Early in our journey at Chezie, we posted our first engineering role with a $120K salary. I remember connecting with a Silicon Valley engineering leader who looked at our job post and told me straight up: "That salary is pretty low. You're going to have trouble recruiting."

She was right.

Most of our applications came from junior developers fresh out of boot camps while we were looking for someone with more experience. As I started following other founders' hiring announcements and checking the backgrounds of their new team members, I noticed a pattern—the founders landing those "rockstar" hires had all raised millions in funding.

This got me thinking about that age-old Silicon Valley advice: "hire the best people." While this sounds great in theory, it's not that simple for most founders – especially those from underrepresented backgrounds or bootstrapping their companies. Let's talk about why this advice needs some nuance and what you can do instead.

The Problem with Hiring the "Best People"

When investors and successful founders say "hire the best people," they often think about candidates with impressive pedigrees – Stanford degrees, Google experience, etc. Two problems with this:

1. These folks are expensive—really expensive. A software engineer with this experience can easily command a $250k+ salary at a big tech company. Matching this salary is nearly impossible for early-stage startups, especially those that haven't raised significant funding.

2. This narrow definition of "best" fundamentally misunderstands merit. When we talk about "merit-based hiring," we need a fair definition of merit, including people who might have taken different paths but developed valuable skills. Some of the most dedicated and talented people I've worked with never set foot in an Ivy League school or a big tech company.

We need to expand our definition if we're really doing merit-based hiring. The "best" person for your startup isn't necessarily the one with the most prestigious resume – it's someone who:

• Genuinely wants to work at your company and believes in your mission.

• Has the core skills needed to do the job well.

• Is willing to learn and grow with your company.

• Fits within your budget constraints.

Hire ONLY when it hurts

I've learned that hiring a full-time person should be the absolute last resort.

Instead of immediately trying to hire full-time employees, consider this progression:

1. Software First: Before hiring anyone, look for software solutions. A $20/month tool is way cheaper than any hire.

2. Part-Time Contractors: When software isn't enough, hire contractors for specific needs. Start with 5-10 hours per week.

3. Scale Hours: If the work consistently exceeds their hours, gradually increase their time.

4. Full-Time: Only convert to full-time when you've maxed out steps 1-3 and still need more help.

This approach lets you scale costs to fit your needs instead of paying total salaries upfront.

Tips for Making Your First Full-Time Hire

When you do reach the point of needing a full-time hire, here are some strategies that have worked for me:

1. Be Transparent About Compensation

Include salary and equity in your job descriptions. Yes, this will filter out some candidates, but that's the point. You'll save time by not interviewing people whose expectations you can't meet.

Get creative with your compensation as well! If you can't match market salaries:

• Be generous with equity - founders (myself included) are somewhat delusional about the value of their equity. Don't get greedy with it. Any employee joining you on Day 1 is joining when your equity has no real value. When you're up against a big tech company, notable equity in your company could be why that talented engineer decides to work with you instead of Facebook or Google.

• Consider performance-based incentives. this works especially well for sales hires. If they outperform expectations, your company should have more money in the bank account, and you should be able to pay them more.

• Start part-time with a path to full-time as the company grows—Assuming you work through the hiring process shared above, the person you bring on as a part-time contractor should work 10 to 20 to 30 hours/week. Eventually, you'll be so familiar with this person's work that committing to them for the full-time role only makes sense.

2. Use Wellfound

Formerly AngelList Talent, Wellfound has been a game-changer for us. Here's why:

• People on the platform are explicitly looking for startup roles.

• Monthly access (~$400) is cheaper than LinkedIn Recruiter and more flexible.

• Candidates often include direct contact info in their resumes.

• Wellfound lets you filter for diverse candidates. While not imperative, this is a nice feature, especially if your company has prioritized diversity from the beginning.

3. Make It Personal

Share your founder story and company mission in job descriptions. When you can't compete on salary, you need to connect with candidates who genuinely believe in what you're building. I was a good recruiter because I could share the story of why we started Chezie in the first place. Many candidates resonated with the story; even if it didn't work out, they were interested in the role and committed to going through the entire hiring process.

Building a great team doesn't always mean hiring the "best" people by Silicon Valley standards. It means finding talented people who believe in your mission and creating flexible arrangements that work for both sides.

Remember: every successful company started somewhere. Facebook's first hire wasn't a Stanford PhD – it was Mark's roommate. The key is to be creative, transparent, and focused on finding people who can grow with your company.

If you have thoughts or want to share your hiring experiences, reply to this email! Would love to hear from you 🤝

Catch you next week,

Toby

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