The first hire is the most consequential hire a founder makes. Not because the first employee is necessarily the most important person in the company, but because the first hire sets the pattern for every hire that follows. The standards, the process, and the culture that are established in the first hire tend to persist.
The most common first hire mistake
The most common first hire mistake is hiring for the role rather than for the person. The founder who needs a salesperson hires a salesperson. The founder who needs a developer hires a developer. The role is the starting point. The person is the afterthought.
The problem with this approach is that the first hire is not just filling a role. They are helping to build the organization. The person who fills the first sales role is not just selling. They are establishing what the sales function looks like, what the culture of the sales team will be, and what standards the next sales hire will be evaluated against. The role is the minimum requirement. The person is the actual decision.
What to look for instead
The first hire who produces the most value tends to be the person who can do the job and who is genuinely invested in the company’s success. The investment in the company’s success is not the same as enthusiasm in the interview. It is the willingness to do work that is outside the job description when the company needs it, to provide honest feedback when the founder is wrong, and to stay when the inevitable difficult period arrives.
The test for this investment is not a question in the interview. It is the history of how the person has behaved in previous roles when things got difficult. The person who has stayed through difficult periods in previous companies and can explain why they stayed tends to be more invested than the person who has left every previous company when the difficulty arrived.
The process question
The first hire process should be more rigorous than most founders make it. The founder who hires the first person who seems good enough is making a decision that will affect the company for years. The founder who runs a rigorous process, who evaluates multiple candidates, who checks references carefully, and who takes the time to understand how the candidate has behaved in previous roles tends to make better first hires.
The reference check is the most underused tool in the first hire process. The reference who is called and asked “would you hire this person again?” and answers “yes, without hesitation” is providing a different signal than the reference who pauses before answering. The pause is information.
What to do after the hire
The first hire is not complete when the person starts. It is complete when the person is productive and integrated into the company. The founder who hires well and then fails to onboard well has wasted the hiring investment. The onboarding is the process of giving the new hire the context, the relationships, and the clarity about expectations that they need to be productive. The founder who invests in the onboarding tends to get productive employees faster than the founder who does not.
Related from Impulsblog: Why your business model matters more than your marketing
