Building a new team is one of the most consequential hiring projects a business takes on. It might be a new practice in a consultancy, a new capability in a technology business, or a function that has outgrown being one person’s side job. Whatever the shape, the question is the same: who do you hire first, and in what order do the rest follow?
It sounds like a headcount question. It is really a sequencing question. The first two or three people you hire decide the standard, the culture and the reputation of the team, and they shape every hiring decision that comes after them. Get the order right and the team builds on itself. Get it wrong and you spend the next year correcting it.
Here is how to think about the first hires, the order that tends to work, and when hiring a ready-made group makes sense.
Why the first hire matters more than any other
In an established team, one hire is one hire. In a new team, the first hire is also the person who will interview, persuade and onboard everyone else. They become the example candidates look at when deciding whether to join. Clients judge the new capability by them. Their habits become the team’s habits.
That is why the first hire should almost always be the person who will lead the team. When businesses hire the team first and the leader later, the leader inherits a structure, a set of people and a set of expectations they did not choose. Some will make it work. Many will spend their first months undoing decisions instead of building.
What the anchor hire needs to bring
Early on there is nobody to manage, so the lead of a new team has to do three jobs at once:
- Deliver the work. In the first months, the lead is often the main person doing it. They need to have done it recently and well, not just supervised it.
- Build the team. They will shape briefs, assess candidates and sell the opportunity. Someone who has hired and developed people before will do this far better than someone doing it for the first time.
- Represent the capability. To clients, to the rest of the business and to the market. Credibility matters, and it is hard to borrow.
People who combine all three are rare, which is exactly why this hire deserves the most time, the clearest brief and the widest search.
The order that tends to work
Every team is different, but most new teams are built in roughly the same layers. The table below sets out what each layer does and the mistake most often made with it.
| Hire | What they do for the team | Common mistake |
|---|---|---|
| The anchor (team lead) | Sets the standard, shapes the brief for every later hire and gives the team credibility with clients and candidates | Hiring a strong individual contributor and hoping they will grow into leading and recruiting a team |
| The first senior specialist | Proves the work can be delivered, takes pressure off the lead and becomes the reference point for quality | Hiring someone who mirrors the lead’s strengths instead of covering their gaps |
| The delivery layer | Adds capacity once demand is proven, so senior people stop doing everything themselves | Hiring too many too early, before there is enough work to keep them busy and learning |
| The connector | Owns client relationships, coordination or operations so specialists can stay on the work | Leaving it until the lead is overwhelmed and quality starts to slip |
| Interim or contract cover | Bridges a gap while a permanent hire is found, or tests demand before committing | Letting a stopgap become the permanent structure by default |
Hire to cover gaps, not to mirror strengths
The second senior hire is where many new teams go wrong. Leaders naturally warm to candidates who think and work as they do. The result is a team with the same strengths twice and the same gaps twice. If your lead is outstanding with clients but less interested in process, the next senior hire should probably be the person who loves structure, not another rainmaker.
Let demand set the pace
The delivery layer, the people who add capacity, should follow demand rather than lead it. Hire too early and expensive people sit under-used, lose momentum and start to wonder why they joined. Hire too late and the first few people burn out, quality slips and clients notice. The simplest discipline is to agree in advance what level of work triggers the next hire, so the decision is made on evidence rather than in a panic.
Do not forget the connector
New teams of specialists often run into the same wall: the specialists end up doing coordination, client admin and operations, and the work they were hired for suffers. A connecting role, whether that is client management, delivery coordination or operations, is easy to postpone and expensive to leave too long. Plan for it from the start, even if you hire it third or fourth.
Lift-outs: hiring a team that already works together
Sometimes the fastest way to build a team is to hire one that already exists. A lift-out means hiring a leader and some of their colleagues from another organisation at around the same time. Done well, it gives you people who already trust each other, already know how to work together and can be productive almost immediately.
It is not a shortcut for every situation. A lift-out tends to make sense when:
- Speed to a working team genuinely matters, for example because client demand is already there.
- The group’s way of working is a large part of what you want, not just their individual skills.
- You have the budget and the senior sponsorship to bring several people in at once.
The risks are real too. Several hires at once cost more, and if the group does not settle, you can lose them together as quickly as you gained them. A tightly bonded group can also struggle to integrate with the rest of the business. And there are legal considerations: people may have notice periods and restrictive covenants in their current contracts, and approaching a group carries more risk than approaching one person. Take proper legal advice before you start, and approach the lead first rather than the whole group.
Building across borders
New capabilities are often specialist, and specialists rarely all live in one city. If the best person for a role lives in another country, you do not necessarily need to relocate them or set up a business there. You can employ them where they live through your own local entity or through an Employer of Record, which employs them on your behalf under local law while you direct their work.
The key is to decide early which roles genuinely need to be on site and which can be done from elsewhere, and to say so in the brief. Our guides on your first hire in a new country and relocating versus hiring remotely go into the options in more detail.
Common mistakes when building a new team
- Hiring the team before the leader, so the leader inherits decisions they would not have made.
- Writing one brief for every role, instead of a specific brief for what each hire must add to the people already there.
- Hiring for today’s workload only, with no view of what the team should look like in a year.
- Treating the early hires as a one-off, rather than planning how the team will keep recruiting once it exists.
- Stopping at the offer. In a new team there is no established way of doing things to fall back on, so onboarding matters even more. Our article on the first 90 days covers this.
A sensible sequence for building a new team
- Agree what the team is for, what success looks like in its first year and what budget is committed.
- Write the brief for the leader first, and give that search the most time and the widest reach.
- Involve the leader in defining every role that follows.
- Make the second senior hire cover the leader’s gaps, not repeat their strengths.
- Agree the demand triggers for adding delivery capacity.
- Plan the connecting role early, even if you hire it later.
- Decide which roles need to be on site and which can be filled from anywhere.
- Use interim cover deliberately, with an agreed end point.
Frequently asked questions
Who should be the first hire in a new team?
Usually the person who will lead it. The first hire sets the standard, helps write the brief for every role that follows and is the person future candidates will judge the team by. If you hire the team first and the leader later, the leader inherits choices they did not make.
Should the first hire be a manager or a hands-on specialist?
For most new teams, both. Early on there is nobody to manage, so the lead needs to deliver the work themselves while also recruiting and building. Look for someone who has done the work recently and has also hired and developed people, rather than someone who has only done one or the other.
What is a team lift-out?
A lift-out is hiring several people who already work together, often a leader and some of their colleagues, from another organisation at the same time. It can give you a working team quickly, but it costs more, carries more risk if the group does not settle, and needs care around any restrictive covenants in their current contracts. Take legal advice before approaching a group.
How quickly should we build out a new team?
At the pace demand is proven. Hiring ahead of demand leaves expensive people under-used; hiring behind it burns out the first few people and slows delivery. A sensible approach is to agree in advance what level of work or revenue triggers each next hire.
Can a new team include people in other countries?
Yes. If the best specialist for a role lives abroad, you can employ them where they are, either through your own local entity or through an Employer of Record, without setting up a business there. Decide whether the role needs to be on site before the search starts, so it does not become a late surprise.
Build it in the right order
A new team is built one decision at a time, and the early decisions carry the most weight. Start with the right leader, sequence the rest around what the team actually needs, and let real demand set the pace. The result is a team that strengthens with every hire instead of one that has to be rebuilt.
If you are building a new team or practice and need specialists who are hard to find, get in touch. For a wider look at how businesses find people who are not actively looking, read our guide to outbound recruiting, and find more practical guides on our Insights page.