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Hiring at the pre-seed stage is a bit like packing for a long hike when you don鈥檛 know what the weather will do. You need to travel light, be prepared for sudden changes and carry only what will help you get to base camp. In other words, every hire has to earn their weight聽 – there鈥檚 simply no room for passengers.

For most early-stage founders, deciding who to bring on first is as much about mindset as it is about skill sets. You鈥檙e not just building a product – you鈥檙e building a culture, a rhythm of work and a foundation for growth. So, who should be sitting at the table when there are only a handful of chairs?

Let鈥檚 break down the roles that actually matter at pre-seed and how to think about hiring when every decision counts.

Founders First: Do You Actually Need to Hire Yet?

Before you start crafting job ads, be honest about your own capabilities. If you and your co-founder already have a good technical and product foundation, you might not need to hire anyone immediately. Many of the best startups got their first users with just two or three people wearing multiple hats.

At this stage, overhiring too early is a common trap. Every additional team member adds complexity聽 – that is, things like more meetings, more communication overhead, more cash burn. So, unless a gap is slowing down your progress, your first 鈥渉ire鈥� might just be a contractor or a freelance expert.

The Technical Lead or Engineer

If your founding team doesn鈥檛 already include a technical co-founder, your first must-hire is likely a senior engineer or technical lead. You need someone who can do more than write clean code – they need to build prototypes quickly, troubleshoot under pressure and shape the early technical architecture.

Ideally, this person isn鈥檛 just task-oriented but entrepreneurial themselves. They should be comfortable in chaos, okay with ambiguity and willing to contribute to product thinking, even if their job title doesn鈥檛 say 鈥減roduct.鈥�

If you鈥檙e building a software product, this hire is critical. Without them, nothing moves.

The Product-Oriented Generalist

You need someone who can bridge the gap between the messy ideas in your head and a product that users want. This might be a product manager, a UX designer or simply a generalist who can handle everything from user research to writing landing page copy.

This role is especially valuable if your founding team leans technical. A product generalist can translate customer insights into features, organise your early roadmap and keep the team focused on solving real problems rather than chasing shiny features.

Customer Development & Growth

Even if you’re not ready to go all-in on sales or marketing, someone needs to be obsessed with your early users. That might mean sending cold emails, jumping on discovery calls, running small ads or hacking together onboarding flows. This person is all about traction.

You don鈥檛 necessarily need a Head of Growth or a VP of Sales at pre-seed. What you need is a hustler – someone who knows how to test messages, close your first users and bring back feedback to the product team.

In many cases, one of the founders should take on this role at the start. But if you鈥檝e validated your idea and are preparing for a bigger launch, hiring someone scrappy and resourceful here can accelerate your progress.

Don鈥檛 Forget: Ops and Admin Might Be the Hidden MVP

Startups are messy, and someone has to keep the wheels turning. Payroll, invoices, contracts, scheduling, legal docs – none of it鈥檚 glamorous, but all of it matters. You might not need a full-time operations hire yet, but even a part-time ops assistant or virtual PA can free up enormous mental space for founders.

Don鈥檛 underestimate the value of operational clarity when your team is small. If you鈥檙e constantly bogged down in admin, your product and users will suffer.

Culture Fit Over the Perfect Resume

At this stage, technical brilliance or a glittering CV won鈥檛 help if the person isn鈥檛 a good fit. Early-stage startups thrive on trust, energy and a shared belief in the mission. Your first hires will shape how decisions are made, how feedback is shared and how wins are celebrated.

Look for people who are resilient, curious and low-ego. People who are okay with things being 鈥済ood enough for now.鈥� People who can stretch beyond their job description without needing a manager to tell them how.聽These are the folks who鈥檒l build with you, not just work for you.

Your first hires are about more than filling roles – they鈥檙e about building momentum. You don鈥檛 need a full team; you need the right people in the room.

Be strategic. Hire slowly. Prioritise doers over planners. And make sure every person brings something essential to your early climb.

Because at the pre-seed stage, it鈥檚 not about polishing the machine – it鈥檚 about building it from scratch. And the people you start with will make all the difference.