[hfourm]

Friends plural is slightly worrisome, but we're they qualified for the positions?

I personally love the idea of recruiting friends and working alongside them. Obviously I could see this going both ways, but given that everyone is qualified I don't see the problem.

[rgblambda]

The problem comes later where a friend-coworker is found to perform poorly/behaves inappropriately/slacks off etc. and has been given multiple warnings. You are now in a difficult position of having to prioritize either your professionalism or your personal relationship with them.

Given that friendships tend to last much longer than jobs I'd hazard a guess and say that most people would let the issue slide.

There's also the risk of cliques, concerns over unfairness in internal promotions and pay rises, and groupthink from being surrounded by like minded people to be worried about.

[Aeolun]

I would not want to be in any form of position of authority above my friends. Sounds horrible.

[whoIsYou]

I have a similar thought, as I rarely become friends with incompetent people. If I were to launch a startup with my friends (that I have worked with over the years) that would be an incredibly competent core of engineers

[intelVISA]

How do you judge if a friend is incompetent? System design & LC hard before you hang out?