Founder Friday: What you should hire and when
This month, Forbes released their Forbes 400, which ranks the wealthiest Americans in 2021. Along with that release, they also had a story, The Richest U.S. Tech Billionaires On The 2021 Forbes 400 List. 80 tech billionaires, or 20%, are tied to tech.
While we can all dream and a few will succeed, many of the listed entrepreneurs started with humble beginnings. These founders had to navigate how to scale their business. Hiring people is a massive component of that. That leads us to today’s “chicken or the egg” Founder Friday; what should you hire and when.
We’ve put together some resources that can help any SaaS founder working on their hiring strategy. Enjoy…
Map My Startup: When should I hire <role> at my SaaS startup?
- This is a short read that we feel is excellent info for very early-stage startups.
SaaStr: What Your First 100 Hires Will Look Like
- SaaStr is a resource/community that should be on every SaaS founder’s shortlist. SaaStr Founder Jason Lemkin wrote this post. It is more geared for founders eyeing $10m+ ARR.
- Employee headcount breakdowns from HubSpot and InsightSquared should help founders understand better how their teams will need to look as they approach 100 employees.
- It also has an embedded YouTube video of Hubspot Co-Founder & CTO Dharmesh Shah‘s session at SaaStr’s 2016 annual conference. This ~30-minute video takes you “From Day 0 to IPO.”
SaaStr: What Order Should You Hire Your Management Team In?
- Another great article from Jason. This one lays out a recommended order for hiring executive team members according to ARR.
Krzysztof Przybylak: For Founders: Whom to hire after the Seed round to increase your capacity? Shortlist for B2E SaaS Startup
- Inovo Venture Partners‘ Krzysztof shares some great insights on growing your startup from 10 to 20 people.
Greenhouse: Creating a dynamic headcount plan
- In this blog post from Greenhouse, Stripe‘s Maia Josebachvili introduces the dynamic headcount plan concept. We like this type of plan because it is fluid according to your changing revenue goals.
- Not sure how to craft the spreadsheet? No worries, Maia includes a sample Google Sheet that you can make a copy of.
Close: How to hire a salesperson for your startup: 4 stages of sales hiring
- The CEO of SaaS CRM startup Close, Steli Efti, outlines how to grow a sales team.
Cobloom: The Ultimate Startup Hiring Guide: How To Build A Winning Team
- This post is an overview of the hiring process in its entirety. While it won’t go overly in-depth in any one area, it gives a lot of things that you as a founder will need to consider.
And don’t forget about STEM Search Group! We’d love to be a source of information (comp and options questions, consultant recommendations, tech talent planning, etc.) for your startup as you scale.
