The first ten hires set the standard for every hire after them. At this size there is no management layer to absorb a bad decision, so the process has to be deliberate even when it feels slow.
Before you open a role
- Do the job yourself for at least a month so you can evaluate the work.
- Write the outcome the role owns in one sentence, with a measurable target at 90 days.
- Confirm the role is a bottleneck today, not a bottleneck you expect in six months.
- Set the salary band and ESOP range before the first conversation, not after.
Sourcing at pre-seed
- Your first five hires almost always come from your own network or your investors'.
- Write the role publicly with real detail - stage, salary band, equity, and what is hard about it.
- Prioritise people who have worked at your stage before over brand-name pedigree.
- Referral bonuses work; expensive recruiters at ten people usually do not.
The evaluation process
- Screen (30 min) - motivation, stage fit, compensation alignment.
- Work sample (2–4 hours, paid) - a real, scoped piece of your actual work.
- Deep dive (60 min) - walk through their last two years decision by decision.
- Founder conversation - values, ambiguity tolerance, how they handle being wrong.
- Two backchannel references you source yourself, not from their list.
- Score every candidate against the same written criteria before discussing them as a group.
Offers, salary and ESOP
- Pay below market on cash and above market on equity - and say so plainly.
- Typical early ranges: first engineer 0.5–2%, senior functional lead 0.5–1.5%, early generalist 0.1–0.5%.
- 4-year vesting, 1-year cliff, and a written explanation of strike price, exercise window and dilution.
- Put the offer in writing within 24 hours of the decision, with a response deadline.
The first 30 days
- Ship something real in week one, however small.
- Assign an owner for onboarding - the founder, at this size.
- Write down the 90-day target on day one and review it weekly.
- Run an honest 30-day check-in and act on it. A mis-hire caught at 30 days costs a month; caught at nine months it costs the team.