We plan to bring eChai across 100 cities in India. It starts with eChai Startup Demo Day on 26 September, all in person. 13 cities confirmed, 676 founders registered. Any city that reaches 20 interested founders is on too. See your city

Co-founders, team & legal

Hiring your first employees

Your first ten hires are your culture.

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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 jo... Intermediate 2 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 write a job description that actually gets good people to apply to an unknown startup? 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 li... Beginner 2 resources → How do I make a compelling offer and close a candidate who has a competing offer from a big company? You will lose on cash and brand, so don't compete there. Sell ownership, speed of learning, and proximity to the founders, and make the candidate f... Intermediate 3 resources → How do I make my very first hire feel productive in their first two weeks instead of lost? Have a written onboarding plan before they walk in, even if it's a single doc. Give them one real, shippable task in week one so they feel useful, ... Beginner 3 resources → How do I hire a great salesperson early when I've never sold or managed sales myself? Don't hire a senior sales leader as your first sales hire, you can't manage or evaluate them yet, and you'll overpay for someone who needs a machin... Advanced 2 resources → When and how do I make my first non-engineering hire (ops, marketing, or a founder's associate)? Make it the moment you, the founder, are the bottleneck on non-core work: when hours vanish into scheduling, vendor chasing, and inbox triage inste... Intermediate 3 resources → What paperwork and compliance do I need in place before my first employee's start date in India? Get the basics locked before day one: a signed offer letter and employment agreement, an NDA and IP assignment clause (so the work belongs to the c... Advanced 3 resources →

eChai Partner Brands The partnership →