Attracting the right talent and building a dream team can be challenging for the early-stage startups. As a founder, you have to work longer hours to give life to ideas, put systems in place, build an amazing team, manage budget, handle marketing, and hiring processes, etc. Startup founders have to wear multiple hats to turn their idea into a business.
Just like any other aspect of the startup, hiring is quite challenging. There are budget constraints, you’ve limited time, and things need to move quick & fast to ensure success. The real struggle? You have to build a dream team from scratch that aligns with your big vision.
In this article, we will look into proven strategies for making the hiring process easier and building teams seamlessly in the early-stage startups – no fluff, only proven strategies.
Let’s get into it!
1. Know the Right Team Members
Get clarity to identify the core team you’d like to have. Take time to brainstorm and get an understanding of what your dream team looks like. Look beyond the skills and talent. Understand if they are truly passionate about your idea or not. Because great business outcomes are the result of the combination of passion and effort.
Your team should be both passionate and talented to bring results. Identify what specific aspect of the business they care about. Ask yourself:
- What specific aspect of your idea thet are passionate about?
- Who can own areas like product development, customer success, digital marketing, UX/UI, or lead generation?
2. Start by Building a Small Team
Start small, do not focus on instantly hiring a huge team. It’s always a great move to build a small team with relevant skills. For example, you might want to spend a lot of money on marketing. But as a startup, it’s important to secure potential clients, first. At this stage, a great move could be to focus on lead generation.
Some people might be ready to take multiple hats, but as a startup founder you have to carefully choose individuals for specific tasks. Allowing them to take over multiple responsibilities can be messy and they might face burnouts. For tasks like early outreach and prospecting, bringing on a dedicated lead generator can ensure consistency without overloading your core team.
3. Sell the Vision, Not Just the Role
As a startup founder, you’re responsible to ensure your business growth aligns with your vision. Help the team members get the ‘feel’ of the vision. Assist them to understand the vision behind your startup. When people connect with your vision, they are more likely to make a meaningful contribution.
Hire an individual for the specific role from start to finish. For example, if you’ve a SaaS product like Visme for graphic design, have a dedicated team member who can take care of onboarding a new client. This new role should also be responsible for lead nurturing, and enriching it and turn customer success into case study.
For your new hire, it shouldn’t just be a new role, but an entire vision to sell. Technically, it’s the heart and soul of your business.
4. Keep Hiring Costs Low
In 2024, the average cost of human resource management was $4,129 per hire. It’s important to cut costs wherever possible. Since early-stage startups are tight on budget, it’s essential to focus on affordable ways to hiring including;
- Use LinkedIn or post in startup communities on Facebook
- Find the right candidate on Upwork/Fiverr
- Ask for any referrals
- Or, use a free ATS to review candidates 10x faster and effectively
Founders can also rely on their network for hiring the next team member. Doing so will help them save both time & money. Your next hire might be one warm intro away. Don’t underestimate how far a well-placed tweet, LinkedIn post, or Slack message can go. Referrals tend to be higher quality and lower risk, especially in the early days. So, tap into your network, talk to your mentors, and let people know you’re hiring.
If needed, it’s great sometimes to go to a longer length to hire the best candidate especially in the early-stage startups. But, avoid unnecessary delays. Steve Jobs once said, “The secret of my success is that we have gone to exceptional lengths to hire the best people in the world.” And, startup founders can’t overlook this fact.
5. Hire for the Right Soft Skills, No Just Experience
Times are changing, and founders have to re-think hiring. They don’t have to hire people for their skillset only, but for their passion. Startups need people who are open to accept challenges and uncertainties. Your team members should be bold enough to face adversity.
Cultural Fit Candidates
Since a startup’s team has a tight-knit nature, it’s important to hire people that are culturally fit. Onboarding your current team members when hiring a new team member can assist you in avoiding any mis-hires and ensure your new team member is culturally fit.
- Ask your team members to review candidates, and give honest feedback.
- Centralising the hiring process can help you make well-informed decisions.
6. Use your Money Wisely
Nearly 38% of startups fail due to lack of money early on. Insufficient cash flow is one of the major reasons why most startups shut down. Save on cost when hiring and building teams by using free ATS or relying on referrals for your next hire.
Money and cash flow are crucial for startups, and it’s important to ensure consistency of the money flow to ensure success. To support this, startup business loans can provide essential funding to manage operational expenses, invest in growth opportunities, and maintain healthy cash reserves, thereby helping startups navigate financial challenges and sustain their operations effectively
7. Close Hires Quickly
Hire fast! Talented people are always on the hunt to find better opportunities. For startups it’s important to act smart. If you are hiring for a senior position, it will roughly take two to three months to fill the position. To save time and energy, it’s important to quickly fill the gap so that you can focus more on the growth strategies.
Here’s how you can do it.
- Do not over analyse the candidate, it’s how you lose them.
- Do not hire a senior for some problem that you have not solved yet.
- Create an easy hiring funneling that include – a quick call intro, a test, a culture fit conversation
8. Start Building Business and Employee Brand
Early startups lack business branding, and thus there is nearly zero employee branding. Brand your employees as company advocates to create an irresistible business branding in the long run. It improves employee’s morale, and engagement.
- You can create a LinkedIn post welcoming the new hire, once you onboard them.
- Create a nice, catchy graphic and post it with a caption and relevant hashtag.
Let’s look at Hydro Tech Inc’s new onboarding post on LinkedIn;
9. Help your Employees Grow
Training your new employees is the best thing owners can do to grow both the venture and the employees. Invest time and resources in both professional and personal growth of your employees. Have a dedicated employee training day once a month for their mental and physical health. Encourage them to take a break once in a while for their overall wellbeing. Remember, happy employees are the most productive employees.
10. Embrace the Uncertainity
Since startups are short on cash flow, people might leave your team for better financial benefits. While this is not a favorable situation, you have to accept the fact that you can’t provide them market competitive salaries to bind them. Be flexible on hiring new ones, and training them consistently.
When hiring, have open communication with the team members regarding their expectations around salary and growth. This will help them to stay longer at your startup.
Understanding the Real Challenges – Interview with James Dever
If you are a first time startup founder, it’s important to understand the core challenges of the hiring process. Hiring and building a team is an early-stage startup that comes with a lot of challenges including; limited funding, chances of mis-hires, etc.
To understand the challenges of early-stage startups founders when hiring and building teams, we interviewed James Dever, who is the head of growth at Pictory.
1. What’s been the toughest challenge for you when hiring in the early stages of growth, James?
James Dever: “Finding the right fit. I believe early-stage hiring should happen one person at a time. Move too fast and you risk missing the company fit and team chemistry that really matter. My team now feels like a group of friends as much as colleagues – and I love that.”
2. How do you attract top talent without offering big-tech salaries?
James Dever: “Vision – 100%. Our founders had a clear, inspiring mission: make video creation simple and successful. Great leadership has been the differentiator, and I’ve worked with the best.”
3. What qualities do you look for in early hires beyond skills?
James Dever: “Attitude and transparency. I want people who are honest – with themselves and with the team. If you don’t know something, ask. Share your knowledge. Don’t gatekeep. Every day is a school day.”
4. How do you build a strong team culture when the company is still finding its footing?
James Dever: “Create connections and shared moments. Early on, leadership brought everyone together weekly – spotlights, “two truths and a lie,” and honest conversations about growth. In-person meetups made for great memories.”
5. Did you face any mis-hires in the early days? How did you handle it?
James Dever: “I’ve been lucky. Some people naturally move on if the fit isn’t right, but overall, I can honestly say: Pictory people are my kind of people.”
6. What’s your go-to channel or strategy to source great candidates?
James Dever: “Referrals, always. If someone I trust says “X is great,” then that’s usually spot-on. It’s a treasure-hunt approach, and it works.”
7. How do you define clear roles when everyone’s wearing multiple hats?
James Dever: “Planning, OKRs, and strong communication. We align on shared goals – and our CMO is a legend at steering the ship.”
8. How important is employee branding at this stage – and how do you support your team in growing their own brand?
James Dever: “Very important. We encourage everyone to be active on LinkedIn, share their journey, and represent Pictory if they choose. It’s never a requirement – but we love seeing our people share their voice.”
9. If you could go back, what’s one hiring decision you’d do differently?
James Dever: “I wouldn’t change a thing. Our team is incredible. When ARR is growing and everyone’s smiling, you know you’ve done something right.
10. What’s one underrated tip you’d give to other startup founders building their first team?
James Dever: “Own the vision and communicate it clearly. Our founders did exactly that. Their clarity united the team around a shared purpose. It really was that simple: “Start with a click, end with a story.”
Conclusion
For early-stage startups, hiring & building teams can be challenging without strategies in place. For the founders, it’s great to connect and partner with the right people to learn, and implement strategies in the best possible way. This will save their time & money.
It’s also important for the startup founders to stay proactive, and adaptable. What works today might not be feasible tomorrow. By placing the right strategies, startup founders lay a strong foundation for the long run success.
Author: Naseema Perveen – SaaS Content Marketer, Visme
Photo credit: StockCake
