Hiring your first 10 employees is one of the most defining stages in your startup's life. These aren't just hires, they’re your early culture, your product velocity, your execution capacity. But if you're like most founders, you're doing it alone: no recruiter, no HR, and no real system.
That’s normal. And risky.
This guide walks you through how to hire your first 10 team members with clarity, speed, and long-term fit, and how Jobgether helps you do that without needing to build a hiring team from scratch.
1. Don’t copy big companies. Build like a hacker.
Most startup founders make the mistake of copying enterprise hiring playbooks: long job specs, slow funnels, resume-heavy filtering, and unnecessary back-and-forth.
You need speed, not formality. Structure, not bureaucracy.
Jobgether was built with this exact reality in mind : helping early-stage teams run a lean, smart, founder-led hiring process that doesn't rely on outdated ATS tools or hiring consultants.
2. Be radically clear about your first 3 hires
Before you write a single job post, ask:
- What work is blocking our product or growth?
- What am I doing that someone else could do better or faster?
- What role creates leverage immediately?
Most early teams start with:
- Engineering (your technical backbone)
- Product/Design (shipping fast)
- Ops or Growth (removing founder bottlenecks)
Inside Jobgether, you can define roles quickly and distribute them across channels with a few clicks, no copy/pasting or multi-platform headaches.
3. Write job posts like you’re writing to one person
Generic job posts attract generic candidates. Founders should write like this:
“You’ve built products fast, with little guidance. You care about user feedback. You want to work close to the decision-makers. You’re probably underchallenged where you are.”
On Jobgether, you can craft leaner, more direct job posts and get matched with candidates who align with your expectations, not just the buzzwords.
4. Stop relying only on inbound. Use smart sourcing.
Most great candidates aren’t scrolling job boards. You have to go find them.
Founders who use Jobgether’s smart matching engine cut their sourcing time dramatically. Instead of spending hours filtering resumes, Jobgether surfaces your top 10 candidates per role: based on skills, experience, and job preferences.
No manual filters. No hunting in 12 tabs. Just high-signal matches, automatically.
5. Screen with intent, not guesswork
Forget resumes. Use signals.
Inside Jobgether, every candidate profile is enriched with:
- Core skill matching
- Video intro screening (up to 90 seconds)
- Profile quality scores
That means you know who’s serious, who’s relevant, and who deserves your time, without wasting hours in Zooms that lead nowhere.
6. Build a short, structured funnel
Keep it to 3 steps:
- Intro call (fit + motivation)
- Work simulation or async screening
- Final call with founder/team
With Jobgether, you can manage your entire funnel in one place: sourcing, async interviews, skill assessments, and tracking, no Notion boards or email threads needed.
7. Sell the mission, not just the role
You won’t outbid FAANG on salary. But you can win on:
- Vision
- Autonomy
- Speed of impact
- The quality of the team
Jobgether helps you position your startup story clearly, with tools to communicate mission and flexibility directly inside the job match, so you attract the right profiles from the start.
8. Make onboarding feel like day zero of something big
Once they accept, you’re not done.
The first 7 days define how long they’ll stay.
Jobgether lets you track candidate journey stages and ensure onboarding starts before Day 1 — with centralized documentation, communication templates, and a clear handover from hiring to team integration.
9. Use lightweight tools, or just one
You don’t need 5 tools. You need one that does the job.
Most early-stage teams juggle: LinkedIn + Gmail + Notion + Calendly + ATS + Job boards
With Jobgether, you replace all of that with one platform:
✅ Source
✅ Filter
✅ Screen
✅ Score
✅ Track
✅ Hire
No integrations. No friction. No wasted time.
10. Know when to hand it off
When you hit 8 to 10 team members, your time will stretch. That’s when founders start looking for help: a people ops hire, a freelancer recruiter, or tools that scale.
Jobgether is built to grow with you. Whether you're making your first hire or your fiftieth, it lets you focus on the part that matters: choosing who, not managing how.
Conclusion
Hiring your first 10 people sets the foundation for your product, your culture, and your speed. You don’t need to do it perfectly, but you do need to do it intentionally.
Jobgether helps you do exactly that.
👉 Book a free 30-minute audit and get your Hiring Efficiency Score. See where you stand and what you can fix today to hire better, faster, smarter.