The Perfect Startup Onboarding: A 30-Day Template

Bad onboarding is the fastest way to lose a great hire. After spending months finding the right person and thousands of dollars recruiting them, too many startups drop the ball on their first day. The new hire gets a laptop, a Slack invite, and a vague instruction to figure things out.

Good onboarding is deliberate, structured, and designed to make new hires productive and excited as quickly as possible.

Week 1: Context and Connections

Day one should feel special. Set up their equipment in advance. Have their manager greet them. Schedule a welcome lunch with the team. The goal is to make them feel expected and valued.

Days two and three are about product immersion. Have them use the product as a customer. Walk them through the architecture. Show them customer feedback, good and bad. By the end of day three, they should understand what the company does, who it serves, and why it matters.

Days four and five, they should ship something small. For engineers, merge a real pull request. For salespeople, shadow a customer call. For marketers, draft a piece of content. The act of contributing, even something small, creates belonging.

Week 2: Deeper Integration

Pair them with experienced team members. Let them attend customer calls and internal meetings. Start involving them in real projects. Schedule their first one-on-one with their manager and ask for feedback in both directions: what is going well and what could be better.

Weeks 3-4: Independent Contribution

By now they should own a meaningful project. Have them present their work to the team. Encourage them to suggest improvements to processes they have observed. Set 90-day goals together that are ambitious but achievable.

The Bottom Line

Invest in onboarding. The first 30 days determine whether someone becomes a 10x contributor or starts quietly looking for their next role. A little structure goes a long way.