Commission principles for the first hires

Recommendations only, with no pay figures by design. Hiring order: founders close the first customers in each sector and write the playbook by doing it; customer success before more sales; the second developer before any commercial hire; the first salesperson when the sales-hire trigger is met (D25).

1. Pay on cash received, not on a signature.
2. Weight to commitment and retention: more for a twelve-month agreement than a rolling month (contract shape pending, D18). We reward commitment, never a price concession.
3. Tie part of the payout to the account still paying and posting at 90 days (an option under D25). Any fixed window invites selling to its edge; one earlier plan that clawed back commission for churn inside four months saw churn spike in month five.
4. Never reward period-end timing: no month-end or quarter-end accelerators or contests. Close dates are the buyer's critical event.
5. No discount component, and no incentive to ask for one.
6. Credit expansion only after a measured review.
7. Partner-sourced deals: the seller is credited in full; the partner's commission is in the partner's agreement (D19 decides the partner side). Write the attribution rule down before the first hire.
8. A deal won on a claim we cannot stand behind is not commissionable until it is put right.
9. Set quotas from our own data.