Article · Curated essays + talks

Hiring & Recruiting (YC Startup Library collection)

Y Combinator · YC Startup Library Free Intermediate

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 on ycombinator.com ↗

It answers 6 questions

  1. When should I make my first hire?
  2. How do I hire my first engineer when nobody's heard of my startup?
  3. What kind of people should my first ten hires be?
  4. Should I hire full-time employees, contractors, or an agency first?
  5. How do I compensate early employees with salary and equity in India?
  6. How do I interview and evaluate candidates when I've never hired before?

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  4. The official Indian government primer on structuring ESOPs for startups, a primary source on the rules that most blog posts... startupindia.gov.in Article · Official primer Employee Stock Options for Startups (Startup India) Startup India / DPIIT
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