What experience can teach about early-stage recruitment

The battle for top AI and tech talent has made the headlines recently, with some astonishing numbers flying around. But for resource-stretched start-ups, a mega-payout is sure to be out of reach – and other strategies need to be engaged to attract the talent founders need to realise their world-changing ambitions.

Over the years, as I’ve developed experience in building early-stage start-up teams, I’ve noticed a few common errors cropping up time and time again. It’s not a coincidence that second-time founders often seem to have an easier time of it than people on their first go-around. But sadly, there’s no shortcut to learning from experience.

Still, that doesn’t mean other people can’t share theirs. In this guide, I want to highlight a few of the insights I’ve picked up along the way. Getting the right building-blocks in place comes with benefits that extend beyond the key people and talent questions we’re discussing here.

Get your story straight

If you only take one thing away from this guide, please remember this: storytelling isn’t only important when you’re putting together a pitch for a funding round. Hiring challenges are real. Early-stage businesses are resource-constrained. But the profile of a candidate who goes for a high-risk (and high-reward!) start-up job isn’t always the same as the profile of a candidate who wants a role at an established, well-known company.

In fact, the latter is likely to be the wrong hire for the early-stages. For many, the challenge, excitement and, critically, ownership that comes from working in a small team (plus a compensation package that includes equity – table stakes for any start-up launching today) constitutes a reason to be there. Purpose matters to people. And the way you communicate it? Through clear and authentic command of narrative.

Every founder has ambitions – a vision for where they’re headed, what they want to build, and the conviction they’re the one to solve it. As part of your employer brand, you have to convince others too. Top tier talent will want to be reassured not only that your company is fixing an interesting problem, but (very often) one with impact. The advantage to this is that if you’re solving a problem with global significance, growth potential is likely to be exponential. But even if you aren’t, you as a founder matter.

In telling your story, you need to reassure anyone considering joining you that you’re the right person to lead the way. Clearly and persuasively explain what you’re building and why you’re the right one to drive it forward and it will work wonders in attracting the kind of talent you need to build a great company.

The truth is, you’re creating an employer brand the minute you create a company and make your first hire. Even at these early stages you should have a sense of the culture you want to embody: the values and purpose of your business, and how these translate into behaviours.

Being deliberate and thinking things through is time well-spent. Why? Because if you’re struggling to make hires, you’re also struggling to make the right hires.

Plan properly, get hiring right the first time and keep the bar high

Storytelling is key to attracting the right people in the first place, but the other side to it is planning. Of course, that balance between reacting quickly and being proactive is where founders find their stride. But when it comes to hiring, I’m firm that taking the time to understand what you truly need is non-negotiable. Why? Because it helps you avoid making the wrong hires.

Giving some thought about the next six to 12 months, and how you want it to look, will ensure things run far more smoothly than they might if you are too reactive. You might also look at this from the perspective of benchmarks or trigger points: at ‘x’ ARR, it’s time to hire ‘y‘ staff. 

Start early by building structure into how you hire. That means clear job descriptions, well-defined interview processes and a consistent framework for evaluating candidates. When the time comes, you’ll already have the right systems in place.

It’s worth getting really clear on what ‘good’ looks like – both in terms of skills and behaviours. What are the non-negotiables? And how can you design your recruitment process to help you identify them accurately?

When you’re too reactive, it’s tempting to rush because you’re feeling pain in the business. But hiring the wrong person will cost you more in the long run. Stick to your process and don’t let the quality bar drop. Do this well, and those early hires are far more likely to be the right ones — aligned with your mission, and equipped with the skills your startup needs to grow. These first team members set the tone for everyone who follows, so make sure the quality remains high.

Surround yourself with experience

As I wrote earlier, there’s no shortcut for experience — and surrounding yourself with it is essential. Whether it’s through employees, mentors, advisers, or investors, building a network of experienced operators will level up your thinking and execution.

While early-stage businesses might not always have the resources to hire deeply experienced people right away, that doesn’t mean you can’t benefit from their knowledge. At Octopus Ventures, we’ve long championed the power of coaching. Our People + Talent team runs a twice-yearly mentorship programme that connects founders and senior leaders from our portfolio with experienced operators from our wider network.

The feedback is always positive, and the benefits – to mentors and mentees alike – have been remarkable. We’ve seen meaningful, long-term relationships being formed.

Invest in a talent strategy

Hiring is a skill – one you have to learn, refine and practice throughout your company’s journey.

In the early days, it falls to you – the founder. You’ll be tapping your network, attending events, and doing outreach yourself. As you scale, things become less hands-on. Managers will start hiring for their own teams — which is why it’s so important to keep the talent bar high early on. Eventually, a people function will take over more of the process. But before that, leaning on a talent expert can be invaluable.

Finding and attracting top talent is hard — and incredibly time-consuming. You either need to carve out the time or find ways to extend your capacity.

Whether that’s through an external recruiter, a dedicated internal hire (if resources allow), or rolling up your sleeves and getting on with it yourself — what matters most is treating hiring like a core business function. The best founders I’ve worked with continue to take personal responsibility for it, even when they have support. It’s never a side task. It’s fundamental to long-term success.

As organisations grow, a People function necessarily forms. At the earliest stages this doesn’t always feel like a priority. We built the Octopus Ventures People + Talent team in recognition of this truth. My colleagues and I work with founders to address their talent challenges and needs: we bring experience built across a global range of industry-leading businesses to bear on our input. And, as I wrote in the intro, it means we carry with us the advantage of visibility on a range of problems (not to mention innovative solutions!) we’ve seen founders face many times before.

While these resources aren’t available to everyone, as a final thought I’d encourage any early-stage founder reading this to think, seriously, about the entrepreneurial, operational or talent-team building expertise they have access to. And to access it. Good guidance will go a long way to ensuring that, one day, you’ll be in a position (and in demand!) to pass it on yourself.

And if you think you’d like to benefit from the People + Talent skills we have on offer here at Octopus Ventures, you recognise an alignment in approaches and you have a world-changing solution you want us to know about, start a conversation. You can contact us here.