Founders, I get it.
You’re used to figuring things out on your own. You’ve made it this far by moving fast, trusting your gut, and surrounding yourself with people you already knew. People you’ve worked with before. People who were ready to jump in and help build something from the ground up.
And honestly? That’s exactly how it should be in the beginning.
The best early hires don’t come from job boards. They come from your own network. Your smartest former coworkers. Your ex-agency partners. That person you worked with three jobs ago who just gets it.
Hiring in the early stages is all about trust and speed. You don’t need a perfect process. You need people who can figure it out alongside you.
But here’s the part you might not want to hear: That approach doesn’t scale.
I talk to founders every day who say, “We’re not ready for a recruiter.”
They’re not wrong. They’ve made 5, 10, even 20 solid hires without one.
But then things start shifting. Suddenly it’s not just you and a handful of trusted teammates. Your network is tapped. The referrals have dried up. Your head of engineering is still trying to build the product and run interviews. Your COO is taking first-round calls while also trying to close your next funding round.
And the next hire needs to be the right one. You can’t afford another “we’ll see how it goes” decision.
This is when founders usually call me. But by then? They’re underwater.
They’re burned out. The team is stretched thin. And they need someone yesterday.
That’s not the time to build your hiring system. That’s the time you wish you already had one.
Scrappy is a great survival tool. It’s a terrible scaling strategy.
I say that with love, and lived experience.
I started Rogue one month after I turned 26. I had less than five years of corporate experience. No safety net. No business plan. Just a Google Doc and a stubborn belief that I could figure it out.
That kind of scrappiness built this business. And it’s probably what built yours, too.
But if you want to grow (not just survive) you need to start building like a company, not a founder.
Because here’s the truth: At some point, hustle gets expensive.
You lose time to inefficient interviews. You lose candidates to poor process. You lose trust with your team when hiring drags or misfires. And, don’t get me started on the opportunity cost of you not spending your time where it should be.
And all of it is preventable.
Let’s talk about the founder ego for a second.
Not in a bad way. In the way that has to exist for a company to be born.
You have to believe, irrationally, that you’re the one who can make this thing work. That you’ll figure it out. That you’ll outwork the competition. That no one else will care as much as you. All the stats about businesses failing don’t apply to you.
I know that mindset. I am that mindset.
But that same ego can make it hard to let go. To admit you don’t have the tools or the time to build a scalable hiring function. To say, “Actually, we need help here.”
And I get it. Because the truth is: Recruitment is one of the most over-promised and under-delivered services out there.
The staffing industry has a reputation. And not a great one.
You’ve probably worked with someone who sent you a stack of resumes and called it a day. Or someone who ghosted the moment a hire was made. Or someone who didn’t understand your business at all.
It’s exhausting. You’re right to be skeptical.
But the answer isn’t to DIY forever. It’s to find the right partner.
Just like you don’t do your own taxes (hopefully). Just like you don’t write your own legal contracts. You shouldn’t be duct-taping together a hiring process when you’re trying to scale a business.
Because here’s what starts to happen when hiring stays reactive:
You interview for a role before you define what the team actually needs
You shift the comp range mid-search after “looking at the budget again”
You lose good candidates while chasing “maybe a better fit”
You start over. And over. And over.
Recruiters stop prioritizing your roles. Candidates get whiplash. And your team stays stuck.
Founders: the time to level up your hiring isn’t when you’re drowning. It’s before.
That doesn’t mean adding process for the sake of it. It means getting intentional.
Defining what success actually looks like in a role
Creating a clean, thoughtful interview experience
Building a hiring system that reflects your culture and goals
Partnering with people who understand how to scale without losing your edge
That’s the work that sets you up for long-term hiring success.
And you don’t have to do it alone.
And candidates: if you’re interviewing with scrappy startups, listen up.
These companies are likely figuring it out as they go. That means the job description you applied to? Might already be out of date. The hiring manager you’re speaking with? Probably wearing three other hats. The process? It’s often fast, chaotic, and messy.
That doesn’t mean it’s a bad place to be. It means you need to show up with clarity.
Here’s how to stand out:
Ask sharp questions. “What business problem is this role solving?” “What’s breaking on the team today that this person is being brought in to fix?” You’ll learn what actually matters, and show them you think like an operator.
Don’t just talk about tasks. Talk about outcomes. Startup teams need people who can take ownership and move fast, not just execute.
Show them you’ve done this before. If you’ve thrived in ambiguity, built scrappy systems, or owned messy transitions, say it clearly. These teams are not hiring for polish. They’re hiring for impact.
Stay flexible, but protect your boundaries. Just because a team is still figuring out what they need doesn’t mean you should twist yourself to fit. Know what you want too.
Startups are exciting, high-growth environments, but they’re also unpredictable. When you show up as a strategic partner, not just a hopeful applicant, you immediately separate yourself from the pile.
See you next Monday,
Robin
#gorogue
The best HR advice comes from those in the trenches. That’s what this is: real-world HR insights delivered in a newsletter from Hebba Youssef, a Chief People Officer who’s been there. Practical, real strategies with a dash of humor. Because HR shouldn’t be thankless—and you shouldn’t be alone in it.