Navigating hiring projections at startups: step by step 🏗

As a talent partner in a VC fund or an operating Head of Talent at a high-growth startup, the art of working with an early stage founder struggling to make heads or tails of hiring plans and org design is a nuanced one. What are the right questions to ask? The right amount of advice to give? We spoke with seasoned talent veterans like Brianna Rizzo, Talent Partner at VMG Partners, Matt Hoffman, Talent Partner at M13, and Mandy Sebel, People & Talent Partner at Radian Capital, to learn more. Here is a summary of what they had to say!

Step 1 — The Org Chart

On your first intake call, ask the founder/CEO to come prepared with an Org Chart. This helps change the conversation from “how do I fill the roles I have now” to “am I focusing on the right roles for the future”? It also helps understand if roles are properly scoped for success. For example, if a CEO has 15 direct reports, they’re clearly focusing too much of their time on being a manager rather than being a leader. Encourage them to create a leadership layer that will help alleviate the responsibilities of hiring, growing, developing. Ask them where they think they have the most developmental gap or need for coaching — this will enable you to get a better sense of wear resources should be distributed amongst the organisation.

Step 2: Key Hires

Typically, the function that most early stage companies are lacking is the CFO/VP finance — i.e. someone who can be their right hand and think about all the competing interests like achieving x business goals, driving the P&L and managing a responsible budget. Getting that rigor around finance early on in a company’s growth can completely change it’s trajectory — for the better.

Step 3: Prioritize Business Objectives

Another step would be to prioritize key business objectives — i.e. where does the company want to be by the end of this quarter or this year, and what skills are necessary (and/or currently missing) in order to achieve these goals. Then, use that triage exercise to further develop the hiring plan.

This template helps me personally to focus on the right things while working on any hiring plan.