It usually starts with a backlog.
A product update that’s weeks behind. A dozen unread investor emails. A social post that was supposed to go live yesterday. You built something people want, but now everything is moving faster than you can manage. You’re still doing demos. Still answering support tickets. Still trying to write the monthly newsletter at midnight.
Somewhere between chasing users and keeping the lights on, the thought creeps in: I need help.
Not just any help. Marketing help. Someone who can tell your story, bring in leads, make the numbers go up. But hiring your first marketer isn’t as simple as posting a job on LinkedIn and praying for a unicorn. And it’s not a decision you want to rush.
Because getting this hire wrong can cost more than time—it can stall your momentum entirely.
So before you hit “publish” on that job ad, there are a few things you should know.
Why founders get marketing hires wrong the first time
Most first-time founder-marketer hires start with good intentions—and end with quiet frustration.
You picture someone who will just “take marketing off your plate.” Someone who can figure it out, build a plan, run the ads, grow the list, post on socials, spin up landing pages, and somehow know exactly what your brand should sound like… all without much input from you.
So you hire fast. Maybe it’s someone with agency experience. Or a generalist who’s worn ten hats at a bigger company. Or worse, a specialist who talks a good game but has never touched early-stage chaos.
Then a few weeks go by.
They’re waiting for direction. You’re waiting for results. And neither of you is sure what the other is supposed to be doing.
It’s not about competence. It’s about fit.
Early-stage companies aren’t normal environments. There’s no playbook. No safety net. And marketing, at this point, isn’t about polished decks or brand guidelines—it’s about experimentation, iteration, and learning what makes people care.
Founders often mistake motion for progress. They want marketing activity—blogs, emails, ad tests—but skip over the strategy. Or they do the opposite: hire someone strategic who doesn’t know how to execute.
The result? Lots of noise. Very little traction.
Hiring a marketer before understanding what kind of marketer you need is like hiring a chef without knowing what kind of restaurant you’re opening.
Know your company’s marketing stage before bringing someone in
Founders love the idea of finding “a marketing person who can do it all.”
But there’s a difference between what you want and what you actually need.
Some startups bring in a growth marketer before they even know who their ideal customer is. Others hire a brand strategist when there’s nothing to strategize—just a half-working product and a handful of beta users. The mismatch isn’t always obvious until months have passed and nothing’s moved.
One founder I spoke to hired a paid ads specialist straight out of a DTC rocketship. The hire was smart, experienced, and enthusiastic. But there was a problem. They didn’t have product-market fit yet. They didn’t even have a proper funnel. The ad spend disappeared, and so did the enthusiasm.
Another founder went the opposite route. Bootstrapped, slow and steady. He brought in someone who understood early-stage hustle—scrappy experiments, tight feedback loops, deep user conversations. It wasn’t flashy. But it worked.
The kind of marketer you need depends on what your business is ready for. If you’re still figuring out what resonates, hire someone who knows how to test and listen. If you’ve got demand but no systems, hire someone who can build and scale operations. Skip the hype. Hire for reality.
What you need to prepare first
Hiring a marketer doesn’t fix a messy foundation. It just makes the cracks more obvious.
One founder I worked with brought in a full-time content marketer expecting leads to roll in within weeks. But they hadn’t nailed their messaging. They couldn’t describe their customer clearly. Even the product positioning shifted every other week. The marketer tried to make sense of it—but every campaign felt like guesswork. Eventually, they both walked away disappointed.
This happens more than most admit.
A good marketer can help shape your narrative, but they’re not there to invent your business for you. If you haven’t figured out the core story—who it’s for, what it solves, and why it matters—they’re just throwing darts in the dark.
Before you bring anyone on, take a hard look at what’s already in place:
- Do you know who your best customers are and what they actually care about?
- Have you written down your key differentiators—or are they still swirling in your head?
- Is there a clear goal for marketing? (And no, “get more leads” isn’t enough.)
- Are you ready to give real access—to customers, to product, to internal discussions?
Marketing isn’t magic. It runs on inputs. If you’re not prepared to hand over those inputs, don’t expect great output.
Traits that matter more than titles
Founders often get starry-eyed over résumés.
“Former head of growth at [insert buzzy startup].”
“Built a content engine that 10x’d traffic.”
“Ran million-dollar campaigns.”
Sounds impressive—until they join and nothing clicks.
The truth is, early-stage marketing isn’t about big numbers or shiny titles. It’s about adaptability. Curiosity. Judgment. You want someone who can sit with ambiguity, ask better questions, and spot patterns before they show up on a dashboard.
I once met a marketer who turned a floundering product into a niche success—not with paid ads or viral campaigns, but by spending two weeks talking to every customer and rewriting the onboarding emails based on what he learned. No fancy tools. No budget. Just clarity and guts.
That’s the kind of person you want early on.
You don’t need a “director of brand” who’s never touched a landing page. Or a “performance lead” who panics without a six-figure ad budget. You need a builder. Someone who gets excited about testing messy ideas and learning fast.
It’s tempting to chase the polish. But the polish comes later. First, find someone who’s hungry enough to start with rough edges—and sharp enough to know what to do with them.
Red flags founders often miss
Not all red flags show up in the interview.
Some of them appear in the first month—subtle things that feel off, but are easy to brush aside when you’re busy. A marketer who talks a lot about “building the brand” but never asks about revenue. Someone who avoids hard numbers or insists it’s “too early” to measure. Or worse, they promise fast growth but can’t explain how.
I’ve seen founders hire marketers who dazzled in interviews with trendy jargon. Funnels, flywheels, virality. Then three months later, no one could tell what had actually changed.
A real marketer asks uncomfortable questions. They challenge your assumptions. They want access to customer calls, product roadmaps, and sales data. They don’t hide behind buzzwords. They hunt for traction.
If they’re vague, overly polished, or allergic to accountability—that’s your cue to slow down.
Hiring your first marketer shouldn’t feel like rolling the dice. You’re bringing in a thought partner, not outsourcing your growth. If they don’t treat the business like their own, they’re not the one.
How to set your first marketer up for success
A good marketer can’t win without context. And too many founders hand over the reins without handing over the map.
One founder I worked with had a different approach. Before day one, he shared everything—customer interviews, Slack threads, product notes, even rough thoughts about pricing. Weekly syncs weren’t just status updates. They were strategy huddles. And any time the marketer asked for feedback, they got it fast and unfiltered.
It worked.
Not because the hire was perfect, but because they had the tools, trust, and clarity to make real moves.
If you want your first marketer to thrive, you need to treat them like a teammate, not a task manager. That means:
- Giving them direct access to customers—calls, feedback, real conversations
- Involving them in product discussions, not just campaigns
- Setting goals that tie back to actual business milestones, not vanity metrics
- Creating space to test, fail, and learn—without getting penalized for taking risks
Early-stage marketing is messy. There will be false starts. But if you create an environment where your marketer feels informed and trusted, you’ll get momentum. Not overnight. But faster than you think.
This isn’t a silver bullet hire
Hiring your first marketer isn’t a growth hack.
It’s a commitment. To clarity. To communication. To letting someone else shape the way your story gets told.
It can be the hire that unlocks your next stage. But only if you treat it like what it is: a partnership.
This isn’t about outsourcing a problem. It’s about bringing in someone who can help you understand it better—and build your way through it.
So take your time. Ask better questions. Set the stage before anyone steps into the role.
Because when it works, it doesn’t just free up your time. It sharpens your focus. And it shows you what’s really possible when your product finally gets the marketing it deserves.
