Building a startup is hard. But building a startup without the right team? That’s near impossible. In fact, 14% of startups fail because they can’t find the right talent to bring their vision to life, because hiring for a startup isn’t just challenging, it’s transformative.
Every role, every hire, shapes your company’s culture, trajectory, and ultimately, its success or failure.
It’s widely said that “The first 10 employees define the next 100.” In my experience, that couldn’t be more true. These individuals solidify your culture, establish your company’s DNA, and set the standard for what your business will become.
I’ve watched startups soar because they nailed their early hires: the perfect blend of skills, passion, and culture fit. I’ve also seen them falter—sometimes catastrophically—by bringing in the wrong person, or even the right person at the wrong moment.
In this article, we’ll cover everything you need to know to build your dream startup team in 2025. Starting with the essentials – like crafting a compelling narrative to explain your vision, identifying the key roles to fill first, and ensuring you attract candidates who align with your company’s culture. From there, we’ll explore actionable strategies to find top talent, from leveraging your network to optimising your hiring processes.
This isn’t a cookie-cutter guide. It’s built from proven strategies I’ve honed over nearly a decade of helping startups thrive. It’s designed to help you avoid common pitfalls and confidently navigate the challenges of startup hiring. Ready to build a team that fuels your vision?
Let’s dive in and map out the strategies to make it happen.
Contents
A Use Case and a Potential Market
I mean, you’ve got this already, right? If not, we’ve got you covered.
A use case and a potential market are vital to attracting great talent to your startup team because all of those great professionals you’re going to hire need to believe in your product/service and “infect” others with that enthusiasm. Your startup needs to fill a real need that real people have. That’s it.
And then you need to be able to explain it in such a way that is clear to those candidates so that they too understand and, if they join, share it with others (be it clients, partners, or referrals) in a way they understand. It’s a virtuous cycle.
Once you’ve got the basics covered, you can start thinking about…
Which Roles to Fill
What roles should I start with? Who do I need right now, and who do I need later?
The very early stages of a startup can be quite different from company to company, but there are some rules that (generally) apply:
- You need to create an MVP, and fast, to go from vision to (iterative) reality. It could make sense to hire a small but fierce dev team, but it’s likely smarter to benefit from the services of a company that can do it for you. As you probably guessed, I recommend Altar because that’s exactly what we do.
- You are not an expert in all areas (finance, sales, marketing, product, engineering); even if you were, the day has only so many hours. If you have co-founders and all of you combined can cover the basics, that’s great. If not, focus on finding the key elements you need. These could be:
- A COO (Chief Operations Officer). Believe me when I say this – you need someone who will set up all those internal systems and processes to ensure you have the solid foundations you need from the beginning. Mind, this person needs to be able to wear multiple hats (well, all of you at the beginning) and not frown upon answering customer inquiries if needed or gently persuade a client to pay their dues.
- A sales director who has the contacts and the experience to spread wide, but make sure they’re OK with being in the trenches, doing it all, from sales development (aka finding leads, adding them to a CM, reaching out to them) to account management, to strategy definition.
- Too expensive? Grab a gritty and driven salesperson and start there.
- A marketing expert who can help you find the voice, the tone, and the narrative that will sell your startup. It goes without saying, their English needs to be spotless.
- A product manager who can take that idea of yours and see it through each step of the journey until it becomes the mature product you dream of. You’ll want someone who has done this before (in early-stage startups) and has an entrepreneurial mentality, together with a let’s-get-sh*t-done attitude.
OK, now that you have an idea of the roles you need to fill first, let’s think about the narrative!
The Narrative
Here are some questions you need to ask yourself:
- What kind of company do I want to create? What are its defining characteristics?
- Do I want my company to be remote, hybrid, or office-based?
- If remote, would the team have to be in a particular country or region of the world, or close to a particular time zone? Or can they be anywhere in the world?
- Do I know how the initial team will be structured? What roles will be filled first, and who will do what?
- How do I want my company’s culture to be? Have I thought about it?
- How much can I pay for each role?
Within reason, there are no right or wrong answers to these questions, but you have to be honest with yourself and determine exactly what you want to do, in terms of location, team structure and above all company culture.
The word ‘narrative’ has a bad rep, but it makes sense – you’re preparing to tell the world “This is us, this is what our company is”. Find that, refine that, learn how to sell it, and stick to it. (If you need inspiration, the insights from other founders on our podcast will be a gold mine).
The clearer it is to you, the easier it’ll be for you to ‘positively infect’ those you interview. Remember, a company’s culture can be amazing for one candidate and horrible for another. That’s okay; people and companies are not made out of the same mold, and that’s fine.
In hiring, your company is the product. Do you know how to sell it? Good – now document everything.
You don’t have to please everyone (that’s not even possible), but if your vision for the culture of the company resonates with candidates, they will become early joiners, and then they will spread it throughout the team in the next waves of hiring, freeing you from having to interview every single candidate.
But we’re getting ahead of ourselves, as now we have to see how to find great candidates, and it’s then that the search can begin.
Do you have a brilliant startup idea that you want to bring to life?
From the product and business reasoning to streamlining your MVP to the most important features, our team of product experts and ex-startup founders can help you bring your vision to life.
The Search Begins
I guarantee you that there are amazing (I don’t like the word perfect) candidates available for each of the roles you have planned—current and future ones.
Oddly enough, most of them won’t be knocking on your door because your company’s name isn’t well-known.
The momentum hasn’t arrived yet, but you need these folks asap. It’s a bit of a dilemma, isn’t it?
Let’s start with the low-hanging fruit – your professional network. Spread your need to hire a core team and share a document explaining what it’s all about (use a Notion page, a PDF on Google Docs, it doesn’t matter, just put it out there).
This document will be important because it’ll:
- Answer questions your potential candidates might have and
- Make your vision and company culture clear to them.
This will naturally separate those “in” and those “out”, and save time – yours and theirs.
Then, widen the net:
- Make engaging and laser-focused comments on relevant LinkedIn posts you find, hinting at your hiring needs; those interested will follow the trail, ask for a connection and start the process.
- Create your company page on LinkedIn (if you haven’t done so already) and add the job posts there. Clear and concise job descriptions are an art, but you’ll get the hang of it in no time.
- If you’re going to hire locally, consider joining relevant events and network there. It works to sell your product, it’ll work to sell the company too.
Eventually, you’ll be able to hire a People/Recruitment person to start taking care of all of this for you, but hopefully, these tips will help lay the foundation of your hiring journey.
A Word of Caution
Resist the urge to hire clones of yourself. Reject the ‘yes’ people (those who blindly say ‘yes’ to everything you say). You will want criticism and you will want people to stand up and tell you “I don’t think we should go there, and here’s the data to back my assertion”. Wanna know why? Because if it’s not done internally, it’ll be done externally – and too late to fix it.
You. Will. Make. Mistakes.
Best to have someone who can see it and point it out before it happens, wouldn’t you say?
The added benefit of hiring independent thinkers is that they will complement your company’s culture.
Culture is a funny thing – it’s amorphous, evolving, shape-shifting. Reality will change it – the world changes, your company adapts – but a great team will also improve it organically.
So much so that the term ‘culture fit’ has been deprecated for a long time now, as it crystalizes ‘culture’ in a time and space, and, in an expanding universe, that means going back. No, what you want to be looking for is ‘culture add’.
A great candidate shares your values but adds something new to the culture, something that improves it. That’s what you should focus on, at the very least because, from a revenue perspective, it’s the smart choice – your market is widely diverse and you want to be prepared for all that diversity, to grow your revenue, right? It’s easier when you bring in people who widen the scope of your horizon, preventing stagnation.
As if to illustrate the idea of culture, I once met a founder who told me “I ask myself is this someone I would like to surf with? and if the answer is yes, I hire them.”. This is wildly incorrect, in my view, not just because of the inherent ableism, but also because… you’re not hiring a surf buddy, buddy. You’re looking for great professionals to get stuff done and represent and augment your company’s culture, internally and externally.
That said… that founder wasn’t completely wrong! At the core of their statement was a desire to connect on a human level with the candidate, of seeing the possibility of a bridge between the two, and that’s essential indeed. We’re talking about a full-time engagement, hopefully for many years, between you, your team and this person. It makes sense to look at the person, and not just at the professional – as long as you strike a balance and do not trust only your gut feeling.
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Wrapping Up: Your Startup Team is Your Greatest Asset
Building a startup is challenging, but with the right team, it’s a challenge worth taking on. Your first hires don’t just fill roles; they shape your culture, define your company’s DNA, and set the tone for future growth.
In this article, we’ve covered everything from crafting a compelling narrative to identifying the key roles you need first and finding a top talent team to bring your vision to life. The strategies shared here are designed to help you avoid the common pitfalls of startup hiring and build a team that will propel your business forward.
Now, it’s your turn. Take the time to define your company’s vision and culture, prioritise the roles that will have the most impact, and start building the team that will transform your idea into reality.
If you’re looking for more tailored advice or need help with your product development, check out our Startup Journey Podcast or explore our resources for founders here.
Remember, your team is your greatest asset. Invest in it wisely, and the rewards will follow.
