If you're at a startup you better be hiring! That's your #1 job! You better keep that bar high because the next round of folks will be hired by them. Further, at a small startup you can't get away from a bad hire, they're literally adjacent to you for 50+ hours a week.

Further to this point, networking is crucial too, but it's more networking outside the company. With other startups, with other technical folks -- your hiring pipeline is built on your personal network until you get to at least 20+.