Make Your First 5–10 Hires Yourself
You understand this is mission critical. No outsourcing. No internal recruitment team. You and your co-founders / early team take 100% ownership of hiring.
Module 00 · Guide
Goals for Founder-Led Recruitment
The non-negotiables that set the DNA of your company forever. Treat these as your operating principles until hiring becomes a repeatable, data-led function.
Make Minimum 2–5 Hires Through Referrals
Leverage your network — and the wider network of your network. Referrals are high-converting, low-cost and usually a strong culture fit.
Personally Interview Every Candidate Up to Your 100th Hire
Founders stay directly involved in hiring through this stage. After 100 hires, maintain this for senior / executive-level roles.
Do Things That Don’t Scale
Personalised one-off outreach. Build real relationships. Deliver a personalised candidate experience. Have long conversations and ask in-depth questions to test for Role Market Fit (PMF of the role). Pitch your company / role 100+ times.
Systematise Your Process & Track the Data
Once hiring velocity reaches ~20 people per year, hand over to a Head of Recruitment / TA leader with proven startup experience. Let them own process, but keep founder values and standards embedded.
When to bring in outside help
Hiring at an exceptionally high bar, or only have a handful of hires to make? Have the funds to invest ~£30k – £80k per hire? Then consider using a recruitment agency.
Hiring at a high volume for a short period of time only? Then consider an embedded / RPO solution.