TL;DR

First 10 hires shape culture permanently -prioritise values fit alongside skills.
Source directly via network, community participation, and content (not job boards).
Work-sample interviews (build something small, present solution) predict success better than behavioral questions.

Jump to Why first 10 hires matter most · Jump to The hiring scorecard · Jump to Sourcing without recruiters · Jump to Interview process

Startup Hiring: How To Find Your First 10 Employees Without Recruiters

Your first 10 employees define culture, set quality bars, and multiply (or divide) your output for years. Startup hiring at this stage demands founder involvement -you can't outsource culture fit to recruiters. Here's how to source, screen, and close A-players without paying $20K fees.

Key takeaways

First 10 hires establish cultural DNA -hire slow, fire fast.

Direct sourcing (network + community) beats job boards 10:1 for quality.

Work samples reveal competence better than interviews or resumes.

Why first 10 hires matter most

Employees 1–10 set:

Cultural norms: How you communicate, make decisions, handle conflict.
Quality bar: Future hires benchmark against early team.
Execution velocity: 10 A-players > 30 B-players.

According to First Round's State of Startups 2024, 72% of founders cite "hiring too slow" or "hiring wrong people" as top regrets in first year (First Round, 2024).

Failure modes:

Hiring too fast: Pressure to "fill seats" leads to mis-hires who drag down the team.
Over-indexing on credentials: Fancy resume ≠ startup fit.
Skipping values screening: Skills without culture fit = toxic culture.

For team rituals, see /blog/async-standup-remote-teams.

The hiring scorecard

Before sourcing, define what "A-player" means for each role.

Scorecard template

Dimension	Weight	Must-have vs nice-to-have	How to assess
Core skills	40%	Must-have: Can do the job day 1	Work sample, technical screen
Values fit	30%	Must-have: Aligns with company values	Behavioral questions, reference checks
Learning velocity	20%	Nice-to-have: Grows fast as company scales	Past examples of skill acquisition
Domain expertise	10%	Nice-to-have: Industry knowledge	Resume, portfolio

Example scorecard: Founding Engineer

Dimension	Criteria	Assessment
Core skills	Ship full-stack features (TS + React + Postgres)	4-hour take-home: build mini CRUD app
Values fit	Bias for action, customer obsession, transparency	"Tell me about a time you shipped before perfect"
Learning velocity	Picked up new framework/language in <1 month	Portfolio review: breadth of tech stack
Domain expertise	B2B SaaS experience	Nice-to-have, not required

Rule: Hire only if candidate scores ≥8/10 on scorecard. No "maybe" hires.

Sourcing without recruiters

Recruiters charge 20–30% of salary ($20K–40K for $100K–150K roles). Direct sourcing is free and higher quality.

Tactic 1: Network (warm intros)

Process:

Share role description with investors, advisors, existing team.
Ask: "Who's the best [role] you've worked with? Can you intro?"
Track referrals in spreadsheet; close loop with referrer.

Conversion: Warm intros convert 10–15% vs <1% for cold job board applications.

Tactic 2: Community participation

Join communities where your ideal candidates hang out:

For eng: GitHub, Dev.to, niche Slack/Discord (Remix, Next.js, etc.).
For product: Lenny's Slack, Mind the Product, indie hacker forums.
For marketing: Demand Curve, Superpath, content communities.

Don't: Spam job posts.
Do: Participate authentically for 3 months, then soft-pitch (DMs, "we're hiring" in bio).

Tactic 3: Content-driven sourcing

Write about your product, tech stack, culture. Ideal candidates self-select.

Examples:

Technical deep-dive: "How We Built Real-Time Collaboration With Supabase Realtime."
Culture post: "Our Remote-First Rituals: Async Standups + Weekly Reviews."
"We're hiring" footer: Link from every blog post.

Result: Inbound applicants pre-sold on your mission and stack.

For content workflows, see /blog/5-day-content-sprint-no-burnout.

Warm intros and community sourcing convert 10–15× better than cold job board applications.

Interview process

Structure interviews to reduce bias and predict performance.

Phase 1: Resume screen (5 min)

Filter for:

Must-haves met: Core skills present.
Red flags: Job-hopping (<1 year tenures), unexplained gaps, typos.

Pass rate: 20–30% of applicants.

Phase 2: Values screening call (30 min)

Assess culture fit before investing in technical screens.

Questions:

"Why are you interested in startups vs big tech?"
"Tell me about a time you disagreed with your manager and how you handled it."
"What's your ideal work environment?" (listen for remote, async, autonomy signals).

Pass rate: 50% of resume-screened candidates.

Phase 3: Work sample (2–4 hours)

Simulate real work. Pay candidates for their time ($100–200).

Examples:

Eng: Build mini feature (CRUD app, API endpoint, UI component).
Product: Write PRD for hypothetical feature based on customer feedback.
Marketing: Draft blog post outline + sample intro paragraph.
Design: Design onboarding flow for sample product.

Evaluation: Does the work meet your quality bar? Would you ship it?

Pass rate: 60% of values-screened candidates.

Phase 4: Team interviews (2 hours)

Meet 3–4 team members:

Peer interview: Would they want to work with this person?
Manager interview: Can they grow into the role?
Founder interview: Culture and mission alignment.

Pass rate: 70% of work-sample candidates.

Phase 5: Reference checks (1 hour)

Call 2–3 references (ideally back-channel, not candidate-provided).

Questions:

"What's [candidate]'s superpower?"
"If you were building a company, would you hire them again?"
"What's one area they could improve?"

Red flag: Lukewarm references ("they were fine").

Call-to-action (Hiring mode) Draft your first role scorecard this week and share with 5 people in your network to start warm-intro pipeline.

FAQs

How long does hiring first 10 take?

2–6 months per role if sourcing well. Don't rush -mis-hires cost 6–12 months to recover from (severance + team morale hit).

Should you hire generalists or specialists early?

Generalists (10× engineers, product-minded designers). Specialists come later when you have scale.

How much equity to offer employees 1–10?

Employee #1–3: 0.5–2.0% (founding team range).
Employee #4–10: 0.1–0.5% (early team).
Vesting: 4-year vest, 1-year cliff.

Use Carta's equity calculator for benchmarks.

What if you can't find A-players?

Widen geography: Hire remote; 10× talent pool.
Upskill internally: Promote from within; invest in training.
Rethink role: Maybe you need contractor, not full-time, for this scope.

Summary and next steps

Hire your first 10 through direct sourcing, values screening, and work samples -no recruiters required. Prioritise culture fit as much as skills.

Next steps

Define hiring scorecard for your next role.
Share role with 10 people in your network for warm intros.
Publish content that attracts ideal candidates (tech blog, culture post).

Internal links

External references

First Round State of Startups 2024 – hiring regrets data.
Lever Hiring Playbook – structured interview frameworks.
Carta Equity Guide – equity compensation benchmarks.

Crosslinks