GuideModule 00
Glossary — Talent Acquisition Lingo
The core vocabulary of hiring, in plain English. From ATS to TC.
Library
All resources
Every asset in the Hiring OS, independent of the course modules.
GuideModule 00
Basic Tech Stack / Tools You’ll Need
The essential sourcing, outreach, CRM and meeting tools to run your early-stage hiring stack.
GuideModule 00
Goals for Founder-Led Recruitment
The non-negotiables that set the DNA of your company: own your first hires, drive referrals, and do things that don’t scale.
GuideModule 00
Brainstorm: Early Stage Startup Archetype
Founders and recruiters on what a perfect early-stage hire looks like — agency, ownership, grit and mission over pedigree.
GuideModule 00
Brief History of Tech Hiring Cycles
How the tech talent shortage, hiring booms and layoff cycles shape the market founders recruit in today.
WorksheetModule 00
Founder Hiring Confidence — Baseline Assessment
Rate your confidence across seven founder-led hiring capabilities and get a baseline score out of 35.
WorksheetModule 01
4-Pillar Talent Brand Audit
Rate your company across Founders & Team, Product & Challenge, Mission & Story and Rewards & Opportunity.
TemplateModule 01
Culture Doc Template
A living document defining how you work, the behaviours you reward, and the behaviours you won't tolerate.
WorksheetModule 01
Homework Task 1 — Brand Audit
Map your talent competitors, benchmark your proposition and review your strengths and weaknesses.
WorksheetModule 01
Homework Task 2 — Starting Your Pitch
Write your founder story, craft a 4-pillar pitch and review your candidate-facing marketing material.
GuideModule 01
Elite Sports Example — Branding in Talent Acquisition
How tech hiring is shifting toward an elite sports recruitment model — and what founders can learn from sports storytelling.
WorksheetModule 02
Ideal Candidate Profile
Define exactly who you're trying to hire before beginning your search.
GuideModule 02
Archetype: Early Stage SWE Profile
The four attributes that define a great early-stage engineer — product-minded, bias to build, generalist and entrepreneurial.
GuideModule 02
Hiring a CTO
When a technical founder is enough, when you need an experienced CTO, and how to source, attract and close one.
Interactive ToolModule 02
Hiring Priority Matrix
Plot roles by Urgency and Impact to decide which hire to make first.
WorksheetModule 02
Role Design / Role Market Fit Worksheet
Design a role that solves your company’s needs and excites top candidates.
WorksheetModule 02
Quick Activity — Find Your Skill Gaps
Analyse your current team’s experience and skillset, then rank the gaps that matter most to your roadmap.
Interactive ToolModule 02
Quick Activity — Start Your Hiring Plan
Turn your designed roles into a hiring order, headcount, timeline and budget — with a Hiring Costs Calculator.
Cheat SheetModule 03
Boolean Search Cheat Sheet
Quick reference for constructing more effective candidate searches.
Cheat SheetModule 03
GitHub Sourcing Cheat Sheet
Find technical candidates on GitHub using search operators, language filters, location qualifiers and quality signals.
Interactive ToolModule 03
GitHub Email Sourcing Tool
Paste a GitHub username and automatically check their profile and public commits for a contactable email.
Cheat SheetModule 03
Sourcing Context Cheat Sheet — UK / USA
Market context for UK and US tech hiring: high-growth startups, tech stack by company, high hiring bar companies and overlooked talent pools.
DatabaseModule 03
CRM / Candidate Database Template
Track every candidate in one place — fill it in here, then export to CSV or paste into Google Sheets or Excel.
DatabaseModule 03
Referral ATS
Track employee referrals from referred to hired. Export as a new tab alongside your candidate CRM.
TemplateModule 03
Referral Scheme Agreement Template
A contract template for setting up an internal referral scheme: process, rewards, rules and employee acceptance.
Cheat SheetModule 04
Spam Words Trigger List
A searchable reference of email spam trigger words and phrases to avoid in candidate outreach, organised by category.
TemplateModule 04
Job Ad Templates
Six fill-in job ad styles that sell the role instead of describing it — anti-sell, hardcore builder, work-life balance, mission, tech challenge and growth.
TemplateModule 04
Outreach Templates
Candidate outreach email templates that sell the opportunity — first touch, follow-ups, LinkedIn, referrals, re-engagement and full transparency styles.
WorksheetModule 05
Quick Activity — Design Your Interview Process
Rank requirements, define pass/fail signals and weightings, design your interview stages and set overall pass/fail criteria.
WorksheetModule 05
Activity 2 — Designing Your Discovery / Intro Call
Design evidence-generating questions per requirement, with strong/weak signals, scores, weightings and pass/fail rules.
WorksheetModule 05
Activity 3 — Designing a High Signal Technical Interview
Design technical interview stages that resemble real work — with tailored examples for engineering, sales, research and recruiting roles.
Cheat SheetModule 05
Discovery Call Cheat Sheet
A 30–45 minute reference for opening strong, pitching the company, qualifying the candidate and closing with clear next steps.
WorksheetModule 05
Interview Scorecard
Evaluate candidates consistently against role requirements. Record evidence first, make your decision second.
TemplateModule 05
Trial Work Contract Template
A simple agreement for short-term paid projects to validate candidates before making a full-time offer.
TemplateModule 05
Interviewer Responsibility Cheat Sheet
Assign ownership of every interview section to your team so each interviewer knows exactly what they own.
GuideModule 05
Interview Question Banks by Function
Question banks for engineering, product, design, sales, marketing, ops, recruiting, research and CS hires — each with the signal it tests.
GuideModule 05
Diversity, Bias & Legal Basics
The biases that cost you hires, questions you must never ask, and UK/US legal basics for founder-led hiring.
ChecklistModule 06
Sales Checklist
A step-by-step checklist to qualify, sell, close and secure candidates without missing a beat.
GuideModule 06
Recruitment Sales & Discovery Questions
A master list of questions for every stage — motivations, competing processes, compensation, trial closes, offers and counter-offer defence.
TemplateModule 06
Offer Letter Templates (USA & UK)
Fillable formal offer letters for US and UK hires — compensation, equity, benefits, contingencies and acceptance.
CalculatorModule 06
Closing Percentage Calculator
Estimate candidate closing confidence and identify the actions most likely to improve your odds.
ChecklistModule 07
Candidate Experience Checklist
A practical to-do checklist to run before and during every hiring process, built around seven candidate-experience principles.
WorksheetModule 07
Homework — The 11 Star Candidate Experience
Apply Brian Chesky's 11-Star Experience framework to your hiring process: rate where you are today and brainstorm your way toward an 11 star candidate experience.
TemplateModule 07
Candidate Rejection Templates
Human, compassionate rejection emails for every stage — application, screening, interviews, trial work and silver-medalist finalists.
ChecklistModule 08
New Hire Onboarding Checklist
A practical to-do checklist to onboard a new hire into a confident, connected and productive team member without overwhelming them in week one.
Interactive ToolModule 08
Onboarding Booklet Generator
Enter your company and new hire details to generate a personalised welcome booklet covering week one, tools, people and the 30/60/90 day plan.
GuideModule 09
Working With Agencies — Assessment Guide
Questions to ask and red flags to look out for when assessing a recruitment agency — references, past placements, named consultants and overlooked talent pools.
Interactive ToolModule 09
Scaling Decision Matrix
Enter your hiring roadmap — headcount, timeline, budget — and get a recommended resourcing strategy: founder-led, internal team, embedded / RPO or agency.
TemplateModule 09
Agency Brief Generator
Fill in your company, role and process details to generate a complete written brief to send to agencies, embedded or RPO providers after your intro call.
Interactive ToolModule 10
Recruitment Data Dashboard
Track pipeline and stage conversion, sourcing ROI, outreach rates, process speed, offer close rate, candidate NPS, cost per hire and quality of hire in one visual tracker.
Interactive ToolModule 11
Course Feedback Form
Rate the course out of five stars and tell us what to improve — embeddable directly inside your course lessons.