Building a tech startup is one of the most exhilarating, yet demanding, undertakings a founder can pursue. At the heart of any successful startup are the people who bring the vision to life. But it’s not just about who you hire—it’s about when and why. Your funding stage dictates not only your budget but also the specific skills and mindsets needed at different points in the journey. Hiring the wrong person at the wrong time can stifle momentum, but hiring the right one can be transformative.
Here’s a breakdown of the critical hires and how your team should evolve as you progress from pre-seed to Series B.
Pre-Seed: The Founding Team and Core Engineers (2-4 people)
At the pre-seed stage, it’s just you, your co-founders, and a big idea. You’re trying to prove a concept and build the foundation of something that could change the world. Your core team should reflect that sense of vision and adaptability. In fact, hiring too many people too soon at this stage is a common misstep. Keep the team small, agile, and scrappy.
Key Roles:
1. CEO (Founder): The leader and visionary of the startup, responsible for fundraising and overall strategy. Typically unpaid or earning a modest salary ($60K-$120K), with a significant equity stake (30-50%).
2. CTO (Founder/Co-Founder): Manages all technical aspects of the product, leading development and infrastructure. The CTO often receives a smaller equity stake than the CEO (10-30%) and a salary of $60K-$120K.
3. Full-Stack Developer(s): You need developers who can handle both front-end and back-end work, building the MVP from scratch. Salaries range from $80K-$130K with equity stakes of 0.5%-2%.
4. Product Designer/UX Designer: Ensures the product is user-friendly and visually appealing, crucial for early-stage investor pitches. Their salary typically ranges from $70K-$110K, with equity stakes of 0.5%-1%.
Insight: At this stage, you don’t just need talent; you need co-owners of the mission. Your hires shouldn’t just be employees—they should be entrepreneurs at heart, willing to sacrifice and innovate with you. Look for people who are comfortable with uncertainty and ambiguity because the roadmap isn’t fully drawn yet, and you’ll need their creativity to pave the way.
Seed: Building Out the Core Product Team (5-10 people)
Now you have some funding and an MVP, but your product is far from polished. At this stage, the challenge is more about validation than expansion. You need a team that can take feedback and turn it into action quickly. Salaries increase slightly at this stage, but equity is still a major part of compensation.
Key Roles:
1. Growth Marketer: Their focus is on acquiring users and running experiments to drive growth. Salaries range from $80K-$120K, with 0.25%-1% equity.
2. QA Engineer: Ensures the product is stable and performs well as it begins reaching more users. Salaries typically range from $80K-$110K, with 0.25%-1% equity.
3. Customer Success Lead: They work directly with early adopters, gathering feedback and ensuring customer satisfaction. Their salary ranges from $70K-$100K, with 0.25%-0.5% equity.
4. Product Manager: Manages the roadmap and coordinates between engineering, design, and marketing. Salaries range from $90K-$130K, with 0.5%-1% equity.
Insight: When you start hiring at the seed stage, think about the culture you’re creating. These hires will set the tone for your company as it grows. What kind of company are you building? What behaviors and attitudes do you want to reward? It’s tempting to focus solely on skills, but you should also ask yourself if these people embody the values you want your future team to live by. Great culture isn’t built when you have 100 employees—it’s shaped in these early stages.
Key Consideration: The seed stage is when you need to be laser-focused on solving your users’ problems. One critical mistake startups make at this stage is hiring for potential scale rather than immediate need. Don’t hire for the company you want to be two years from now—hire for what you need to achieve in the next 6-12 months.
Series A: Scaling the Team and Building for Growth (15-30 people)
With Series A funding, the name of the game is scale. You’ve proven product-market fit, and now it’s time to scale your user base, refine the product, and build processes that will enable sustainable growth. This is when you start to bring on more specialized roles.
Key Roles:
1. VP of Engineering: Oversees the engineering team, builds scalable systems, and ensures product reliability. Salaries range from $150K-$250K, with 0.5%-2% equity.
2. Head of Sales/Business Development: Develops processes to drive revenue and acquire larger customers. Salaries range from $140K-$200K, with 0.5%-1.5% equity and performance bonuses.
3. Data Scientist: Gathers and analyzes data to optimize the product and inform strategy. Salaries range from $130K-$180K, with 0.25%-0.75% equity.
4. Recruiting Specialist: Helps you scale the team efficiently as you grow from 10 to 30 people. Salaries range from $90K-$120K, with 0.1%-0.25% equity.
Insight: This is where the tension between creativity and process comes into play. Up until now, your team has thrived on flexibility and quick pivots. As you scale, you’ll need to introduce more structure. The challenge is maintaining the innovative spark that got you here while also implementing the processes and systems needed for growth.
Key Consideration: Series A is when growth debt becomes a real problem. Like technical debt, growth debt accumulates when you scale quickly without solid foundations. Hires at this stage should be future-focused, anticipating what will break as you scale and proactively building solutions.
Series B: Building Operational Excellence (50-100 people)
By Series B, you’re not just a startup anymore—you’re a full-fledged company with customers, revenue, and a roadmap for the future. This stage is all about efficiency and optimization. Your team needs to become a well-oiled machine capable of executing a cohesive strategy at scale.
Key Roles:
1. Chief Financial Officer (CFO): Manages budgeting, forecasting, and financial strategy. Salaries range from $200K-$350K, with 0.5%-1% equity.
2. VP of Marketing/Chief Marketing Officer (CMO): Leads large-scale marketing efforts and oversees branding. Salaries typically range from $180K-$300K, with 0.5%-1% equity.
3. Chief Technology Officer (CTO): Oversees the technology vision and manages a growing engineering team. Salaries range from $200K-$350K, with 0.5%-2% equity.
4. Head of Legal: Ensures regulatory compliance and manages contracts and IP issues. Salaries typically range from $160K-$250K, with 0.25%-0.75% equity.
Insight: At this stage, the dynamics of ownership versus delegation become critical. As a founder, you must shift from being involved in every decision to trusting your leadership team to take ownership. Hire people who are better than you in their functional areas and empower them to make decisions independently. This requires not only skill but humility.
Key Consideration: The biggest danger at this stage is complacency. With more funding and more people, it’s easy to fall into the trap of thinking you’ve “made it.” However, companies that thrive post-Series B are those that retain a startup mindset—always testing, always iterating, and never satisfied with the status quo.
Final Thoughts: Building for Tomorrow, Today
As you hire through each stage, think about this: Are you building a team that can handle both the present and the future? Startups that succeed are those that hire people who can not only tackle today’s challenges but also anticipate tomorrow’s. At every stage, ask yourself, “Who will help us get to the next level, not just maintain where we are?”
It’s tempting to fill positions quickly, but a startup’s greatest asset is its team. Every person you bring on board should feel like a critical piece of the puzzle—both now and in the future. Thoughtful hiring, at the right time, with the right people, can be the difference between scaling successfully or stalling out.
In the end, the team you build will determine the success or failure of your vision. Choose wisely, and remember—your best hires will be the ones who can take your company places you haven’t even imagined yet.
Jeremy Fojut
Chief Revenue Officer
MARS Solutions Group
