Dan Bowyer shares hiring lessons for early-stage startup founders, learned from his own mistakes: use your network, invest in good recruiters, favour generalists, time-box trial projects and hire slowly but fire fast.
- Hire through your network first, with a memorable brief that covers both culture and commercial needs.
- Find good recruiters and be prepared to pay them once personal channels are exhausted, because founder time is at a premium.
- Early hires should usually be strong generalists who lean towards the role you need, such as an operator who leans into sales.
- Time-box early working projects and let new hires set their own goals, treating it as a two-way test.
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.
Frequently Asked Questions
Should an early-stage startup hire specialists or generalists?
Dan argues for great generalists with a bent towards the functional role needed, for example a lead developer who is comfortable beyond the keyboard, because generalists are what an early-stage team needs.
How should founders test new early hires?
By setting time-boxed working projects and letting the newcomers set their own mission, goals and metrics, so both sides can judge chemistry and commercial fit.