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Co-founders, team & legal

How do I hire my first engineer when nobody's heard of my startup?

Treat hiring exactly like fundraising: personalized outreach, a compelling pitch, and relentless persistence, no one great responds to a generic job post from an unknown startup. Mine your own network first, then create inbound with content and a crisp mission. Your first engineer is a mini-co-founder, so optimize for judgment and range over resume polish.

Go deeper

2 resources, 2 link-checked.

📄 Article
✓ Link checked Free Intermediate

Battle-tested YC advice on landing your critical first engineering hire, from founders who've done it at scale. It reframes hiring as a founder-led sales and persistence problem.

How to hire your first engineer (YC Startup Library)

From YC Startup Library by Y Combinator (Greg Brockman, Harj Taggar) Essay

  • Treat hiring like fundraising: personalized outreach and relentless follow-up
  • Leverage your personal network before generic job posts
  • Generate inbound with content and a crisp mission
Open ycombinator.com →
📄 Article
✓ Link checked Free Intermediate

YC's full curated body of hiring wisdom, from when to hire to how to close and evaluate early employees. The best free, high-signal resource for founders hiring for the first time.

Hiring & Recruiting (YC Startup Library collection)

From YC Startup Library by Y Combinator Curated essays + talks

  • Wait longer than feels comfortable to make your first hires
  • Hire generalists with high slope, low ego, and comfort with ambiguity
  • Use paid work samples and honest reference checks over trivia interviews
Open ycombinator.com →

Terms in this answer

Co-Founder

People also ask

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Also in GTM

The same ground, over in Build the team, our GTM track.

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