Team, Co-founders & Legal

When should I make my first hire?

A starting point

Hire later than feels comfortable, the best YC companies wait, because employees add cost, complexity, and communication overhead you can't easily undo. The trigger is a clear, recurring bottleneck that a specific role removes, not general overwhelm. Until then, do things yourself so you understand the work well enough to eventually hire for it.

Go deeper

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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

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