The Not-So-Buttoned-Up Guide to Hiring from 5 to 50
From Chaos to Clarity: A Founder’s Guide to Hiring Fast 🏃 and Right ✅
Startups are chaos. Beautiful, thrilling, wild chaos. And as you grow, the chaos gets louder, especially when you hit that magical stretch from 5 to 50 people. If you’re making hires during this phase, you need more than gut feel and good vibes. You need a game plan.
This is that plan. But not the corporate kind. No jargon. No fluff. Just battle-tested strategies, spicy takes, and real-world tactics from people who’ve done it before. Bonus: we’ll show you how to do all this without a full HR team, thanks to Mega HR, the AI-based hiring platform built for fast-moving teams.
It’s Harder Than You Think
"I meet too many founders who’ve read 27 blog posts on landing page optimization but wing it in interviews. Startup advice needs more on headhunting, less on VC intro emails." - Darren Bounds, CEO, Mega HR
Fundraising is hard. Hiring is harder. Every startup we talk to says the same thing: "Compared to hiring, raising money felt easy." The talent war is real. And if you get this wrong? You slow down. Maybe even stall out. No pressure.
Obsession Is a Superpower
The best founders are obsessed with hiring. Not just checking boxes. They treat it like product or revenue, it gets attention, iteration, and relentless focus. Because the people you hire define your ceiling. Get the right ones and everything else gets easier.
Why Hiring Still Feels Stuck in the Dark Ages
We’ve nailed the startup playbooks: Lean, agile, growth loops. But hiring? Still feels like Mad Libs and gut instinct. That’s why we built this guide: to drag hiring out of the shadows and into the spotlight. And it’s why Mega HR exists—to help you scale your team with AI-powered precision.
Smart Hiring, Even Without an HR Team
When you don’t have dedicated recruiters, tools like Mega HR can take the load off. Use AI to screen resumes in seconds, schedule interviews without the email ping-pong, and even summarize candidate responses after interviews. Seriously, this stuff saves hours—and that’s time your team can spend building the product instead of drowning in spreadsheets.
AI Screening: Let Megan (our AI assistant) review and rank applicants so you only spend time on top matches.
Auto Scheduling: Sync with calendars and set your availability once—no back-and-forth needed.
Interview Summaries: Megan writes up interview recaps so you can remember who said what, fast.
Try Mega HR and cut your hiring time by 50%—no HR department required.
Building a Brand People Actually Want to Work For
Think of hiring as marketing. You’re not just pitching a job—you’re pitching a mission, a vibe, a future. In a world where Glassdoor, X (Twitter), and LinkedIn tell your story before you do, your employer brand is your secret weapon (or silent killer).
Be loud. Blog. Post. Speak at events. Build in public. Show your work.
Be real. Don’t over-polish. Share your challenges too. People respect honesty.
Be human. Showcase your team. Let them tell your story. It’s more believable than a slick mission statement.
Pro Tip: Personal brands matter. Especially in the early days. Let people see what drives your founders. That’s what early hires are really betting on.
Wrap-Up
Hiring during hypergrowth is hard. It’s also your most important job. The stakes are high, but the playbook is here. Stay scrappy. Stay real. Use the best tools (like Mega HR) to save time, move fast, and build an unfair hiring advantage.
Let’s build something great, one awesome human at a time.