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First hire

Making your first hire: a founder’s guide from decision to day one

A first hire is eight decisions in sequence, and the order matters: the sourcing question is the one that gets asked first, and it is the one that goes best when the decision, the brief and the budget have been settled before it. This page runs the sequence in order, gives the short answer at each step, and hands you to the tool or page on this site that does the work.

Write the brief for your first hireSee the eight steps

The eight steps

Each step has the question you are really asking, the short answer, what to have done before moving on, and where the detail lives. Four of them, status, the search, the offer and the employer checklist, are written out in full further down because nothing else on this site covers them.

  1. Step 1

    Decide whether a hire is the next move

    Is a hire actually what removes the constraint?

    Start from the constraint, not the role. Name what is stopping the company doing the next important thing, test whether it is binding now rather than in six months, and ask what else would remove it: a tool, a contractor for a defined piece of work, or stopping something. A hire is the right answer when the constraint is real, ongoing, and needs a person who stays.

    Before you move on

    • The constraint is written down in one sentence.
    • You have said what you will stop doing yourself when this person starts.
    • You know what would make you pause the hire before it completes.

  2. Step 2

    Define the outcome before the job title

    What does this person need to make true?

    Write down what must be different six months after they start, who will judge whether it is, and what you will stop doing once they are in. The job title and the advert come last. A first hire inherits whatever is undefined, so the fewer open questions you leave in the brief, the smaller the gap between the person you imagined and the person you get.

    Before you move on

    • Three outcomes for the first six months, each with a named assessor.
    • Must-have skills separated from skills the person can learn in post.
    • The brief is a page someone outside the company could act on.

  3. Step 3

    Cost the hire against the runway

    Can the company afford this person for long enough to see the return?

    The salary is the smallest surprise. Add employer costs, the months before the person is productive, equipment and the cost of the recruitment route you choose, then put the total against your runway month by month rather than as an annual figure. If the plan only works if the hire is productive immediately, the plan is the problem.

    Before you move on

    • A month-by-month cost line, not an annual one.
    • The recruitment route costed as cash timing, not just a percentage.
    • A review point where you would stop or slow the plan.

  4. Step 4

    Understand employee and contractor before you choose

    Is this an employee, a worker or a contractor, and who decides?

    Which label you would prefer is not what settles this, and the final decision is not yours: the government guidance says courts and tribunals can make final decisions on employment status, and HMRC publishes a tool for the separate tax question. What you can decide is the business question underneath it, which the section below sets out, and when to put the status question to an accountant or an employment solicitor.

    Before you move on

    • You can say whether the work is ongoing or a defined piece with an end.
    • You know whether you will direct how the work is done, or only what is delivered.
    • You have the government guidance open, and an adviser's name, before you write the offer.

    Where the detail lives

  5. Step 5

    Choose how you will search

    Founder-led, someone internal, or an agency?

    There is no route that is best for every founder, and anyone who tells you otherwise is selling one. The scarcest input at this stage is your own time, and the first hire sets the bar for the next ten, so the honest comparison is how many founder hours each route costs, how fast it reaches people who are not already looking, and what happens if the hire does not work out.

    Before you move on

    • Founder hours per week you can genuinely give the search, written down.
    • Whether you can assess the role yourself, or need someone who can.
    • The fee model you could live with, if you use an agency at all.

  6. Step 6

    Design the interviews before you meet anyone

    How do I run a fair process when I have never run one?

    Decide what evidence would convince you before you see a candidate, and give every candidate the same chance to produce it. For a first hire the hard part is capacity: a two-person assessment is difficult when you are one person, so name the second assessor now, whether that is an adviser, an investor or a specialist you borrow for an afternoon.

    Before you move on

    • A written plan with the same stages for every candidate.
    • A scorecard that names the evidence, not the impression.
    • A second assessor booked for the technical or specialist round.

  7. Step 7

    Make the offer, check what has to be checked

    What has to happen between a yes and a start date?

    Three things sit between an accepted offer and a first day, and each has an authoritative page: references, which an employer is not generally obliged to give; the right-to-work check, which must happen before employment starts; and the written statement of particulars, which the government page says must be provided on the first day of employment. The section below says where each rule lives and what it asks of you.

    Before you move on

    • References requested, with no weight placed on their absence.
    • Right to work checked before the start date, the way the government page describes.
    • The written statement drafted from the government list of contents.

    Where the detail lives

  8. Step 8

    Be an employer before day one

    What does the company have to have in place before the first payday?

    Employing someone for the first time has a short, fixed list of employer steps, and the government publishes it. Registration with HMRC, employers' liability insurance, workplace pension duties and paying at least the legal minimum are not hiring decisions; they are the things that have to be true before the first payroll runs, and the first month of the hire goes far better if they already are.

    Before you move on

    • The employer checklist below worked through, each item against its government page.
    • A first-month handoff plan so the person is productive, not just present.

Step 4 in full

Employee or contractor: how to think about it, and who decides

Founders often reach for a contractor arrangement for a first hire because it feels lighter. Sometimes it is the right shape for the work. The point of this section is not to tell you which to choose, because that is not within this site's competence. It is to separate the business question you can answer from the legal one you cannot, and to put the authoritative pages in front of you.

What the guidance says

  • The government guidance lists the main types of employment status as worker, employee, self-employed and contractor, director, and office holder. It says a person's status helps determine their rights and their employer's responsibilities, and that a person may have a different employment status in tax law.1
  • The final decision on status is not the employer's. The government guidance states that courts and tribunals can make final decisions on employment status for rights, and HMRC publishes a tool, Check Employment Status for Tax, for the tax question.1, 2
  • Where someone works through their own company, off-payroll working rules (IR35) can apply. The guidance says that in most cases the client is responsible for determining the worker's employment status, and that for a small client the responsibility sits with the worker's intermediary instead. That is a question for your accountant, not for a hiring page.3

The business questions you can answer

Is the work a defined piece with an end, or the ongoing running of something?
A defined deliverable can be scoped and finished. Ongoing ownership of a system, a function or a customer base is the kind of work companies tend to want from someone who stays.
Will you direct how the work is done, or only what is delivered?
If you expect to set hours, methods and priorities day to day, be honest about that before you choose a label, because those are the facts an accountant or solicitor will ask about when the status question is put to them.
Is this the person who builds the next team?
A first hire often becomes the person who hires the second and third. Think about whether the arrangement you are choosing fits that.
What does the candidate want, and why?
Some strong people prefer to contract. Some will only move for an employed role with equity. The answer changes who you can reach.

Decide the business shape first, with the questions above. Then take the status question to an accountant or an employment solicitor with the government pages open, and let them answer it. This page does not.

Step 5 in full

Where to find candidates for a first hire without a brand or a recruiter

Nobody is searching job boards for a company they have never heard of, so a first hire is mostly found rather than attracted. Each channel below costs something different: your hours, your network's goodwill, or money. The comparison is relative, because no honest source gives conversion rates for a startup this size, and the right mix depends on the role.

  • Your own network and your investors' networks

    Founder time:
    Low per conversation, but it is all your time
    Speed:
    Fastest to a first conversation
    Reaches:
    People who already trust you or someone you know
    Fails when:
    The network is small or looks like you, or the role is outside what your contacts do.

  • Former colleagues

    Founder time:
    Low
    Speed:
    Fast, if they are open to moving
    Reaches:
    People whose work you have actually seen
    Fails when:
    You are hiring for a skill you never worked alongside.

  • Communities and meetups in the domain

    Founder time:
    High, and front-loaded: you have to show up before you ask
    Speed:
    Slow to start, then steady
    Reaches:
    Practitioners who are not looking but are paying attention
    Fails when:
    You only appear when you are hiring.

  • Open-source and other public work

    Founder time:
    Medium: reading the work is the assessment
    Speed:
    Medium
    Reaches:
    People whose work you can judge before you meet them
    Fails when:
    The role has no public footprint, or the best people in it work behind closed doors.

  • Job boards

    Founder time:
    Medium to high: screening is the cost
    Speed:
    Fast to applicants, slower to the right one
    Reaches:
    People who are actively looking this month
    Fails when:
    The advert describes a job title rather than the outcome and the reason to join.

  • Universities and research groups

    Founder time:
    Medium, and best through one named contact
    Speed:
    Tied to the academic calendar
    Reaches:
    Specialists and early-career researchers in deep-tech fields
    Fails when:
    The role needs years of commercial delivery rather than depth in one field.

  • A recruitment agency

    Founder time:
    Low per candidate, after a proper briefing
    Speed:
    Depends on the agency's reach in that field
    Reaches:
    People who are not looking and would not find you
    Fails when:
    The brief is unclear, nobody can assess the role, or the fee model does not suit your cash position.

Most first hires come from two or three of these used properly, not seven used thinly. Pick the ones that reach the people this role needs, and put the founder hours where your own credibility does the most work. For research-led roles, the deep-tech hiring page covers university and research-group routes in more depth.

Step 5 in full

How to convince people to join a startup nobody has heard of

A strong candidate is not comparing your company with a famous one. They are weighing five things, and an early-stage founder can speak to each of them better than a large employer can, provided what is said is true. The fastest way to lose the right person is to be found out later.

The problem
What you are solving, for whom, and the evidence you have that it matters. Show them the customer conversation, not the vision slide.
Do not promise: That the market is proven if it is not.
The people
Who they would work with every day, how decisions get made, and what you are like to work for when things go wrong. Let them speak to the people.
Do not promise: A team that does not exist yet.
The runway
How many months the company can pay them, what the next funding step depends on, and what happens if it does not come. Say it before they ask.
Do not promise: Funding that is not signed, or runway you have not checked month by month.
The scope of the role
What they will own on day one, what they could own in a year, and what they will have to do that nobody would choose to.
Do not promise: A title or a team to lead that depends on growth you cannot guarantee.
The terms
The salary, any equity and what it is and is not worth today, notice, and how flexible the working pattern really is.
Do not promise: An equity outcome. Describe the grant, not a valuation.

Write this down once, so that everyone who speaks to candidates, you, a co-founder or a recruiter, says the same thing. The candidate briefing checklist is built for exactly that. Open the candidate briefing checklist.

Three first hires, side by side

Illustrative examples. The companies are fictional, written to show how the sourcing and pitch choices change with the role. They are not clients, quotes or results.

Two technical founders hiring a full-stack engineer

A pre-seed business-software company with two technical founders needs someone to own the product's front end so the founders can talk to customers. Both founders can assess the work. Former colleagues and a list of people who had contributed to an open-source library the product depends on produce better conversations than a job board, because the founders can judge the work before the first call. The pitch leads with scope and ownership, and is plain about the salary the runway allows.

Which approach fits

A solo founder hiring an engineer they cannot assess

A seed-stage sensing-hardware company with one founder needs a senior embedded engineer, and the founder is not one. The search runs through two university research groups and a specialist agency, and the founder names an external assessor before the first interview. Whether the role is employed or contracted is decided as a business question about continuity, and the status question goes to an accountant.

Which approach fits

A bootstrapped services company hiring an operations generalist

A bootstrapped services startup with tight cash needs someone to run scheduling, invoicing and supplier contact. The founder uses their network and one job board, says exactly how many months the role is funded for in the first conversation, and registers as an employer and arranges insurance in the week the offer is accepted.

Cost it in the planner

Step 5 in full

What a recruiter needs from you before starting a search

A recruiter is only as good as the briefing. If you bring these six things to the first call, you will learn quickly whether they understand the role, and they will spend their time finding people rather than working out what you want.

  1. 1

    The brief

    The outcomes for the first six months, the must-haves and what can be learned in post. Without it, every candidate is measured against a different idea of the job.

    Write the brief

  2. 2

    The budget and a fee model you can live with

    The salary range you can fund month by month, and how you would prefer to pay for the search. A fee that suits a funded company can strain a company with tight cash, and the other way round.

    Cost it in the planner

  3. 3

    Who assesses, and how

    The interview stages and the person who can judge the specialist part of the role. A recruiter cannot fill a gap in your own assessment.

    Build the interview plan

  4. 4

    Your decision timeline

    When you need someone to start, and how quickly you can move from final interview to offer. Slow decisions lose the candidates who have options.

    Structured interview plan

  5. 5

    What you will say about runway

    Agree it before the search starts, so the recruiter tells candidates the same thing you would.

    What to say, and not promise

  6. 6

    The questions you will ask the recruiter

    How they would reach people who are not looking, who in their team knows this field, and what happens if the hire does not work out.

    Choosing a recruitment partner

If you are weighing this site’s own model

Startup Staffing offers one fee structure among several: a conventional agency search with the fee spread across the months the employee stays, so nothing large is due at hire and billing stops if they leave. It suits some first hires and not others; the SUS explainer sets out where it does not fit.

Instead of a single fee at the point of hire, you pay an agreed percentage of that employee's gross monthly salary each month while they remain employed by you. The monthly fee is calculated on the employee's starting gross basic salary, divided by twelve. The buy-out value, or the basis for calculating it, is agreed with you in writing in your commercial terms at the outset, for each hire. You can exercise that pre-agreed option later under those terms, without a fresh commercial negotiation. Once it is paid, future monthly billing for that hire stops. Other hires are unaffected. Monthly fees already paid are not deducted, credited or refunded against the buy-out by default; they cover the months already elapsed.

Talk to us about a first hireHow the SUS model works

Step 7 in full

The offer, references and the right-to-work check

Between an accepted offer and a first day there are three things most first-time employers have never done. None of them is complicated, and each has one page that says what the rule is. What follows is where those pages are and what they ask of you, not a substitute for reading them.

References

Acas states that an employer does not have to give a reference by law unless it has agreed to, for example in writing in an employment contract or as part of a settlement agreement, or for certain regulated financial services jobs. It also says that if an employer has a reference policy, this can restrict how much they include in a reference.4

So ask for references, and treat a short or absent one as the previous employer's policy rather than as a signal about the candidate. The evidence you gathered in the interview process is what you are relying on; a reference confirms facts, it does not replace assessment.

The right-to-work check

The government guidance says you must check that a job applicant is allowed to work in the UK before you employ them, using the Home Office online service where the person has a share code, their original documents, or a certified identity service provider. Employing someone who does not have the right to work can lead to a civil penalty.5

Do the check the way the government page describes, before the start date, and do not collect identity documents from candidates earlier in the process than you need to. Store what the check produces in line with your privacy policy and nowhere else.5

The written statement of particulars

The government page states that an employer must give employees and workers a document stating the main conditions of employment when they start work, that the employer must provide the principal statement on the first day of employment, and it lists what that statement has to contain.6

Draft it from that list, not from a template you found. If you are using an employment solicitor or an HR provider for the contract, this is the document they produce.6

Step 8 in full

Before day one: the employer checklist

The government publishes a step-by-step page for employing someone for the first time. This is that list, with one fact from each page and the link, so you can work through it in the week the offer is accepted rather than the week the first payroll is due.

  1. 1

    Register as an employer with HMRC

    The registration page states that you must register before the first payday, and that you cannot register more than two months before you start paying people. Registration gives you the employer reference you need to run payroll.9, 7

  2. 2

    Get employers' liability insurance

    The government page states that you must have employers' liability insurance as soon as you become an employer, that the policy must cover you for at least £5 million, and that you can be fined for each day you are not properly insured.10

  3. 3

    Check your workplace pension duties

    The government page states that you must enrol, and make an employer's contribution for, all staff who meet its conditions. It sets out what those duties are and when they start; the thresholds that decide who is eligible change with the tax year, which is why they are not repeated here.11, 7

  4. 4

    Pay at least the legal minimum

    The National Minimum Wage and National Living Wage rates are set by the government and change each April. This page does not quote them so that it cannot go out of date; the current rates are on the government page.12

  5. 5

    Do the right-to-work check and give the written statement

    Both are covered in the offer section above, and both appear on the government's 'Employ someone' step-by-step page: the right-to-work check alongside recruiting, and the written statement under agreeing a contract and salary.8

The 'Employ someone' page also covers DBS checks, which apply to some roles and not to most startup hires. Read both government pages once in full rather than relying on this summary.

Common first-hire mistakes

  • Hiring for the founder's own gap rather than the company's constraint. Step 1
  • Writing the job advert before the outcomes are agreed. Step 2
  • Copying a large company's interview process into a two-person company. Step 6
  • Using a contractor arrangement as a trial period for what is really an employee. Employee or contractor
  • Sourcing only in the founder's own network. Sourcing channels
  • Promising a candidate what the runway cannot fund. Selling the role
  • Interviewing alone, with no scorecard and no second assessor. Step 6
  • Leaving HMRC registration and employers' liability insurance until after the start date. The employer checklist

First-hire questions

How do I make my first hire as a startup founder?
In eight steps, in order: decide whether a hire is the next move, define the outcome, cost it against the runway, understand employee and contractor status, choose how you will search, design the interviews, make the offer and do the checks, and have the employer steps in place before day one. The order matters: the later steps are cheaper and faster when the earlier ones have been done.
Should my first hire be an employee or a contractor?
This page does not answer that, and it should not. Decide the business shape of the work first, then take the status question to an accountant or an employment solicitor with the government guidance open. The guidance says courts and tribunals can make final decisions on employment status, so the answer is not the employer's to give.
When is the right time to hire my first employee?
When you can write the constraint in one sentence, say what you will stop doing yourself, name who will assess the work, and afford the person for long enough to see the return. The readiness check on this site asks nine questions on exactly that.
What do I need to do when I employ someone for the first time in the UK?
Work through the government's two step-by-step pages: getting ready to employ someone for the first time, which covers registering with HMRC, employers' liability insurance, pension duties and pay, and employing someone, which covers right-to-work checks, DBS checks, the contract and the written statement. The checklist on this page links each step to its government page and quotes one fact from each.
Where do I find candidates for a first hire without a recruiter?
In two or three channels used properly: your own and your investors' networks, former colleagues, the communities where the people you need already spend time, and public work you can judge before you meet anyone. Job boards reach people who are looking this month, which is often not most of the people you want. The sourcing table on this page compares each channel by founder hours, speed and reach.
How do I convince people to join a startup nobody has heard of?
Speak honestly to the five things they are weighing: the problem, the people, the runway, the scope of the role and the terms. A founder can be more specific about each of those than a large employer can. Do not promise funding that is not signed or an equity outcome; describe the grant, not a valuation.
What does a recruiter need from me before starting a search?
A written brief, the budget and a fee model you can live with, who will assess the role and how, your decision timeline, what you will say about runway, and the questions you will ask them. With those, the first call tells you quickly whether they understand the role.
Should I use a recruitment agency for one hire?
Sometimes, and sometimes not. It depends on how much founder time you can give the search, whether you can assess the role yourself and what fee model you could live with. The which-approach diagnostic puts those questions to you and says which route it points at, and why.

Sources

Every fact in the status, offer and employer sections is taken from one of these pages, each opened and read on the date shown. They are government and Acas pages, not this site’s opinion. Employment law in Northern Ireland differs in places from Great Britain, and each page cited says where it applies. This page has not been reviewed by a lawyer or an accountant, and nothing on it is legal or tax advice. Content written 29 October 2026.

  1. 1.Employment status · GOV.UK (HM Government) · checked 29 October 2026
  2. 2.Check employment status for tax · HM Revenue & Customs (GOV.UK) · checked 29 October 2026
  3. 3.Understanding off-payroll working (IR35) · HM Revenue & Customs (GOV.UK) · checked 29 October 2026
  4. 4.Providing a job reference · Acas · checked 29 October 2026
  5. 5.Checking a job applicant's right to work · GOV.UK (HM Government) · checked 29 October 2026
  6. 6.Employment contracts: written statement of employment particulars · GOV.UK (HM Government) · checked 29 October 2026
  7. 7.Employing staff for the first time · GOV.UK (HM Government) · checked 29 October 2026
  8. 8.Employ someone: step by step · GOV.UK (HM Government) · checked 29 October 2026
  9. 9.Register as an employer · HM Revenue & Customs (GOV.UK) · checked 29 October 2026
  10. 10.Employers' liability insurance · GOV.UK (HM Government) · checked 29 October 2026
  11. 11.Set up and manage a workplace pension scheme · GOV.UK (HM Government) · checked 29 October 2026
  12. 12.National Minimum Wage and National Living Wage rates · GOV.UK (HM Government) · checked 29 October 2026

Keep reading

Related reading

Guides from the resource hub that cover the thinking behind this page. Each one is written by us and says when it was last reviewed or added.

Preparing for a first hire you cannot assess yourself?

Tell us about the role and where you are in the eight steps. We will say honestly whether an agency search is the right route for it, and what we would need from you if it is.

  • A specific live vacancy you are trying to fill
  • Hiring you are planning over the next few months
  • Several future hires and how they would work together
  • Whether SUS is the right fit for your business at all

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