Article · 18 min read

10 hiring mistakes early stage founders make (and how to avoid them)

a16z crypto talent team · a16z Free Intermediate

Section 8 (Flubbing the onboarding process) names the exact failure mode in the question: founders assume a strong hire is a mind reader and leave them to drift. It prescribes writing down 30/60/90 expectations, weekly check-ins for the first quarter, and, for teams under 10, personally introducing the new person, which is the over-communication we push. Canonical, founder-facing, and it frames onboarding as a hiring decision you can still lose after the offer.

  • Experienced hires are not mind readers: write expectations and timeframes down instead of carrying them in your head
  • Weekly check-ins for the first 90 days catch a disengaged hire before month two, when it is too late
  • Under 10 people, the founder personally onboards and introduces: onboarding is not something you delegate yet
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The question it answers

  1. How do I make my very first hire feel productive in their first two weeks instead of lost?

Read with it

  1. This is the single doc your first hire should walk into. It is built for a founder without an HR team, splits the first three... FirstHR Template · downloadable DOCX, 15 min to adapt Free 30-60-90 Day Plan Template for Small Business FirstHR
  2. Written for the Indian startup reality where most onboarding stops after day one and the hire quietly checks out in weeks two... Springworks Article · 14 min read Employee Onboarding Best Practices: What Actually Works for Growing Indian Startups Springworks
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