Congratulations on a job well done raising your first (or second, or third) series round funding. You were able to sell your vision and you now have many people counting on you to drive the business to grow and succeed.

With growth comes the need for exceptional people to lead the way, and one of the biggest mistakes you can make at this stage is hiring the wrong people. In fact, the cost of a bad hire for a startup in the U.S. is at least 30 percent of the individual's first year expected earnings. So, if you hire an employee with an annual income of $250,000, it could cost the company $75,000 on that bad hire. Not counting the time wasted during the hiring process, or the opportunity cost of the growth and forward momentum you could have been gaining. Your first “head of” hires will also have an enormous impact on the development of your company culture — a non-negotiable for attracting and retaining top talent.

As a business specializing in matching top talent with high growth startups, we’re happy to share our insights gleaned from working with founders across the U.S. on the common mistakes that founders make when approaching the hiring process.

In this guide, we offer best practice advice when approaching your first-time executive hires across Product, Engineering, Go-to-Market, Design, Finance, and People/Talent. Download it above.