Never Hire The Best
Well, that may be a bit too extreme, but let me explain...
When you hire the best of the best to get the job done (manager, consultant, intern, etc.), you may be making it hard on yourself as a manager in the long run. It's really a balance between hiring the person with the right amount of expertise to bring credibility to your company/department, and getting someone who is willing to work very hard and innovate. The precise middle between those two ends may be somewhat of a blue rose.
My advice: go after the candidate that is hungry.
In the end, you want great work out of your employees, so optimize for innovative and diligent workers. Obviously, the further down the food chain you go, the less expertise you need in a particular field. That frees you up to look for someone who can think outside the box and work hard at taking more "moon shots". Why not apply the same thinking a little higher up the food chain?
If you hire an expert, the chances are pretty good that they are so well ingrained in their field that they have little capacity to think outside the box anymore. It's possible that they can, but I wouldn't hold my breath. The same goes for consultants a lot of times, too. You might think you're hiring a person/firm to come up with new ideas, but they'll most likely stick to "industry norms" or their "playbook." After all, that's how they're able to scale their businesses, package the same solution to multiple clients.
If you truly want exceptional work, it usually requires an employee to focus and practice or develop the craft. This is most important in start-ups, where you want to move quickly and differentiate yourself. Experts can often be entrenched or set in their ways, which is precisely not what you want. Beware of people who claim to be "expert innovators," too. What does that even mean?
I'm not saying that you want to only hire novices, who are willing to learn quickly. There does come a time and a place to hire experts or very experienced managers, etc. You'll know when your team doesn't have the right "talent." Your investors and mentors will tell you, too. Just make sure you have a nice, healthy balance. And if you ever need to shake things up a bit, don't be afraid to hire the less experienced, but "willing to be challenged" for that next open role.