What the founder gives you
Product answers with no hedging. A viewer asks about the fabric, the sourcing, the return policy or why it costs what it costs. The founder answers in one sentence. Hired hosts stall on those questions and a stall in a LIVE loses the sale.
Founders also carry the story. Why the product exists, what went wrong in development, what you refuse to compromise on. That material converts in LIVE because it fills the gaps between demos and it cannot be copied by a competitor.
When to hire and what to pay
Hire when the founder is the bottleneck on frequency. UK LIVE hosts typically work at £20 to £50 an hour or a lower hourly rate against commission of 5 to 15 per cent on LIVE attributed sales. Commission only deals mostly attract hosts who drift off after two shows.
Screen for reading comments while talking. That single skill separates a host who sells from a presenter who performs. Give candidates a product they have never seen and thirty minutes to sell it on a test LIVE.
The hybrid that works
Run trained hosts on the volume slots and put the founder on one show a week. Announce that show as the one where you can ask anything. It becomes the appointment slot and it lifts the whole schedule.
Build a host brief with banned claims, approved language, price floors and the ten most common objections with answers. Without it, a host will invent a claim on air and your shop collects the violation.