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For pre-seed to Series A founders

The Origin Team Guide

How to sequence your first ten to twenty hires so the company can still change direction at hire eleven.

Author
Terra Talent
Status
In production
Access
Free, email required
An open sketchbook and material samples on a stone table in daylight.

Who it is for

  • Technical founders making their first hires outside their own discipline
  • Pre-seed and seed companies converting a raise into capability
  • First-time CEOs planning headcount against a technical milestone
  • Investors who want a shared framework with their founders

The problem it solves

The earliest hires do not just fill seats. They decide what the company is capable of, what standard becomes normal, and who the next fifty people will be willing to work for.

Most founders sequence these hires by instinct and discover the cost eighteen months later, when the team is strong at the thing they already knew how to do and thin everywhere else.

What is inside

  1. 01The milestone the team actually has to deliver, and working backwards from it
  2. 02Which capabilities stay founder-owned, and for how long
  3. 03Sequencing the first ten to twenty hires
  4. 04Builder versus mature-company executive, and how to tell them apart in an interview
  5. 05Equity and compensation considerations at pre-seed and seed
  6. 06Interview and reference systems you can set up in a week
  7. 07When to hire talent leadership
  8. 08The origin-team mistakes we see most often

The other two guides