The first 2–5 engineering hires make or break velocity.
Sourcing, screening, technical interviews, offer guidance — until the team is up and shipping. Monthly retainer from $4,500/mo.
Who this is for
Founder about to make first 2–5 engineering hires where inability to evaluate candidates technically could kill velocity for the next year.
The pain today
- Cannot distinguish strong from mediocre engineering candidates
- Previous attempts at technical interviews feeling like guesswork
- Wrong first hire has killed velocity before — not repeating that
- Agency recruiters pushing candidates who look great on paper, ship badly
- No in-house technical leadership to onboard new hires well
The outcome you get
- Job descriptions tuned to your actual technical needs
- Technical interview playbook tailored to your stack and stage
- Sourcing strategy covering LinkedIn, Triplebyte, your network
- Offer guidance — compensation benchmarks, equity, structure
- 30–90 day onboarding plan so new hires ramp without chaos
What roles to hire first (and NOT hire)
First engineering hire decisions matter more than second or third. Common mistakes: hiring a DevOps person before there's prod load to justify; hiring a mobile engineer before web is proven; hiring a senior architect before there's a codebase to architect; hiring a frontend specialist when the product is still backend-heavy. Right first hires typically: a product-minded full-stack engineer (can ship end-to-end, will reduce your coordination burden), then as the product takes shape, one specialist (frontend or backend depending on where the product's complexity lives). I push founders toward generalists at this stage; specialists come later when there's specific load to justify the specialization.
My technical-interview playbook
Three-interview loop for senior engineering hires. One: 45-minute hands-on pairing session — given a realistic problem from your actual codebase, watch them think and code. Tests fundamentals more reliably than whiteboard problems. Two: 45-minute architecture discussion — given a real design problem you've faced, see how they reason about trade-offs. Tests seniority and judgment. Three: 30-minute culture and context — why this role, how they learn, how they've handled hard team situations. Tests fit for your specific stage. No LeetCode. No 4-hour take-homes. I run the first two rounds on early hires; founder owns the third. After 2–3 loops together, you can run them independently.
Offer structure and equity benchmarks
Compensation at pre-seed to Series A. Senior engineer cash at pre-seed: typically $140k–180k base in major US markets, less in smaller cities, less still in global contexts. Equity: 0.3%–1.5% depending on stage, seniority, and role criticality. Seed stage compensation lifts ~10–15% from pre-seed. Series A lifts another 15–20%. I benchmark against comparable-stage startups for your specific market and structure offers that win the candidate without overpaying. Vesting: standard 4-year with 1-year cliff. Signing bonuses sometimes, based on competing offer pressure. Equity refresh conversations planned at year 2 if the hire is landing well.
Case study: GigEasy team build-out
GigEasy's MVP shipped in 3 weeks with the initial team; scaling past MVP required additional hires. The hiring approach: product-minded full-stack first, then a specialized role based on where the product's complexity landed (data at scale in GigEasy's case). Barclays/Bain Capital backed the platform through this hiring arc. The same discipline — right first hire for the stage, interview rigor without LeetCode theater, compensation structured to win candidates without overpaying — applies across startup contexts. Hiring is the highest-leverage activity at early stage; getting the first 2–5 hires right changes the next 2 years of velocity.
Retainer pricing
Hiring-focused fractional CTO fits the Fractional CTO service. Advisory tier at $4,500/mo covers up to 2 active hiring loops at a time. Fractional tier at $8,500/mo covers aggressive hiring (3+ active loops) plus deeper operational involvement. Typical engagement: 3–6 months to get first 2–5 engineers hired and ramping. 14-day money-back, cancel anytime after. Recruiting expenses (Triplebyte, LinkedIn Recruiter, sourcing platform fees) are separate and billed directly to you; typical monthly cost $500–2,000 depending on approach.
Sourcing without agency recruiters
Recruiting agencies charge 20–30% of first-year comp — $40k+ for a $180k engineer. For startups with capacity to source directly, this is often unnecessary. My preferred channels: founder's network (20–40% of early hires at most startups), specialized platforms (Triplebyte, Toptal for specific roles), LinkedIn Recruiter with targeted outreach, engineering community presence (specific Slack groups, specific newsletters). Agency recruiters add value for hard-to-fill specialist roles or when you need to scale hiring fast without in-house capacity. For first 2–5 hires, direct sourcing usually wins on cost and candidate quality.
Recent proof
A comparable engagement, delivered and documented.
Built and shipped an investor-ready MVP from scratch
Built the entire technological base and delivered MVP in just 3 weeks, enabling a successful rapid launch and investor demo.
Frequently asked questions
The questions prospects ask before they book.
- Do you source candidates yourself?
- I do targeted outreach from founder's network plus my own network for senior roles. For broader sourcing (LinkedIn, Triplebyte), I set up the playbook and a junior team member (or you) executes. Hiring 5 engineers is too much direct sourcing for any single fractional engagement.
- How long does hiring typically take?
- Strong candidate pipeline to offer: 4–8 weeks per role in normal market conditions. Tighter markets (0.5% unemployment, hot AI market) extend to 8–12 weeks. I share realistic timelines in week 1 based on the specific role and your comp range so planning is grounded.
- What if a hire doesn't work out?
- Clear performance reviews at 30, 60, 90 days with documented expectations. Most bad hires surface by day 30. I help with the conversation (warning or termination) and the role re-opens with clearer criteria. Honesty about mismatch is kinder than prolonging; I back founders through difficult conversations.
- Can you write job descriptions?
- Yes — job description discovery is usually the first week. I ask clarifying questions about the actual work, translate into a JD that attracts right-fit candidates and filters wrong-fit. Generic JDs are the single biggest source of wasted hiring time; specific JDs are force multipliers.
- Do you help with engineering culture and team norms?
- Yes — that's part of onboarding planning. Code review norms, deployment practices, on-call rotation (when warranted), team ceremonies (standup, retros). Teams with clear norms ramp new hires in weeks; teams without them waste months on coordination friction.
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