The first 5 people your startup should hire

A viable product and a driven founder is a good foundation for a startup, but it is still halfway to success without a good team. Hiring several key employees during the first stages of your company’s growth is a smart way to go. However, with limited funds and a lot at stake, you have to choose who to hire first very carefully, starting from essential team members and expanding further with more resources coming in.

Our startup has already gone from three people in total to a middle-sized team of specialists. So what are the top 5 hires I can recommend to look for from the early stages of your business?

1. A wizard developer
The “hacker, hustler, hipster” typology may be a vague metaphor, but it does reflect the ultimate truth: a good developer is an essential first hire for almost any startup. A reliable full-stack developer can help you with the technical side of your product, establish a strong web presence and keep an eye on the work of any freelance coders you may need. When looking for your wizard developer, you should obviously prioritize skills and expertise, but don’t underestimate the importance of soft skills as well, since this will be the person your startup heavily relies on.

2. An experienced product manager
A product manager is another person that is responsible for the core functions of your startup. Very often the founder is the initial product manager, so it may seem unnecessary to hire an additional employee, however it does pay off in the long run. This way you are taking on an expert that can not only help you implement your vision but also perfect the existing product, gather and organize the feedback, identify possible gaps in the market and many more.

3. A jack-of-all-trades marketing manager
The importance of marketing for a new company cannot be overestimated. However, at the start, you will probably not have enough funds to form a marketing team. Focus on finding one driven person that would be able to develop your marketing strategy, manage your ad campaigns, design a landing page and do email marketing at the same time.

4. A resilient sales manager
The early stages of a startup are all about sales and leads, so having a good sales manager on your team is a must. Pushing a new, unfamiliar product is a challenge, so make sure the person you hire is confident, persistent and has a deep understanding of the product. What is more, since finding your first clients can be a long and demanding process, your sales manager should be engaged in the company’s success and ready to put in some extra efforts.

5. A versatile content writer
Content writers don't usually come to mind when thinking about essential personnel. After all, it may seem easier to have a marketing manager do the writing or outsource it to freelancers. However, as your startup and its marketing strategy start to scale up, you will require several texts each week. That is why hiring a versatile content writer that can write landing pages, copy and articles of all types is actually easier and more budget-friendly than outsourcing to freelancers.

Of course, your hiring needs may vary depending on the type of the company and your own qualifications as a founder, but these 5 positions form a core startup team.
As the business starts to grow, more and more people are needed to manage each area of the company. However, in the early stages, it is possible to have several one-person departments and achieve great results. The key is finding driven, flexible and skilled employees, who are ready to go the extra mile and take up some new roles. This may seem like a complicated task, but establishing specific criteria and using the right recruitment tools make it possible. The product I am working on right now is an AI-based recruitment platform that helps you fill your first positions with skilled and reliable employees. Check us out at https://www.rekruit.net/