When Should You make Your First Sales Hire? (Later Than You Think)

There's a moment every founder hits where the answer feels obvious: I need to hire someone for this.

And it makes complete sense. You can't do everything yourself. You need a dedicated revenue person. Once you have them, things will move.

But what if the hire wasn't bad? What if the system they walked into was?

The 9-month hire cycle is one of the most expensive mistakes a scaling company makes — and it happens so often it barely registers as a mistake anymore. In this post, we break down why most first sales hires fail before they ever had a chance, and what you need to build before you bring anyone on.

The answer to "when should I hire?" is almost always: later than you think.