Tips on hiring the right people in early stage startups

Having got this hideously wrong a number of times I’m now trying to steer the founders I work with away from making the same mistakes.

Hiring into early stage startups is hard. Expectations are high when you make your first hires and getting the right people on the rocket ship is fraught with oh f**ks.

A few things that worked for me:

* Hire though your network if you can. Obvs. Ask everyone, with a memorable brief in hand that’s culture and commercial specific. Be referable.

* Find and cherish the right recruiters. There are some gems out there so exhaust personal channels quickly and then don’t be afraid to pony up. Your time is a premium.

* With founding teams / early staff – there is often a strong argument to hire great generalists with a bent towards the functional role you really need, i.e. a great operator that leans into sales. Or a great lead developer who isn’t just comfy behind a keyboard. Generalists generally are your early stage Generals!

* Time-box early working projects with newbies and enable them to sink or swim according to their own metrics. Let them set their mission and goal. It’s a 2-way test keep in mind. This is chemistry and commerciality stuff.

* Let people roll through, don’t try and keep anyone, but make it patently clear that while we’re all working together, we make magic. We are a unit, we are family, we are one (they tend not to leave with that much explicit freedom anyway.)

Hire slowly fire fast.
No prisoners.
Rocketeers only.
🚀🚀🚀

…Dan

Hiring in early stage start-ups isn’t the only important consideration. For more advice about building your early-stage startup, head over to SuperSeed’s Playbook. We have tips on everything from board pack composition to Ideal Customer Profiling and business strategy.