Plan startup hiring from pre-seed through Series A. Organize roles, reporting lines, salaries, and equity compensation, then estimate staffing costs and hiring timelines around revenue goals, funding milestones, and budget limits.
Design optimal team structures, hiring plans, compensation strategies, and equity allocation for early-stage startups from pre-seed through Series A. Use this skill when planning headcount, determining which roles to hire next, setting compensation or equity ranges, designing org structure, or building a hiring budget aligned to funding milestones.
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Design optimal team structures, hiring plans, compensation strategies, and equity allocation for early-stage startups from pre-seed through Series A.
Build the right team at the right time with appropriate compensation and equity. Plan role-by-role hiring aligned with revenue milestones, budget constraints, and market benchmarks.
Team Size: 2-5 people
Core Roles:
Focus: Build and validate product-market fit
Team Size: 5-15 people
Key Hires:
Focus: Scale product and prove repeatable sales
Team Size: 15-50 people
Department Build-Out:
Focus: Scale revenue and build repeatable processes
Originally a 1720-byte section in this SKILL.md. Moved to references/details.md to fit Codex's 8 KB skill body cap.
Engineering:
Sales:
Product:
Marketing:
Customer Success:
Total Comp = Base Salary × 1.30 (benefits & taxes) + Equity Value
Fully-Loaded Cost:
Rule of Thumb: Multiply base salary by 1.3-1.4 for fully-loaded cost
San Francisco / New York: +20-30% above benchmarks Seattle / Boston / Los Angeles: +10-20% Austin / Denver / Chicago: +0-10% Remote / Other US Cities: -10-20% International: Varies widely by country
Founders:
Early Employees (Pre-Seed):
Seed Stage Hires:
Series A Hires:
Option Pool by Round:
Pre-Funding Dilution: Investors often require option pool creation before investment, diluting founders.
Example:
Pre-money: $10M
Investors want 15% option pool post-money
Calculation:
Post-money: $15M ($10M + $5M investment)
Option pool: $2.25M (15% × $15M)
Founders diluted by pool creation before new money
Pre-Seed:
Founders (flat structure)
├── Contractors
└── First hires (report to founders)
Seed:
CEO
├── Engineering Lead (2-4 engineers)
├── Sales/Growth Lead (1-2 reps)
├── Product Manager
└── Operations
Series A:
CEO
├── CTO / VP Engineering (6-20 people)
│ ├── Engineering Manager(s)
│ └── Individual Contributors
├── VP Sales (5-15 people)
│ ├── Sales Manager
│ ├── Account Executives
│ └── SDRs
├── Head of Product (2-5 people)
│ ├── Product Managers
│ └── Designers
├── Head of Customer Success (2-5 people)
└── CFO / Finance Lead (2-5 people)
├── Recruiter
└── Operations
Manager Ratios:
Full-Time:
Contract:
Role Opening to Hire:
Time to Productivity:
Always add 2-3 months buffer to hiring plans.
Example: If need engineer by July 1:
Early Stage (Seed):
Growth Stage (Series A):
Total Comp Budget = Σ (Role Count × Fully-Loaded Cost × % of Year)
Example:
3 Engineers × $202K × 100% = $606K
2 AEs × $230K × 75% (mid-year start) = $345K
1 PM × $162K × 100% = $162K
Total: $1.1M
To plan team composition:
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