Hiring your first ten engineers without a recruiter (mostly)

You don’t need a search firm for your first ten engineers. You need a clear story, a fast process and one uncomfortable habit.

Write the story first

One page: what you are building, why it is hard, and what the first engineer will own that nobody else will. Send it before the first call.

Keep it to three steps

A conversation, a working session on a real problem, and a meeting with the other founder. Anything longer and the best candidates will have signed elsewhere.

The uncomfortable habit

Ask every engineer you meet, hired or not, who the best person they have ever worked with is. Then call that person. That is most of what we do.