Hire a Founding Recruiter
The first recruiter builds the hiring machine. They do not just run searches.
Coordination is not the job, though it is what most first recruiters end up doing
- Retained recruiters.
- LinkedIn Recruiter seats.
- Keyword-matched resumes.
- Templated InMails.
The reason to hire a recruiter is to build a hiring function: the bar, the interview loop, the scorecards, the employer story, the referral engine. That is a builder's job and it compounds.
What usually happens instead is that the hire disappears into coordination. Scheduling, chasing interviewers, updating the ATS, writing the same outreach a hundred times. All necessary, none of it what you hired for.
This is why the decision is genuinely open now. Sourcing, outreach, screening and scheduling can be run by an agent. If that is most of the job, you may not need the hire yet. If you need someone to set the bar and own the process, you do.
How the agent runs a founding recruiter search
It reads for building, not requisition count
Interview processes they designed, hiring bars they set, employer brand they wrote. Evidence of a function built rather than roles closed.
It knows which agency recruiters translate
Agency background brings speed and outreach skill but not process design. The write-up says honestly which half a candidate has.
Outreach that names the scope
Strong first recruiters want to know whether they own the bar or just the calendar. The message answers that in the first line.
Screening on judgement
Your questions go out early: a hire they blocked and why, and the part of a process they deleted.
Questions.
Answered.
It depends on what is missing. The agent covers sourcing, outreach, screening and scheduling. It does not set your hiring bar, design your loop or sell candidates in a final conversation.
Agency recruiters are usually stronger at outreach and speed; in-house recruiters at process and stakeholder management. For a first hire, the ability to build the process usually matters more.
Below roughly ten hires a year, a full-time recruiter is hard to justify unless the roles are unusually hard. Many teams run an agent until the volume is there.
Most effectively: the interview loop, the scorecards and the bar. The searches themselves can already be running.
Hire a Chief of Staff
The most undefined title in startups, and the easiest one to hire badly.
Superposition for Talent Leads
Multiply your sourcing capacity without multiplying your headcount.
Superposition for recruiting agencies
Your margin is recruiter hours. Most of those hours are not spent on candidates.
Find your first recruiter.
Tell us what your hiring process looks like today and the agent will find people who have built one.