The Startup Roles journal
Hiring notes.
Playbooks, benchmarks, and opinionated takes on hiring the first ten roles at a startup.
Best outbound recruiting tools for founders in 2026: honest comparison
An opinionated 2026 comparison of sourcing, outreach, ATS, and reference tools for founders running their own recruiting stack at pre-seed, seed, and Series A.
Read the playbook →All posts
Remote-first startup hiring playbook: entity, comp, async loop, and onboarding in 2026
Everything a founder needs to hire remote-first in 2026: entities and Employer of Record, comp policy models, async interview loop, and a 30 day onboarding template.
10 June 2026
· 12 minSeed vs Series A hiring: what actually changes when you raise your first priced round
The hiring bar, comp bands, org design, and interview loop all shift at Series A. A practical guide for founders raising their first priced round.
13 May 2026
· 13 minSourcing passive candidates at seed stage: a founder-run outbound playbook
How founders find and win senior candidates who never apply, using LinkedIn, GitHub, warm intros, and a five hour weekly rhythm. Templates, reply rate benchmarks, and message frameworks included.
22 April 2026
· 13 minHow to write a startup job description that converts senior candidates in 2026
The exact structure, tone, length, and pricing signals of a startup JD that senior candidates actually reply to, with a copy-paste template and before/after examples.
25 March 2026
· 12 minHow to hire a founding engineer: the 2026 playbook for technical founders
A complete playbook for hiring your first engineer at a pre-seed or seed startup: sourcing, comp, equity, interview loop, work trial, and the red flags most founders miss.
4 March 2026
· 14 min