How to Hire the Right Team: Avoid the Founder Hiring Trap
- Bonny Morlak
- Oct 8
- 3 min read
You Just Raised Millions, Now What?
You just raised millions. Your startup finally has breathing room, investors are watching, and your team expects momentum.
The fastest way to waste all that money and kill your startup? Hiring the wrong people.
When I ran my first American startup in New York, I thought the secret was to grab the best resume. Someone who had scaled before, had impressive connections, and looked like a savior. Six months later, revenue was flat, culture was broken, and I was wondering if I had hired my startup assassin.
The wrong hire doesn’t just slow you down. They cost you runway, credibility, and sometimes the whole company.
I’ve seen this story repeat with countless founders I coach. Brilliant people who raised millions only to burn through a year of cash because the “dream hire” turned into a nightmare.
Why Great Resumes Can Wreck Startups
At Series A, you feel pressure from investors and from your own exhaustion. You’re still firefighting. Your calendar looks like a Jackson Pollock painting, and the idea of hiring someone to take it all off your plate feels like salvation.
That’s exactly when you’re most vulnerable to the wrong hire.
So don’t outsource sales or product too soon. Prove that two reps can hit quota before you even whisper “VP.”
Instead of worshipping resumes, look for pattern match, people who have scaled from your stage to the next.
Because some shiny hires come from vastly different companies with deep resources and rigid systems. They bring that big-company culture into your scrappy startup, and it never fits.
This is where founders lose speed. The person who thrived in a 500-person org may struggle in a 5-person sprint.
The Founder’s Hiring Playbook
Write down the three jobs only you can do as a founder. Then design every new hire around leverage, not ego.
In the hiring process, listen to your instincts. The right hire feels like oxygen. The wrong one feels like you wouldn’t want to sit next to them for a six-hour flight. Know the difference.
Also, intelligent and ambitious people with strong cultural fit always learn new skills. Skilled assholes will always be assholes.
Hire for culture first. Life’s better that way, and you are more likely to succeed.
How to Hire the Right Team (In Practice)
Here’s what this means in practical terms:
Validate the role. Make sure the work truly needs a new person before filling the seat.
Define outcomes, not titles. Don’t hire “a Head of Sales.” Hire someone who can close X amount in Y time.
Test for pattern match. Ask what they shipped, scaled, or solved at a company your size.
Check cultural chemistry. Would you trust them in chaos? Would they thrive with limited structure?
Create leverage. If the role doesn’t free you to do higher-value work, it’s not the right hire yet.
Scaling Without Burning Runway
The right team multiplies momentum. The wrong one multiplies mistakes.
When in doubt, slow down the hire. Spend more time defining what success looks like, and build a shortlist of people who match your startup’s energy, not just its LinkedIn page.
Founders don’t fail because of bad products. They fail because they lose focus and fill seats too fast.
ChatGPT Prompts for Founders Who Are Scaling
If you’re hiring right now and want to make smarter, faster decisions, I built something for you. The ChatGPT Prompts for Founders It’s a short guide with tactical prompts for startup leaders who are scaling, hiring, delegating, and building culture with clarity.
Use it to plan roles, write better job descriptions, and design your own founder operating system.
Watch the Full Breakdown
If this post hit home, share it with a founder who’s hiring right now. The wrong hire can burn a year of progress, the right one can change everything.
And if you’ve learned this lesson the hard way, I’d love to hear your story.
Drop a comment on the YouTube video or message me directly.
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