Playbook
Hiring the First Full-Time Engineer
Engineering
8 min read
Scope the role, not the resume
Before sourcing, write the 12-month product roadmap. The first engineer's role falls out of that.
Sourcing
Warm intro > referral > outbound. Target: 40 outbound touches → 10 conversations → 3 loops → 1 hire in 6 weeks.
The interview loop
- 30-min recruiter screen
- 60-min pair-programming on real code
- 60-min system design at your actual scale
- 45-min values / bar-raiser
- 45-min close with founder
Closing
Publish the band before the offer call. Include realistic equity math using recent 409A.
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