Who Should a Startup Hire First? A Practical Guide to Building Your Team in the Right Order.

Startups often ask me the same question:

“Whom should we hire first — and in what order?”

As a technical recruiter working with early-stage companies, I’ve seen founders hire too early, too late, hire the wrong role first, or overpay for talent they didn’t actually need yet.

And while every startup is different, there is a pattern — a natural hiring sequence that tends to work across industries, especially for SaaS, AI/ML, and product-driven companies.

Here’s a breakdown of what I’ve learned from 150+ hires across EU, US, and CEE markets: what roles matter most, when to hire them, and what mistakes to avoid.

Stage 0 — Before You Hire Anyone
If you’re pre-product and pre-revenue, there’s only one critical question:

👉 Do you have someone who can build the product?

If the answer is no — don’t hire a marketer, a project manager, or a “growth wizard.”
You need a builder first.

Stage 1 — The First Essential Hire: A Senior Full-Stack Engineer.
Your very first technical hire should almost always be: A senior full-stack engineer who can build fast and independently.

Why not a junior?
Because a startup’s first engineer sets the foundation for everything that comes after:

• code quality
• architecture
• development culture
• future hiring standards

1. A strong first engineer = a strong company.
2. A weak first engineer = a legacy mess you pay for later.

Common mistake: founders hire the cheapest engineer, not the best fit. That decision becomes very expensive, very fast.

Stage 2 — Add a Frontend or Backend Specialist (Depending on Your Product)
Once the MVP exists, the next hire is usually:

1. Frontend specialist if UI/UX is critical.
2. Backend specialist if you have complex logic, integrations, or heavy data
3. Full-stack again if you need speed and flexibility

No matter what you choose, the goal is the same: Increase development velocity without sacrificing quality.

Stage 3 — DevOps / Cloud Engineer (Usually Earlier Than Founders Expect)

The moment you plan to scale users, add CI/CD, or deploy regularly —
you need DevOps.

Why earlier than expected?

Because developers deploying manually =
broken pipelines, security issues, and a lot of frustration.

A good DevOps can:

1. automate deployments
2. set up monitoring
3. secure infrastructure
4. reduce downtime
5. speed up releases

DevOps is not a “luxury hire.”
It’s a stability hire.

Stage 4 — QA (Manual or Automation)
I’ve seen startups skip QA for months, relying on developers to test everything.

It always ends the same:

• slowed delivery
• hidden bugs
• chaotic releases

A QA specialist frees developers to do what they do best — write code.

If your product is growing fast, consider:

1. Manual QA first
2. Automation QA second (once the product stabilizes)

Stage 5 — Product / Delivery Roles
Only once you have:
✔ a working MVP
✔ users testing your product
✔ a development team delivering consistently

— should you hire:

1. Product Manager / Product Owner
2. Delivery Manager / Project Manager
3. UX/UI Designer

These roles help structure the team, understand user needs, define priorities, and align tech with business.

Hiring them too early leads to endless documentation without a product to show.

Stage 6 — Scaling Engineering (Team Leads, Data, AI/ML)

When traction grows, you’ll need more specialized roles:

• Team Lead / Engineering Manager
• Data Engineer / Analytics
• ML/AI Engineers, if your product demands it
• Security Engineer, especially for fintech or healthcare
• SRE / Platform Engineer, if you expect heavy load

At this stage, structure becomes as important as code.

Stage 7 — Customer-Facing Technical Roles

Once the product is live and clients are onboarding:

• Solutions Engineer
• Customer Success Engineer
• Implementation Specialist

These roles ensure your clients succeed —
because in SaaS, retention > acquisition.

When Startups Get Hiring Wrong

Here are the most frequent mistakes I see founders make:
❌ Hiring a PM before hiring engineers
❌ Hiring juniors when you need seniors
❌ Hiring too many people at once
❌ Hiring without a plan for onboarding
❌ Hiring roles they don’t actually need yet

The right hire at the wrong time is a wrong hire.

So… Why Does Order Matter?

Because hiring is not about filling seats.
It’s about removing bottlenecks.

At the beginning, your bottleneck is product delivery → hire engineers.
Later, it’s stability → hire DevOps and QA.
Later, it’s alignment → hire Product.
Later, it’s scale → hire leads, SRE, Data.
Later, it’s customers → hire technical support & implementation teams.

A smart hiring sequence can shorten your time-to-market by months.

Who Are We? (A short note)

I’m Viktoria — founder of TalentMinted, a boutique IT recruitment agency.

We help startups in the US and Europe hire the right technical talent at the right stage.

• 150+ successful tech hires
• 6–7% success fee, paid only if you hire
• 6-month replacement guarantee
• Strong talent pools in EU, CEE, and LATAM
• Fast delivery (1–4 weeks)

If you're building a tech team and want guidance on roles, sequence, or hiring strategy — feel free to reach out.
I’m always happy to help founders hire smarter, not harder.