· 1206d
When and How to Hire Your First Data Scientist: A Startup Founder's Framework
Mengying Li, Growth Data Science Lead at Notion, provides a practical guide for startup founders on whether and when to hire a data scientist. The article outlines key readiness criteria including sufficient data volume, clear business questions, ROI justification, and foundational infrastructure, while warning against hiring driven by FOMO rather than genuine business need.
Metrics in this report
Company Size for Full-Time Data Scientist
50+employees
minimum
when specific functions like finance are being built out
Data Scientist Median Salary
160,000$
median
annual compensation for data scientist role
Minimum Monthly Active Users
1,000users
minimum threshold
for at least 6 months to establish stable user base for data analysis