Hire first 10 employees by: (1) Defining must-have skills (engineer, sales, designer), (2) Hiring through personal network and referrals, (3) Offering equity (0.5-2% for early employees), (4) Testing with contract/trial before full-time, (5) Prioritizing attitude > skills. Focus on generalists who can wear multiple hats.
First 10 hires framework: WHEN TO START HIRING: (1) Post-MVP, pre-PMF: Don't hire. Founders should do everything. (2) Post-PMF, pre-funding: Hire 1-2 critical roles (engineer if you need to ship faster, salesperson if you need more customers). (3) Post-funding: Hire strategically to scale. WHO TO HIRE (Priority order): Employee #1: Technical co-founder or lead engineer (if founders non-technical). Employee #2-3: Engineers to ship faster (10x developer > 5 average developers). Employee #4: Sales/growth person (if B2B) or growth marketer (if B2C). Employee #5-6: More engineers OR customer success (to retain customers). Employee #7: Designer (UI/UX matters more as you scale). Employee #8-9: Domain-specific roles (data, DevOps, product manager). Employee #10: Operations/finance generalist. HOW TO HIRE: (1) Personal network first—Ask friends, ex-colleagues, investor intros. First 5 should be people you've worked with or come highly recommended. (2) Define role clearly—"Engineer who can ship full-stack features independently in 2-week sprints. Comfortable with ambiguity." Not "rockstar ninja hacker." (3) Assess for early-stage—Must have: High agency (figures things out independently), Comfortable with uncertainty, Generalist (wears multiple hats), Cultural fit (you'll spend 80+ hours/week together). Skills can be learned, attitude can't. (4) Offer competitive equity—Early employees (1-10): 0.5-2% equity each. Later employees: 0.1-0.5%. Equity vesting: 4 years, 1-year cliff. (5) Test before hiring—Contract for 1 month OR trial project. See work quality, communication, fit before committing. (6) Move fast—Great candidates get multiple offers. Decide in 1 week max. (7) Fire fast—If not working after 3 months (cultural fit, performance), let go. Keeping bad hires kills early-stage companies. COMPENSATION: Seed-stage: Below-market salary (₹8-15L engineer vs ₹20-30L at Amazon) + equity. Series A+: Market salary + equity. KEY PRINCIPLE: Hire slowly, fire fast. Bad hire wastes 6-12 months and ₹10-30L.
Stripe: Hired engineers from YC batch, paid below market but offered large equity (0.5-1%). Employees became multi-millionaires when Stripe hit $95B valuation.
WhatsApp: Only hired 55 employees total before $19B acquisition. Hired slowly, focused on world-class engineers. Kept team tiny, hyper-productive.
Bad hire: Hired "experienced VP Sales" from enterprise company for early-stage startup. Wrong fit (needed hands-on closer, not manager). Wasted $200K salary, 8 months. Should have hired individual contributor first.
Employee #1-3: 1-2% each. #4-7: 0.5-1% each. #8-10: 0.2-0.5% each. Total 10-15% equity pool for first 10. Vesting: 4 years, 1-year cliff.
Early-stage (first 10): Hire experienced (2-5 years) generalists who can execute independently. Avoid: Fresh grads (need hand-holding) or very senior (too expensive, expect structure).
1-2 weeks total: Resume screen → Phone screen → Take-home project → Interview → Offer. Move fast—great candidates have options. Long processes lose best candidates.
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