Making your first hire

Hire your weakness

It’s a cliche for a reason. Consider what the founding team is lacking – front end development skills? Financial acumen? Marketing? – and add it to your skillset ASAP.

A productive start

Your first product is effectively your business in the early days. You may have a grand five-year plan – in fact, you should – but a good product lead or designer is essential to getting it off the ground and generating early revenue.

Sales or bust

It goes without saying, but you don’t have a business if you haven’t got any customers. A good salesperson is worth their weight in gold – and your first hire in this department should have enough experience to operate fairly autonomously and build a pipeline which grows with the business.

Brand new

A technical creative designer can deliver a strong brand image to influence users’ first impressions. The world is full of great ideas, but those with a beautiful design win the heart of the market.

Go freelance?

If you cannot afford a full-time designer, commission a clear, powerful logo, a website slick on UX or killer app from a trusted freelancer. Seek referrals from industry contacts; ask for suggestions on LinkedIn; or use a platform such as Fiverr which showcases examples of their work.

Market share

An in-house marketing whiz can build your startup’s profile through a regular stream of coverage, content, social media activity and – if this is your bag – awards entries. Don’t underestimate the value of such visibility when potential customers and investors give you a Google.

Energy or talent?

Any new hire should be brimming with either energy or talent. Finding both in the same candidate is rare – or expensive – but you certainly need one or the other.

Hire the person, not the skills

On that note, hiring a motivated individual with a capacity to learn but no experience – in certain roles – could prove a bargain in the long run. Just be sure that you can afford to be patient until they’ve hit their full stride.

Skills pay the bills

But in other positions – such as lead developers – you will absolutely need to source people who know their onions.

Double up

Consider which aspects of your business are wholly dependent on one person. Should they be struck down in some way – or be lucky enough to go on holiday once in a while – who would cover their responsibilities? Your first hires should aim to double up across all areas of the business.