Founders love to say “hiring is our #1 priority.”
Then they post a cold job link on Twitter, toss in some emojis, and think that counts as recruiting.
That’s not hiring. That’s yelling into the void.
Unless you’re a repeat founder or riding off YC hype, no one knows who you are. You’re not in TechCrunch. You’re not in the Twitter algos.
And you’re definitely not showing up when they type “best startups to join.”
You’re not unworthy.
You’re just invisible.
Why You’re Not Getting Good Candidates
Most people would rather join something known and mid than unknown and incredible.
Why?
Because reputation is proxy for safety. And at pre-seed, all you have is story, speed, and belief.
But instead of building distribution, you’re waiting for serendipity. You’re putting your JD on your website and hoping your dream hire just… finds it?
You’re not a FAANG. You’re not even an acronym yet.
So you have to go outbound. You have to get in people’s heads before they ever visit your site.
And that starts with using the people who already believe in you.
What The Best Founders Actually Do
1. They weaponize their network
If you’re not actively getting intros and referrals from:
Investors
Fellow founders
Advisors
Friends with good taste
…then you’re leaving your best candidates in someone else’s pipeline.
Your network is a distribution channel.
The best founders make it easy for people to help. They don’t say “We’re hiring.” They say, “Here’s who we need. Do you know one person who fits this?”
Be specific. Be shameless.
Make it frictionless for people to forward your pitch.
2. They make the pitch personal
When was the last time you read a job post and thought, “Holy sh*t, this is me”?
That’s what great founders write.
They don’t use HR boilerplate. They write raw, weird, magnetic messages that speak to a specific kind of person.
Instead of:
“We’re looking for a mission-driven, full-stack engineer.”
Try:
“We’re two weeks into something that shouldn’t work. But it’s working. Looking for someone who’s obsessed with proving things wrong and building fast. Backend-heavy, frontend-capable, zero ego, high output. You’ll ship more in 3 months than you did last year.”
If it reads like a letter, it’ll get ignored like one.
3. They treat hiring like GTM
Hiring is just go-to-market in disguise.
Think about it:
The job is the product
The candidate is the customer
The pitch is the positioning
Your referral network is your distribution channel
Would you launch a product with no landing page, no email list, no targeting, and no follow-up? No?
Then stop doing that with your hiring.
Track your pipeline. Follow up. Iterate your copy.
Close candidates like you’d close your first customer because they are your first internal customer.
What I Learned the Hard Way
When I was hiring our first engineer, I asked every candidate one question:
“If we shut down in a year, what would make this job still worth it to you?”
Most gave me safe answers.
“Learning experience.” “Exposure.” “Startup environment.”
One guy said:
“I want to be the reason it didn’t die.”
I hired him.
Week one, our infra caught fire at 2am.
He didn’t wait for the Slack ping. He called me, already deep in the logs.
That’s the kind of energy you want. You’re not just hiring a skillset. You’re hiring someone who wants to fight beside you.
And those people don’t come through cold job boards.
They come through belief, story, and referrals.
The Takeaway
If you’re serious about hiring, do this in the next 24 hours:
Write a 3-sentence pitch that sounds like you. No buzzwords.
Send it to 10 people you trust with this message: “We’re hiring. Know one person who needs to see this?”
Post that same pitch on LinkedIn but tell the backstory. Why now? Why this role? Why you?
You’ll get better responses in 24 hours than you did in the last 3 months of spraying job boards.