Podcast · 45 min

The founder's guide to making your first few hires: Steven Bartel on recruiting at Gem and Dropbox

First Round Review Free Intermediate

Bartel built Gem (a recruiting tool) after running recruiting at Dropbox, so this is a founder-to-founder playbook for sourcing when your own network runs dry, which it will fast. The standout is the 'connector node' move: pick 15 to 20 respected people, source from their networks, and name-drop the connector so a cold DM lands as a warm intro, plus a concrete follow-up cadence (3 to 4 messages, a break-up email) that roughly doubles positive replies.

  • Start by systematically listing everyone you have ever worked with, then mine second-degree connections through 15 to 20 'connector nodes' whose names you can drop
  • About half of positive replies come after the first message, sending 3 to 4 follow-ups and a final break-up email can double your response rate
  • Early-stage hiring is active outbound, going out to find people, not posting and waiting for applications, plan to run it until roughly employee 25 to 30
Open on review.firstround.com ↗

The question it answers

  1. Where do I actually source candidates for my first hires without a recruiter budget?

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