Startup HR
First 50 hires, founder-led HR, when to hire your first people lead, equity and offers without a template.
For: Founders, early-stage operators
The First 50 Hires: A Founder’s Playbook
What to actually do — and stop doing — as a founder hiring your way from 5 employees to 50 without breaking the team.
When to Make Your First People Hire
A decision framework for founders: the signals that say it's time, which role to hire first, what the first 90 days should produce, and how to pay for it.
Founder Offer Letters and Equity Packages: A Plain-English Guide to Getting It Right
First-time founders make their most expensive mistakes in offer letters and equity grants. Mis-grants are nearly impossible to unwind.
State of People Ops in Nepal & South Asia 2026
Inaugural annual report: how 200+ startups across Nepal, India, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Pakistan actually hire, pay, retain and structure people teams in…
Real people budget: USD 84k a year for a 42-person org
Line-by-line breakdown of a Series A people team budget — every tool, every program, every hire — with what we'd cut and what we'd double.
HR for the first 10, 50, and 200 employees: a staged founder's guide
What HR actually looks like at 10, 50, and 200 employees — the systems, hires, policies, and budgets that work at each stage, and the ones that backfire if…
Founder-as-CPO: Operating the People Function to 200 Employees
Most founders do not hire a real Head of People until 100–150 employees. For everything before that, the founder is the de-facto CPO.
Seed to Series B: The People Stack You Actually Need
The honest minimum people-systems stack for a venture-backed company from seed to Series B — and what you do not need yet, no matter how good the sales pitch…
Equity Refresh Strategy: What Early-Stage Companies Get Wrong
Most early-stage companies build a generous initial-grant policy and forget that vesting is a four-year clock. Without a refresh strategy, your best people…