You're hiring yourself. It's working. Until it stops working.
Every founder reaches a point where recruitment becomes a bottleneck. The question is: what do you do about it?
Growth Stages and Hiring
| Stage | Size | Who hires | How it works |
|---|---|---|---|
| Startup | 1-10 | Founder | Personal network, intuition |
| Early stage | 10-30 | Founder + managers | Still personal, but running out of time |
| Scale-up | 30-100 | Need a system | Founder shouldn't be in every hire |
| Growth | 100+ | HR team | Processes, ATS, methodology |
Signs You Can't Do It Alone Anymore
| Signal | What it means |
|---|---|
| Hiring takes 3+ months | You don't have time to focus on it |
| You're rejecting candidates because you can't do interviews | You're losing good people |
| You're hiring "whoever is available" | Quality is going down |
| You don't know all the teams you're hiring for | You can't assess fit |
| Your own work is suffering | You're doing HR instead of your job |
Golden rule: When hiring takes more than 20% of your time and you're not in HR — you have a problem.
What a Founder Does vs. What a Recruiter Does
There's a real skill gap. You know your company better than anyone. But professional recruiters know:
- How to source candidates at scale
- What's realistic in the current market
- How to screen efficiently
- What questions to ask
- How to close candidates
The Cost of Your Time
Calculate this: What's your hourly rate as a founder? How many hours do you spend on hiring per month? That's what it's really costing you.
If you're spending 40 hours a month on hiring, that's a week you're not spending on product, sales, or strategy.
Your Options
| Option | When it makes sense | Pros | Cons |
|---|---|---|---|
| Do it yourself | Up to 10-15 people, occasional hiring | You know the company best | Inefficient, costs your time |
| Agency | One-off positions, senior roles, urgency | Fast, no commitment | Expensive, don't know context |
| Part-time recruiter | 2-5 hires/year, don't want commitment | Experience, knows market | Split attention |
| Full-time recruiter | 5+ hires/year, continuous growth | Knows company, builds pipeline | Fixed cost |
| HR generalist | 30+ people, need more than just hiring | Comprehensive people ops | Hiring is just part of job |
The Mistake: Hire HR and Expect Magic
A common failure mode: you hire an HR person, hand them a job title, and expect them to figure it out.
They can't. They need:
- Understanding of your culture and values
- Input on what each role actually needs
- Access to hiring managers
- Clear success criteria
Without inputs, even great recruiters fail.
Before You Hire HR: Know Yourself
In early-stage companies, culture is a reflection of the founder. Before hiring someone to represent that culture, you need to articulate it.
"The fish rots from the head. So does company culture."
Ask yourself:
- What kind of leader am I? How do I manage people?
- What drives me crazy? What won't I tolerate?
- What do I value? Who do I promote?
- What are my real values — not on paper, but in practice?
If you don't know your values, HR won't figure them out for you. They'll just guess — same as you.
TalentByTeam: Better Inputs Without an HR Hire
What if you could get professional-quality hiring inputs without hiring a full-time person?
TalentByTeam captures what you know (and what your team knows) through AI interviews. 15 minutes of your time. Hours of structured intelligence.
Not ready for HR? Get the inputs anyway.
15 minutes of your time. Professional-quality hiring intelligence.
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