In the early stages of building a company, many founders are laser-focused on achieving product-market fit and securing their next round of funding, often assuming they can defer adding an HR function until they reach a certain level of growth. While this approach seems logical, the reality is that the critical point for establishing a strong people function arrives much earlier than most anticipate. Without the right growth infrastructure in place from the start, you risk falling behind before you’ve even gained momentum.

By bringing on a people-focused partner early, you can continue to prioritize key areas like product development and customer engagement while ensuring your company is prepared for growth. Laying this foundation early helps you avoid costly mistakes, such as making poor hiring decisions, implementing ineffective tools, wasting valuable time, and damaging your employer brand—all of which can have long-term consequences.

In this article, I’ll walk you through the process of determining when and who to hire for your first people role, so you can avoid pitfalls and build a strong foundation for success.

What is HR?

Most people think of HR as the ones who organize annual training sessions or manage layoffs or, unfortunately, are referred to as the “fun police”. While there may be some truth to that, HR does much more. As a company grows, HR & Talent encompasses several typical areas – below is a quick overview of the different roles within HR. While you will not invest in each area immediately, understanding the different functions can help you understand a person’s background and strengths when you go to hire your first person. 

Talent & Recruitment: This team ensures the organization has the right people in the right roles. They source candidates through various channels, enhance the candidate experience, build your employer brand, and negotiate offers. 

Compensation & Benefits: Their purpose is to design and manage the organization’s compensation structure and employee benefits programs. By offering competitive pay and benefits packages, they help attract and retain top talent.

Operations: This role manages day-to-day HR activities and administrative tasks, including maintaining tools and records, processing payroll, handling general inquiries, and onboarding. This team often handles most employee questions.

Business Partner: The HR Business Partner (HRBP) is a strategic role focused on aligning HR practices with the organization’s overall business objectives. The HRBP works closely with senior leaders and department heads to ensure the company’s people strategy supports its goals and enhances performance.

Learning & Development: This team focuses on enhancing employees’ skills and knowledge through professional development. Training ranges from career and leadership development to compliance and mandatory classes.

When is the Right Time?

Initially, you will likely rely on outsourced services to support HR—mainly managing benefits, payroll, and possibly recruitment. As your company grows, bringing this in-house becomes beneficial for cost efficiency, consistency, and cultural alignment. You will want to hire one person who can support your growth and hiring, support your executive team, and build a strong people-focused foundation.

Early is Best!

People are at the center of everything you do as a company. Once you have around 20 employees, the process to support them can get more complicated—having the right partner for the executive team will help. 

HR lays the foundation for your company’s growth. From the early stages, it’s crucial to understand your long-term vision. Let’s take titles and levels as an example—if you are not consistent early on, you could have significant pay inequity and inconsistent titles that put you in a sticky situation as you grow and hire. Your HR partner can create simple career ladders and a compensation structure to avoid this, and excite employees about their place in the org.

Generalist vs Specialist

A generalist will often have been a team of one or two and have broad knowledge of HR. They might have spent time recruiting, then transitioned to benefits and onboarding, and thus will jump into a variety of areas with some basic understanding. 

A specialist offers the benefit of having deep knowledge in a specific HR area, which helps drive improvements in that function. This person might have spent years growing in learning and development, building programs, scaling globally, and partnering with executives to drive their training vision. 

Anna Weisenthal-Birch, VP of People at Next47-backed Skydio, shared:

“I am such a big fan of hiring someone who can be a generalist who is a utility player. At 30 employees, go hire someone super capable, super smart and align them with external resources that can help them navigate things that might be more complex or compliance related.”

In the early stages, bring in someone who can cover all areas and move with the business as it changes and grows. 

What to Consider?

Growth Plans and Existing Team

While it can be hard to plan ahead in your early days—having a view of where you want to go will influence what type of HR partner to bring in. If you are working in an office together, having someone organized and personable who will work with early-career employees and be available to answer questions is important. If you are expanding your executive team, building out new functions, and laying the groundwork for expansion, then someone with business partnership experience is key. If you have new managers who you want to grow, a strong learning and development person can help assist. If your focus is hiring in tough and highly competitive markets, then a recruiter who can source is what you will look for. 

You will also need this person to implement systems that grow with your business, including your HR system, payroll, and benefits. Having a view on growth will impact who you choose. 

Zohra Veach, Head of Talent at Next47 portfolio company DataGrail, commented:

“I wish people would hire someone who knows what they are doing before they put systems and processes in place. It is hard to undo—you need to build a company that doesn’t just function in the moment but something that scales.” 

Adopting this perspective, understanding your growth plans, and having the right person at your side will prevent future pain.

Experience Level

Decide whether you need a manager or an individual contributor and whether a junior or senior person fits your needs. 

Most early-stage companies are driven by passion and product expertise but often lack strong people management and scalable processes. While a less experienced admin will address immediate needs and provide short-term support, a more senior professional will develop a plan for sustainable growth.

Role Definition

Define where this person sits within the organization and their partnership with the executive team. Rather than thinking of HR/recruiting as a support function—think of them as partners in building the foundation of your culture. Will this person own things like headcount planning, performance management, executive hiring, and compensation philosophy? If so, be sure their role and position within the company reflects these responsibilities.

What to Look for in Your First People Hire?

Trust is key!

Your first people hire will be a reflection of the company you’re building, and the programs they implement will have a lasting impact. It’s crucial to hire someone whose perspective you value, whom you enjoy working with, and whom you trust to represent you to employees and candidates. Culture is a reflection of the founders, and HR plays a key role in bringing that culture to life. Make sure you and your hire are aligned.

Skills and Traits:

Here are some core requirements that your first people hire should have:

  • Communication – The ability to pitch company culture and product, negotiate offers and contracts, drive internal conversations, share difficult feedback, and speak to executives
  • Organization & Process Management – They should be able to manage candidate tracking, scheduling, workflow optimization, supporting external services, and creating company structure
  • Adaptable – Can handle changing priorities, implement new tools & processes, identify shifting market dynamics, and evolve with business needs
  • Proactive – They can anticipate needs, build relationships, and improve processes

Interview Process

Your interview process should combine technical interviews on the criteria above and assessment for trust & partnership. Ensure that the managers who will work closely with your HR/Recruiter are part of the process and that their working styles mesh. Leverage an interview rubric, such as the one below, to ensure consistency across candidates and interviewers.

Conclusion

Remember, your first HR hire is a strategic partner in building your company’s future. A thorough interview process involving key stakeholders will help you find the right fit. Investing in the right HR or recruiter early on sets the stage for a thriving and resilient organization. I recommend hiring a senior generalist whom you trust and who can be a strong partner for your leadership team. Then, give them a seat at the table to drive your long-term vision. 

Download the rubric template below to see how you should evaluate recruiter candidates in the interview process.