S1E8: Recruiting Your First Hires

The Operators

In this episode, we’re talking about hiring and recruiting, including why people take the risk of working at early-stage startups, when and how to work with recruiters, and how to make your first hires.

A company’s first hires are often the hardest. Money is usually too tight to pay competitive salaries. There’s no recognizable brand or reputation yet, and people more often want to work at a company that their friends and family have heard of before. There’s also fair presumption of risk and unviability. Who wants to take a job that might not be around in a year?

Startup founders overcome these odds on a regular basis. To figure out how, we spoke with two experts, Farah and Kelly. Farah Sharghi-Dolatabadi began her career as a software developer and a financial advisor before moving into recruiting. She’s been a recruiter at startups in addition to companies like Google and Lyft. She’s currently a senior technical recruiter at Uber and an active career coach at HireClub. Kelly Kinnard is the Vice President of Talent at Battery Ventures, where she’s worked with startups like Wag, Coupa, Fastly, and Gainsight. She also has experience at top recruiting firms and in executive search at Oracle.

If you're going to be doing any hiring in the near future, you can't miss this episode!