When and How to Hire Your First Head of Growth

# When and How to Hire Your First Head of Growth

Growth is the lifeblood of venture-backed startups. But hiring for growth too early or hiring the wrong type of growth person can waste precious runway. Here's how to think about this critical hire.

When You're Ready

### Signs It's Time - You have product-market fit signals - You've found at least one scalable acquisition channel - Founders can't dedicate enough time to growth - You have budget for paid acquisition experiments - Your product can support increased volume

### Signs You're Not Ready - Still searching for PMF - No idea what channels might work - Zero organic growth momentum - Product can't handle more users - No budget for experiments

Types of Growth Hires

### The Growth Generalist Best for: Early stage, pre-Series A - Can run experiments across channels - Comfortable with ambiguity - Data-savvy but not purely analytical - Can do some of the execution themselves

### The Channel Specialist Best for: Post-Series A with clear channel fit - Deep expertise in your winning channel - Track record of scaling that channel - Can build a team around the channel - Might not be as effective outside specialty

### The Growth Leader Best for: Series B+ - Has scaled growth teams before - Strategic and executional - Can hire and develop a team - Thinks about growth holistically

What to Look For

### Hard Skills - Data analysis and interpretation - Experimentation methodology - Channel expertise (paid, content, viral, etc.) - Basic technical understanding

### Soft Skills - Intellectual curiosity - Comfort with failure - Strong communication - Scrappiness and resourcefulness

The Interview Process

### Screen for Growth Mindset Ask about: - Failed experiments and learnings - How they prioritize what to test - Examples of counterintuitive insights - Their approach to unfamiliar channels

### Test Analytical Ability - Give them a growth problem and data set - Evaluate their framework for thinking - Check whether they ask clarifying questions - See if they identify key levers

### Assess Cultural Fit - How do they work with product teams? - What's their relationship with engineering? - How do they handle constraints? - What motivates them?

Compensation Benchmarks

### Head of Growth - Seed/Series A: $150-200K base + equity - Series B: $180-250K base + equity - Series C+: $220-300K base + equity

### Growth Manager/Lead - $120-180K base + equity

The Bottom Line

The right growth hire can transform your trajectory. The wrong one can burn through budget without results. Be clear on what you need, rigorous in evaluation, and patient until you find the right fit.