Team & Hiring

Building teams, first engineering hires, and distributed work.

Solo founder reviewing candidate resumes and a hiring scorecard beside a laptop, notebook, and calculator

How to Hire Your First Employee: A Founder's Playbook

A founder-first guide to hiring employee number one: when to hire, what role to choose, runway math, scorecards, interviews, compliance, and the first 90 days.

Matt Boileau20 min read

A printed startup cap table with an ownership pie chart beside a laptop showing a 4-year vesting schedule

Team & Hiring

How Much Equity to Give Your First Employees

A data-backed guide to early-employee equity: benchmark bands by hire number and role, vesting and cliffs, option-pool sizing, dilution math, ISO/409A basics, and how to explain the offer honestly.

Kyle Schlosser13 min read

Two engineers pair-programming at a standing desk

Team & Hiring

The Lightly Technical Guide to Your First Engineering Hire

How to evaluate an engineer when you are not one, and the three signals that actually matter.

Priya Nair9 min read