To create an equation representing the number of employees, we start with the initial number of employees and then account for the new hires each month.
Initially, when the start-up was founded (at month \( x = 0 \)), there were 6 employees. Every month, Nicole hires 1 additional employee.
Thus, the relationship between the number of months since the start-up was founded (let's denote it as \( x \)) and the number of employees (denote it as \( y \)) can be expressed as:
\[ y = 6 + x \]
In this equation:
- \( 6 \) represents the initial number of employees,
- \( x \) represents the number of months since the start-up was founded,
- \( y \) represents the total number of employees after \( x \) months.