Team, Co-founders & Legal

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

A starting point

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

Hand-picked from around the web, each with a note on why it's here.

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📄 Article
Free Intermediate

How to hire your first engineer (YC Startup Library)

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

Why we picked it

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.

  • 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
Free Intermediate

Hiring & Recruiting (YC Startup Library collection)

From YC Startup Library by Y Combinator Curated essays + talks

Why we picked it

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.

  • 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 →

People also ask

When should I make my first hire? Hire later than feels comfortable, the best YC companies wait, because employees add cost, complexity, and communication overhead you can't easily ... Beginner 2 resources → What kind of people should my first ten hires be? Generalists who are fast, low-ego, and comfortable with ambiguity, your first ten hires ARE your culture, so hire for slope over intercept and valu... Intermediate 3 resources → Should I hire full-time employees, contractors, or an agency first? For core product and anything that IS your business, hire people who own it, contractors and agencies are great for well-scoped, non-core work but ... Beginner 2 resources → How do I compensate early employees with salary and equity in India? Pay a fair, honest salary you can sustain plus meaningful ESOPs from your option pool, early employees take real risk and should share the upside. ... Advanced 3 resources → How do I interview and evaluate candidates when I've never hired before? Skip trivia and whiteboard theatre, give a paid, real-world work sample that mirrors the actual job and watch how they think, communicate, and foll... Intermediate 3 resources →