Ready to hire your first growth person?

Everything you need to know before you post that job ad.

Nov 27, 2025

Hi there,

Hiring your first growth person can feel like a huge milestone. You’re growing. You’re no longer doing it all yourself. You’re bringing someone in to own growth—woop woop.

But here’s what I’ve learned after helping dozens of DTC and app startups make this hire:

The biggest mistake isn't hiring the wrong person.

It’s not being clear on what you actually need, or whether you’re even ready yet.

So, here are a few of the most important (and most overlooked) lessons I’ve picked up along the way.

This newsletter was originally published on RevenueCat, but it’s a question I get so often that I wanted to share it here too.

Whether you’re about to post a job ad or just starting to think a few steps ahead, this one’s for you.

What to get clear on before you hire

✅ Do you have product-market fit yet?

If you’re still figuring out your positioning, pricing, or audience, your growth hire might end up solving product problems instead of scaling what’s already working. That’s not always wrong, but it’s worth being honest about.

Tip: If retention is shaky and word-of-mouth is weak, consider hiring a product-focused individual or iterating with a founder-led approach before bringing in someone to scale.

✅ Is your data good enough?

Your first growth hire should be making decisions—not rebuilding your analytics setup from scratch. You don’t need a perfect data stack, but you do need visibility into your customer journey and attribution.

Tip: Get foundational tracking in place before hiring. Otherwise, you’re paying them to be your interim data analyst.

✅ Do you have real customer insights?

Even the best growth person can’t make good decisions without understanding your customers. If you haven’t done interviews, surveys, or feedback tagging, you’ll be flying blind.

Tip: A solid insight foundation makes onboarding faster and experimentation smarter.

Structuring the role

🧑‍🏫 Fractional or full-time?

If you’re still early and not 100% sure what kind of growth support you need, consider starting with a fractional role. You’ll make progress without overcommitting too soon.

But if you’ve already validated your key channels and need someone deeply embedded day to day, a full-time hire will have more impact.

🧰 Generalist or specialist?

For most early-stage startups, a generalist is the better first hire, aka someone who can zoom out across acquisition, conversion, and retention, and knows how to prioritise.

Specialists are incredible… once you know exactly what you need.

👶 Junior or experienced?

It’s not just about the CV. It’s about who on your team can mentor them.

A junior hire can absolutely work (some of my best team members started with zero experience), but only if you’ve got the structure, guidance, and support in place.

What to really look for in your first growth hire

Forget the long lists of tools and channels. The best growth people I’ve worked with all shared these four traits:

1. Balance between strategy and execution. They can zoom out and roll up their sleeves. They don’t try to fix everything; they pick the right battle and move fast on what matters.

2. Ability to take feedback. Growth requires collaboration, iteration, and constant course-correction. You want someone who listens, not someone who defends every decision.

3. Curiosity. They ask questions you haven’t thought of. They dig into the "why" behind user behaviour. They don’t stop at the first insight.

4. Raw intelligence. Not “IQ test” smart, but quick to learn, great at connecting dots, and always looking for creative ways to grow. The kind of person who’ll teach you something new.

Recommendation

In every edition of Growth Waves, I also share a related resource to check out related to the week's topic.

This newsletter is a shorter version of a guide I wrote for RevenueCat on your first app growth hire. Definitely check out the complete guide for more insights.

Discussion about this post

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