The document outlines a typical hiring framework for startups, including determining needs, writing job descriptions, finding candidates, interviewing, making offers, and onboarding. It suggests the hiring process can take 24-75 days on average but may be longer due to factors like candidate availability. The document also discusses using employees, contractors, outsourcing, and recruiters to fill roles and hiring to match a startup's stage, skills, and funding needs.

1. Recruiting and Team
How Will I Hire My Team?
Process and Timeline
This presentation is made possible by the support of the American People through the United States Agency
for International Development (USAID). The contents of this presentation are the sole responsibility of Rick
Rasmussen and do not necessarily reflect the views of USAID or the United States Government.

2. Ask yourself:
Why do I need to hire someone?
Who do I need to hire?
How do I define a process and timeline for hiring my
next employee(s) – especially in a new candidate
driven market?
What follows is a typical framework, process, and
timeline for hiring within a start-up and ways to minimize
your workload and time.

3. Why do you need to hire someone?
-
-
-
-
-
Specific technical or business need
You can no longer do it all yourself - stress
Your team can no longer do it all – stress
Build your team and organization for the long term
Meet investors requirements for funding
- Offset and balance the talents of the team
- CTO vs. Business as a common theme
- Know your investors
- Provide balance
- Meet minimum staffing required for funding levels needed
- In each area of organization

4. It takes time to hire the right person
− Number of hours per day
− Number of weeks and
months

5. Hiring and your capital needs
• Where
you
are
drives
who
you
can
hire
(financial,
risk,
size)
• And
exposes
the
REAL
start-­‐up
people

7. Where you are drives who you need to hire
Homework
Prototype
Prod Dev
Deployment
proliferation
F&F
Bootstrap
Or Angel
Series A
Series B
Series C
~6 mo.
~6 to 12 mo.
~6 to 18 mo.
~12 to 18 mo.
Remember to hire to offset your skills and abilities but
match the stage of your company and culture you are
looking to build

8. Four Primary Ways to “Hire”
- Employees
- On your payroll as an employee
- Exempt or non-exempt
- Contractors
- Long term and short term
- Outsource
- Local or remote teams (or “houses”)
- Contract to hire as an option

9. Let’s look at three options first
Employees
Contractor
Outsourcing
Short term vs. long term
Long term
Short term
Short term
Commitment/ownership
High
Low
Low
Building your team
High
Mid
Low
Very specific “niche” need
Maybe
Maybe
Yes
Availability of local talent
Can be hard
More options
Most options
Cost/Salary/Benefits
$$ / stock
Hourly
Project/hrly
Privacy and sensitivity
Most
Mid
Mid

10. There are several factors that determine your
process and how long it will take – your success:

11. There are several factors that determine your
process and how long it will take – your success:
– How well you and your team know exactly what
you are looking for
– Your internal interview process – the more
interviews and the more travel the interview team
does the longer the process
– The size of the local, QUALIFIED, and available
candidate pool. In general, the fewer the
candidates the longer the process.
– Your recruiting resources, capability, and talent

12. A simplified process might go something like this:
1. “I need a great ________(CTO, Engineer, Sales
Person…)
2. Do I have the budget, what is my budget, or do I need
to get the budget?
a. What does it take to get the person I need? Are they out
there for this “price”?
b. Don’t forget about equity and stock
3. Write a “job description” and gain approval/buy in
4. Develop your 30 second and 3 minute recruiting pitch
and your 30 second description of your need

13. Let’s take a minute on your “pitch”
– This is about why a QUALIFIED person would
want to work for you and your start-up
– At this stage it is mostly about you and about your
vision and ability to make it happen
– Then it is about what you are building
– It is then about where they might fit in – what they
would own and what they would contribute
– Pay and options are not part of the pitch

14. A simplified process might go something like this:
5. Begin finding candidates
–
–
Make calls, post the job, assign a recruiter?*, look on
LinkedIn/Facebook, specific sites, use a job board
Who do you know? Who do you know? Who do you
know?
6. Assemble and review acceptable candidates and
review resumes, profiles, work samples.
Websites
7. Phone interviews
* If you do not have a recruiter already this step may add time to your process,
but take your time and retain the right recruiter for you.

15. A simplified process might go something like this:
8. In house interviews – 2 to 4 visits to meet the
team, may also include homework assignments,
samples, and tests between interviews
9. Decide on a final candidate and check references
10. Assemble an offer and gain approvals
11. Present an offer, negotiate if needed, wait for
final acceptance from candidate. Note: the
timeline is thrown way off if the final candidate
does not accept the offer adding weeks to the
process.

16. A simplified process might go something like this:
12. Candidate gives notice, might take some time off
13. Candidate starts – 2 weeks? – Give them
homework!!!
14. Candidate comes up to speed – Meetings,
guidance, and coaching – set expectations

17. How long does each step take?
1. I need a great ____________
Start-up
Large Corp.
2. Do I have the budget or do I need to
get the budget?
1 to 7 days
1 to 31 days
3. Write a job description – approvals
1 to 3 days
1 to 10 days
4. Begin finding candidates
14 to 44 days
7 to 44 days
5. Assemble and review acceptable
candidates
On going
On going
6. Phone interviews
7 days
3 to 10 days
7. In house interviews – 2 to 4 visits to
meet the team
7 to 21 days
7 to 30 days

18. How long does each step take?
Start-up
Large Corp.
8. Decide on a final candidate and
check references
3 to 10 days
3 to 10 days
9. Assemble an offer and gain
approvals
1 to 2 days
1 to 7 days
10. Present offer, negotiate if needed,
final acceptance
1 to 7 days
1 to 7 days
11. Candidate gives notice
1 day
1 day
12. Candidate starts
7 to 21 days
7 to 21 days
Total time - linear
42 to 121 days
42 to 170

19. How Long Does It Take To Hire Someone?
Of course these times are not linear and many steps
run in parallel (you can be finding candidates while
interviewing, etc.).
But, some of the steps cannot run in parallel such as
writing the job description before posting, checking
references prior to offer, the candidate’s time
between offer and start date.
So, if you look at these times realistically – how long
does it take?

20. Realistically hiring cycles are 24 to 75 days
- Some go more quickly and some take longer, but
these are the exceptions.
- We have hired people and had them start in 3 days and we
have seen executive level roles take 6 months
- Plan on recruiting cycles of no less than 21 days for
the easiest of searches and 45 to 60 days for the
average search.

21.
Overlay your hiring timeline with your business
timeline and start at the right time

22. Where you are drives who you need to hire
Homework
Prototype
Prod Dev
Deployment
proliferation
F&F
Bootstrap
Or Angel
Series A
Series B
Series C
~6 mo.
~6 to 12 mo.
~6 to 18 mo.
~12 to 18 mo.
Remember to hire to offset your skills and abilities but
match the stage of your company and culture you are
looking to build

23. Three issues to consider cautiously
- Visa and “work authorization”
- Cost, delays, and legal constraints
- Relocations can add weeks to the process and are
quite risky, especially moving to a new country or
moving to Silicon Valley
- Remote employees may increase your candidate
pool but can make it harder to manage and harder to
build a cohesive team

24. The Magic of “NEXT!”
− Do not get hooked on one candidate
− Keep a pool of candidates in the background
− Even when you lose the best possible candidate, if it
does not work out – “Next”
− Give yourself more control, confidence, and options
NEXT!!!!

25. Working With Recruiters – Look For:
− Specialty, expertise, and track record – for what you
need
− Position expertise vs. business expertise
− Ethics and business approach in line for you
− Set expectations and timelines early and gain
agreement
− Look for the financial arrangement that works for you
− Be flexible, but state your needs
− Multiple recruiters or just one???

26. When to use Recruiters
− You just do not have the time
− You feel out of your element for the specific skills you
need
− Technology leaders if you are not technical, etc.
− Time is critical
− You can afford a recruiting arrangement
− There may be financial options out there for you
NOTE: Using a recruiter does not mean you do not
recruit on your own. You can do both.

27. Working With Recruiters
− Types of recruiters and recruiting programs
− Contingency, retained, “contained”, hourly/contract
− Specialty, expertise, and track record
− For what you need
− Ethics and business approach in line for you
− Set expectations and timelines early; gain agreement
− Look for the financial arrangement that works for you
− Be flexible, but state your needs
− Multiple recruiters or just one???
− Talk to them very often – every day if needed

28. Recommendations:
–
–
–
–
–
–
–
–
–
–
–
Tell everyone you know
Make sure you and the interview team know what you are looking for
Make sure compensation, benefits and culture will attract the right people
Set your expectations upfront, ask people that have hired these positions
Run as much of the process in parallel as you can
• Chart out your process and track your progress
Understand the difficulty of the search and the size of the pool
Assemble the recruiting resources that will get results early in the process
Work with the right recruiter(s) – if possible
Coordinate interview times ahead of time so you know the right interviewers
are available, have multiple candidates come in on the same day
Be prepared to make an offer in writing quickly once you are sure
Do not let candidates give excessive notice or take long vacations