The Startup Roles journal
Hiring notes.
Playbooks, benchmarks, and opinionated takes on hiring the first ten roles at a startup.
Startup equity for your first ten hires: the 2026 benchmark guide
How much equity to give the first ten employees at a pre-seed or seed startup in 2026, with benchmark bands by role, vesting terms, dilution math, and mistakes founders repeat.
Read the playbook →All posts
Outbound recruiting tools: the honest 2026 stack for founders
Which outbound recruiting tools are actually worth paying for in 2026 — sourcing, enrichment, sequencing, ATS and reference tools compared, with what to skip at pre-seed, seed and Series A.
2 July 2026
· 12 minRemote-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