When Should a Startup Hire Its First Recruiter?

Immad Akhund says a startup should have an internal recruiter once it is looking to hire more than three people a month. People generally wait too long for a recruiter. He hired the first one at about 20 people, after raising 20 million dollars, and counts the timing as right. Quality, speed, and almost every element of hiring improved a ton after that first recruiter.

For most other roles, waiting too long is the better default. Do the job yourself first, even when you do not understand it well, so you learn what the role really needs. A founder will not know whether a hire is doing a good job unless the founder has at least failed at the work. Hiring a bunch of roles you only think you want is also an easy way to spend too much money. Do the job until it is painful, then hire.

Finance shows what waiting past the pain costs. The first finance person, with no CFO and no one else in that seat, arrived at about 200 people. Around 80 would have been better, because the help was quite useful. Spreadsheets were manageable and an accountant was already there, so an internal finance person did not feel necessary. Product managers were a deliberate late hire. He was against them and brought in the first one at about 120 people. Under 30 people, the founder should be the product manager, the engineer should be a product manager, and whoever else is on the team should be too, so everyone stays close to the product and the founder stays the primary product owner.