Article

Our 6 Must Reads for Hiring Tactics That Break the Mold

First Round Review Free Intermediate

A curated set of hiring tactics that deliberately go beyond the standard referral and resume path. It is useful when the default advice (ask your network) simply does not apply to you. Skim it for one or two unconventional moves you can try this week.

  • Referrals are not the only, or best, sourcing channel
  • Small process changes meaningfully improve who you attract
  • Unconventional tactics help you reach people others miss

The question it answers

  1. How do I hire a developer without a warm network or startup connections?

Read with it

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  2. Battle-tested YC advice on landing your critical first engineering hire, from founders who've done it at scale. It reframes... YC Startup Library Article · Essay How to hire your first engineer (YC Startup Library) Y Combinator (Greg Brockman, Harj Taggar)
  3. Altman's condensed operating manual for founders, including sharp guidance on focus, spending your time on what only you can... playbook.samaltman.com Article · long Startup Playbook Sam Altman
  4. This is the other half of your answer: what to do once the thing works. It walks a non-technical founder through when and how... TechCrunch Article How to hire your first engineer: A guide for nontechnical founders TechCrunch
  5. Once no-code has carried you to traction, this is a grounded guide to building the early team you eventually need, including... Lenny's Newsletter Article Hiring your early team Lenny Rachitsky
  6. A deep, practitioner heavy set of guides from operators who built strong technical teams from scratch, useful once you commit... First Round Review Article · long read Hiring engineers First Round Review
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