Hiring & Team Building
Helps founders build a strong early team and avoid the hires that set a company back a year.
Track
HR and Workforce
Format
In person, 889 Harbourside Drive
Length
Five modules
Taught by
Aragon's HR lead
About the course
A bad hire in a team of six costs more than a missed quarter. The role goes unfilled while it is occupied, the work does not move, and the decision to act usually comes months after everyone already knew.
This short program covers hiring at that scale. You will work through when to hire against when to wait or contract, how to evaluate candidates on evidence rather than impressions, and how to run a structured process that makes people comparable instead of memorable. It also covers the two conversations founders find hardest: compensation, including how to explain equity to someone weighing another offer, and what to do when a hire is not working.
Taught by mentors who have built early teams and made these mistakes themselves. It is built for founders making their first five to ten hires.
What Participants Will Learn
- Hiring strategy and timing
- Evaluating and interviewing candidates
- Salary and equity decisions
- Early team structure
Course Outline
Module 1: Hiring Strategy
- When to hire, when to wait, and when to contract instead
- Writing the role around the work rather than the title
Module 2: Talent Identification
- Sourcing when the company has no employer brand yet
- Evaluating a candidate on evidence rather than impression
Module 3: Interview Process
- Structured interviews and scorecards that make candidates comparable
- Interviewing for a skill you do not have yourself
Module 4: Compensation
- Salary against equity, and explaining the trade to a candidate
- Closing someone who has other options
Module 5: Team Scaling
- Early org structure and who the next hire reports to
- Recognising a hire that is not working, and acting early
Who it is for
Founders making their first five to ten hires.
Founders in the Aragon portfolio take these courses as part of the work we already do with them. Courses are also open to founders and professionals outside the portfolio.
Bring your own open roles. The sessions work through real hiring decisions, and the more of yours you bring, the more useful the five modules are.