Your first hires shape your culture, your speed and your burn rate. Hire too slowly and you stall; hire too fast and you run out of cash. Our Build Your Unicorn game simulates exactly this balance.
Your first 10 hires
The right order depends on your business, but a common pattern is:
- Builders (engineers, product designers, or production staff in manufacturing) to make the product better, faster.
- A first seller or growth person to own revenue and customer acquisition.
- Operations or customer success to deliver and keep customers happy.
- More builders and sellers, depending on where the bottleneck is.
- Finance/admin support, often part-time or outsourced at first (CA, payroll provider).
Hire generalists with ownership early. Specialists come later.
How departments emerge
| Stage | Team size | Structure |
|---|---|---|
| Idea → MVP | 2–8 | Founders do everything; first builders |
| Product–market fit | 8–25 | Small teams around product, growth and ops; founders manage directly |
| Series A | 25–80 | First department heads: Engineering, Sales/Growth, Ops, HR |
| Series B+ | 80–300+ | Full departments with managers; finance, legal and HR become formal functions |
The six core departments
- Product & Technology: builds and improves what you sell.
- Marketing: brand, demand generation and content.
- Sales: converts leads and closes deals; essential in B2B.
- Operations: delivery, supply chain, manufacturing, customer support.
- HR & People: hiring, onboarding, culture, payroll, compliance.
- Finance & Legal: accounting, tax, fundraising support, contracts, compliance.
Each needs a clear owner, even if one person owns three of them at first.
Hiring well
- Write a scorecard: outcomes in 90 days, skills and values.
- Test real work: a small paid assignment beats interviews alone.
- Check references.
- Sell the mission and the ESOPs, not just the salary (next chapter).
Your takeaway
Hire for the bottleneck, add managers before founders burn out, and give every department an owner. Next: ESOPs, culture and HR basics.