Team, Co-founders & Legal

How do I write a job description that actually gets good people to apply to an unknown startup?

A starting point

Stop copying corporate JDs. Lead with the problem you're solving and the specific impact this hire will have in the first 90 days, not a laundry list of 12 'must-haves.' Name the stack, the salary band, and whether it's in-office or remote up front, because vague listings self-select for desperate applicants. Write it like a message to one specific person you'd love to work with, not a legal document.

Go deeper

Hand-picked from around the web, each with a note on why it earns your time.

2 resources 2 link-checked Read Use

Read

📄 Article
✓ Link checked India Free Beginner

Why we picked it This is real India data, not a US survey with an Indian byline: 46 percent of Indeed India postings disclosed salary in 2023, with sector-level jumps (Finance up 122 percent, Engineering up 107 percent) and city-level splits. It tells an Indian founder that naming a band is now table stakes for competing on engineering roles, and flags the reality that there is no mandatory pay-disclosure law here, so it is a competitive choice, not a compliance one.

The Importance of Pay Transparency in India

From Indeed India (Hiring Insights) by Indeed Editorial Team 10 min read

  • Salary disclosure in Indian job postings hit 46 percent in 2023 and is growing fastest exactly in the roles startups fight over (engineering, finance, AI)
  • Adoption is concentrated in Delhi and Mumbai, so disclosing a band is still a differentiator that makes serious candidates self-select in
  • India has no mandatory pay-transparency law, so putting the band in your JD is a deliberate signal of seriousness rather than a legal box to tick
Open in.indeed.com →

Use

📋 Template
✓ Link checked Free Beginner

Why we picked it Written by the talent team at a VC that hires for its portfolio full-time, so it is a recruiter's actual playbook, not generic filler. It opens with the exact thesis you need (a boring JD implies a boring job) and gives you a fill-in-the-blanks structure that forces you to name the mission, the growth path, the real collaborators, and the comp/equity package up front instead of a wall of must-haves. Copy the structure, then rewrite it in your own founder voice.

Startup Job Description Template

From SignalFire by Crystal Guerrero (Director of Talent Operations) 15 min read

  • Treat the JD as marketing collateral aimed at one ideal candidate, not an HR checklist, so lead with growth and impact over a list of duties
  • Its six-part skeleton (role, values, responsibilities, traits, perks, company) makes you state comp, equity, and how the role collaborates cross-functionally explicitly
  • Highlighting what makes the role unique is what stops your post from reading like every other copy-pasted listing
Open signalfire.com →

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