Your First Marketing Hire: A Guide for Startups

One topic that often comes up in my discussions with founders of early-stage startups is marketing talent. 

For starters, how should they think about that critical first marketing hire? What level of experience is appropriate? What skills are must-have vs. nice-to-have? What traits should they watch for? What are the green or red flags? 

While it can be challenging to reduce this to a one-size-fits-all checklist, it is helpful to keep a few key considerations in mind. 

1. ‍ <span class="richtext-line-highlight">Orientation: Growth vs. Foundations</span>

It’s foolish to compile a laundry list of all marketing skills/capabilities and expect your first hire to tick all the boxes. Don’t look for a unicorn. Hire for what you need in the next 1-2 years; don’t hire for what you might need years from now. You can do this later with more accurate information. 

‍Assess where your business is today and what role you expect marketing to play. 

Most marketing professionals fall broadly into these two orientations: Foundations and Growth. 

Yes, some folks could position themselves as a mix of both, but their superpowers will likely be in one category. 

As this is your first hire - you need to look for leverage or outsized capability where it matters, not average competence across multiple skills.

Remember to hire for strengths, not for the absence of weaknesses [all due credit to Ben Horowitz]. 

While it is essential that the founder and other C Suite members (Product/Sales) interview the prospective hire, including an actual marketer in the screening process is imperative to validate domain expertise. Reach out to senior marketers you trust from your personal or professional network to help. 

A few of the roles & capabilities under each category: 

‍A] Foundations Orientation: 

• Product & Brand Marketing
• Creative Strategy & Content
• Organic Social 
• Community 
• Customer research/insights 

Foundations-oriented marketers are skilled at ensuring the startup is clearly positioned with its ICP, whether through developing audience personas, creative & content assets, or driving organic engagement with communities. 

These marketers focus more on strategy and building organically for the longer term than on an active go-to-market orientation. Activation plans can be managed via an agency or by hiring a growth marketer as the second hire.  

‍B] Growth Orientation:

• Performance Marketing
• Lead Generation
• CRO & Analytics 
• Affiliates
• Content syndication 
• Events & Webinars

Growth-oriented marketers have a go-to-market mindset and can build an engine [i.e., repeatable process] to drive commercial impact quickly. They are action-oriented and data-driven, operate well in a test-and-learn mode, and work well with product or dev teams.  

It’s important to note that some fundamentals need to be in place before they can genuinely scale and add value—e.g., the founder, product teams, and/or agencies should have developed [+vetted] the value proposition with the ICP, core messaging assets, and a basic website/app. 

If you’re not sure what kind of marketer suits you, here are some broad recommendations by parameters: 

As mentioned above, you should bring in contractors or agencies to fill gaps as needed.  But prioritize capabilities you want in-house for the full-time hire [e.g. what needs tighter alignment with business goals or seamless coordination with internal teams] vs. what you’re happy to outsource until you can hire more full-time staff.  

2. <span class="richtext-line-highlight">Years of experience: Preferably 6- 8 years. </span>

Why is this the sweet spot? 

A marketing professional with 6-8 years of experience should have enough functional expertise [ideally as a senior IC, i.e., individual contributor] to cut through the noise and decide what to focus on when resources are limited. Someone at this level would also have experienced both boom and bust economic cycles and would have the agility and resilience to adapt. 

In addition, this person is likely to be more open to getting his/her hands dirty in execution vs. a pure strategy or team management preference that typically kicks in after 10+ years of experience. 

3. ‍<span class="richtext-line-highlight">Mindset & Traits </span>

• You want the first marketing hire to challenge existing thinking and be comfortable pushing back against authority—albeit backed by sound data and judgment. This is the only way to transition from founder-led marketing to a marketer taking the reins.

Don’t hire a ‘yes’ person to execute the founder’s ideas; this would be a wasted opportunity. 

• The first hire should be able to advocate for marketing with the founder/other CXOs and be able to “sell” initiatives to people who don’t understand marketing. Look for the ability to build a business case or budget from the ground up [e.g. zero-based budgeting]
• Highly motivated to prioritize & drive outcomes at a “0 to 70” phase [Build from Scratch] vs. a steady-state “90 to 95” [Optimize & Refine] phase. 
• Curious above all else. Desire to experiment and learn as the company scales, including how related functions work, e.g., product, sales, or partnerships, as part of a broader go-to-market strategy. 

A few sample questions to get you started: 

• ‍Tell me about a time at work when you disagreed with your manager on a project or campaign. How did you manage this? 
• When did you last build a marketing initiative from scratch - i.e., without an existing playbook or precedent? How did you manage buy-in from other stakeholders? 
• Tell me about a good day at the office for you. And what does a bad day look like? 
• What was a new skill you learned this year? Work or non-work related? Why was this important to you? 

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