Disciplined Entrepreneurship Startup Tactics

TACTIC 15Hiring: Finding and Onboarding Your First Ten Employees

The only way for an entrepreneur to gain more of their second most precious resource—time—is by recruiting high-performing individuals. The stakes for these early hires is so important for entrepreneurs because a bad hire can actually decrease this precious resource.

After beginning the fundraising process, it's time to increase your organizational bandwidth. More time is only possible with more people. Often, founders think they can add time as a resource by burning the candle at both ends, but the venture development process is a long-term endeavor and must be treated as a marathon, not a sprint. Even so, do not hire until you have to. Even when flush with cash after a fresh round of funding, you don't have the money to waste on hiring someone you don't obviously need.

The old saying “If you want to go fast, go alone, and if you want to go far, go together” holds true when developing a new venture. While you and your co-founding team should remain lean for as long as possible, you cannot forget that you are working toward a grand vision. To achieve that grand vision you will need to go far, which requires a team.

The people you bring on board will drive your business forward and are the venture's most important assets. Each additional person you add will have a material impact on the business, so care must ...