Who Should Be Your First Hire? It Depends—But Here’s Where to Start

Who Should Be Your First Hire?

If you're a founder making your first hire, congratulations.
It means you've built something real enough that you can't carry it alone anymore.

But the question is:
Who should you hire first?

There’s no one-size-fits-all answer.
It depends on what your business needs, where you're spending time, and what’s holding you back from growing.

Let’s break it down.

First, What Are You Trying to Get Back?

Before you hire for a title, ask yourself:
👉🏽 What are you doing right now that someone else could own?
👉🏽 What is falling behind because you don't have time?
👉🏽 What would unlock the most capacity if it were off your plate?

Founders often default to sales or admin, but sometimes the real need is behind the scenes—ops, finance, fulfillment, or people.

The 4 Most Common First Hires (And When to Choose Each)

💼 Ops/Generalist
Great if you’re spinning too many plates and need someone to own internal workflows, vendor management, or delivery.

💻 Technical/Engineering
Essential if your product is software-based and you’re bottlenecking dev progress.

💰 Finance/Admin Support
Perfect if you're invoicing at midnight, your books are messy, or cash flow tracking keeps getting pushed.

📣 Sales or Marketing
Best if you’ve validated the product but need someone to bring in consistent leads or run campaigns while you focus on delivery.

Mistakes Founders Make When Hiring First

🚩 Hiring before defining the role
🚩 Looking for a unicorn (and expecting them to fix everything)
🚩 Prioritizing speed over alignment
🚩 Not having a clear onboarding or handoff plan

Your first hire is foundational. They help set culture, expectations, and future team structure. Be intentional.

What to Do Before You Hire

✅ Map out your weekly responsibilities
✅ Highlight what you must own vs. what you can delegate
✅ Write a job scope, not just a job title
✅ Set success criteria for the first 90 days
✅ Make sure your financials can support the hire and the tools they need

And if you’re not sure who that hire should be — that’s where we come in.

How We Help

At Elementum Insights, we support early-stage companies in building infrastructure that supports smart hiring, not reactive hiring.

We help with:
✅ Org design and role mapping
✅ Job descriptions and hiring scopes
✅ Financial modeling for new roles
✅ HR and onboarding setup
✅ First-time hiring support for founders

You don’t have to figure it out alone.

Foundation First. Future Focused.

The right first hire frees you up to lead.
The wrong one can slow you down or drain resources.

Let’s get it right — together.

📬 Need help making the call?
📥 Contact@elementuminsights.com
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