# The first 20 hires: engineers first, a seller by hire 7

At the median B2B software startup, the first engineer is hire 2, the first salesperson hire 7, the first marketer hire 11 and the first customer success hire 15. Twenty hires take 44 months.

By Cristian Frunze, Founder of Ken · Oct 28, 2026 · [Ken Research](/research) No. 15 · Founders and startups, Hiring and org design, Sales teams

## Key findings

- **Hire 7** is the first salesperson at the median startup, after an engineer at hire 2 and before a marketer at hire 11 and customer success at hire 15.
- **44 months** from the first hire to the 20th at the median startup, with the middle half of startups taking between 30 and 62 months.
- **29 vs 42** months from hire 1 to hire 20 at startups that later reached 100 people, against startups that stayed under 50 people.
- **18.4%** of growers' first 20 hires were in sales, against 15.3% for stallers. We had predicted growers would hire more engineers, not more sellers.

At the median B2B software startup, an engineer is the first or second hire. The first salesperson is **hire 7**. The first marketer joins at hire 11, the first operations or admin hire at hire 12 and the first customer success or support hire at hire 15. Recruiters and finance staff usually come after hire 20.

We rebuilt the first 20 hires of 6,951 software startups founded 2012 to 2022 and headquartered in the US, the UK, Canada, Australia, Ireland or New Zealand: 609,278 hires in all, ordered by the month each person started. Founders, interns, advisors, board members and investors are not counted as hires.

**Figure 1. Half of startups have a seller by hire 7, a marketer by hire 11**

Share of startups with at least one hire in each function among their first n hires. A line crosses the 50% mark at the median first-arrival hire number for that function.

| Hire number | Engineering | Sales | Marketing | Customer success |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | 41.1% | 11.9% | 6.8% | 4.3% |
| 2 | 61.1% | 21.7% | 13.0% | 9.3% |
| 3 | 72.6% | 30.6% | 19.0% | 13.6% |
| 4 | 79.0% | 37.5% | 24.2% | 18.3% |
| 5 | 83.7% | 43.9% | 28.8% | 22.5% |
| 6 | 86.5% | 49.3% | 32.9% | 26.9% |
| 7 | 88.4% | 54.2% | 36.9% | 30.7% |
| 8 | 89.9% | 58.4% | 40.5% | 34.1% |
| 9 | 91.2% | 61.9% | 44.1% | 36.9% |
| 10 | 92.0% | 65.2% | 47.5% | 40.1% |
| 11 | 93.0% | 67.7% | 50.5% | 42.8% |
| 12 | 93.7% | 70.0% | 53.3% | 45.3% |
| 13 | 94.2% | 72.3% | 55.9% | 47.6% |
| 14 | 94.5% | 74.3% | 58.1% | 49.3% |
| 15 | 94.9% | 76.2% | 60.3% | 51.3% |
| 16 | 95.5% | 77.8% | 61.9% | 53.1% |
| 17 | 95.8% | 79.3% | 63.8% | 54.8% |
| 18 | 96.1% | 80.6% | 65.5% | 56.2% |
| 19 | 96.3% | 81.6% | 67.2% | 58.0% |
| 20 | 96.6% | 82.4% | 68.6% | 59.5% |

*Source: Ken internal data (company and career records Ken uses for sales and outreach), analysed by Cristian Frunze.*

## Engineers fill the first seats, sellers the later ones

Engineering is the most common function at each of the first five hires, and it holds 41.1% of hires 1 to 5. By hires 16 to 20 its share is down to 34.0%. Sales, marketing and customer success together rise from 27.1% to 37.2% over the same stretch, with sales alone going from 13.7% to 20.2%.

Across all 20 hires, engineering holds 37.0%, sales 17.4%, marketing 8.0%, product and design 7.9%, customer success and support 7.8% and operations and admin 6.7%. People and recruiting (1.9%) and finance and legal (2.0%) are rare this early.

**Figure 2. Engineering's share falls and sales rises across the first 20 hires**

Share of hires in each function among hires 1 to 5 and among hires 16 to 20, across all 6,951 startups. Data and research, people and recruiting, finance and legal, general management and unclassified titles are left out.

|   | Hires 1-5 | Hires 16-20 |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Engineering | 41.1% | 34.0% |
| Sales | 13.7% | 20.2% |
| Marketing | 7.6% | 8.1% |
| Customer success and support | 5.8% | 8.9% |
| Product and design | 8.5% | 7.4% |
| Operations and admin | 7.1% | 6.6% |

*Source: Ken internal data (company and career records Ken uses for sales and outreach), analysed by Cristian Frunze.*

Some functions never show up in the first 20 at many startups. 82.4% have a salesperson among their first 20 hires, 68.6% a marketer and 59.5% a customer success or support hire. Only 25.0% have a people or recruiting hire, and 28.0% a finance or legal hire.

## The order is a tendency, not a rule

Most startups follow the same broad path, but no single sequence dominates. Among the 2,655 startups whose first 20 hires include an engineer, a salesperson, a marketer and a customer success hire, the most common order is exactly that one, at 11.5%. Close behind come engineering, sales, customer success, then marketing (11.2%), and engineering, marketing, sales, then customer success (10.7%). 12.4% of all the startups made three engineering hires before anyone else.

## Twenty hires take a median 44 months

Counting from the middle of the founding year, hire 10 arrives after a median 31 months and hire 20 after 49. From the first hire to the 20th takes **44 months**, with the middle half of startups between 30 and 62.

Younger startups look faster. Those founded 2021 to 2022 that already have 20 hires got there in 30 months, against 56 for those founded 2012 to 2014. Part of that gap is built in: young startups only make the sample if they reached 20 quickly, and older ones have lost more early profiles. Read it as selection, not a trend.

## Startups that grew hired faster, and added sellers sooner

To compare outcomes fairly, we took the 2,720 startups whose 20th hire came by the end of 2020, so each had more than five years to grow. By early 2026, 606 had reached 100 people and 1,462 had stayed under 50.

- **Pace.** Growers went from hire 1 to hire 20 in 29 months, against 42 for the stallers: 13 months faster (95% interval 11 to 15).
- **Mix.** Their first 20 hires held more salespeople (18.4% against 15.3%) and fewer engineers (36.8% against 39.9%). Their first customer success or support hire came at hire 13, against 17.
- **Scaling roles.** More growers had a people or recruiting hire among their first 20 (29.9% against 23.1%), and a finance or legal hire (34.0% against 26.5%).

**Figure 3. Startups that grew to 100 reached hire 20 more than a year sooner**

Months to each milestone, for startups whose 20th hire came by the end of 2020. Dots are medians; lines span the middle half of startups (25th to 75th percentile). Founding is counted from the middle of the founding year.

|   | Grew to 100 | Middle half of startups | Stayed under 50 | Middle half of startups |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Hire 1 to hire 20 | 29 | 21 to 39 | 42 | 30 to 56 |
| Founding to hire 10 | 21 | 13 to 31 | 28 | 18 to 41 |
| Founding to hire 20 | 32 | 22 to 43 | 47 | 33 to 62 |

*Source: Ken internal data (company and career records Ken uses for sales and outreach), analysed by Cristian Frunze.*

**Figure 4. Growers' first 20 held more sellers and fewer engineers**

Share of hires 1 to 20 in each function, for 606 startups that grew to 100 people and 1,462 that stayed under 50. The sales gap is +3.1 points (95% interval +1.7 to +4.6), the engineering gap -3.1 points (-4.8 to -1.3).

|   | Grew to 100 | Stayed under 50 |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Engineering | 36.8% | 39.9% |
| Sales | 18.4% | 15.3% |
| Customer success and support | 7.9% | 6.7% |
| Marketing | 7.6% | 7.9% |
| Product and design | 7.3% | 8.7% |
| Operations and admin | 6.0% | 6.8% |

*Source: Ken internal data (company and career records Ken uses for sales and outreach), analysed by Cristian Frunze.*

## What we expected, and what we found

We wrote down our predictions before pulling any data. Two of them were wrong in ways that matter.

We expected growers to build a more technical early team, with an engineering share at least 5 points higher and fewer salespeople. They did the opposite: 3.1 points fewer engineers and 3.1 points more salespeople. We also expected them to reach hire 20 in less than half the stallers' time. They took 0.69 of it.

We expected the first salesperson between hires 3 and 6. The median startup hired one at hire 7. The rest of the predicted order held: engineering, then sales, then marketing, then customer success.

This is a comparison, not an experiment. A startup that finds demand early may hire sellers and support because it has customers, rather than grow because it hired them. Reweighting the stallers to the growers' founding years and share of US companies shrinks the pace gap to 10 months and leaves the sales gap in place, at 3.3 points.

## How it fits with the first sales hire

Our earlier study of the first sales hire timed the first account executive at a median 47 months after founding, with 12 people on the team. Companies that passed 100 people hired theirs sooner (36 months against 49) but with a larger team (28 people against 11). An account executive is a narrower role than sales here, which also counts business development and account managers.

## What this data cannot show

- **Six countries only.** Staff elsewhere are missing. A startup whose first engineers sat abroad shows a later first engineer here, and "reached 100" means 100 people visible in these six countries.
- **Missing profiles.** People who deleted a profile, or left a short job off it, are not in the data. Removing a quarter of each startup's hires at random changed no order of first arrivals. It moved the first sales hire from 7 to 6 and customer success from 15 to 14. So the true hire numbers probably sit a little later than measured, and the true pace is a little faster.
- **Same-month starts.** 46.3% of hires 1 to 20 started in the same month as another hire at the same startup, so the order within a month is arbitrary.
- **Vague titles.** 5.2% of the first 20 hires have titles too vague to classify.

## What it means for founders

- **Plan for a seller around hire 7.** Half of startups had one by then, 65.2% by hire 10 and 82.4% by hire 20.
- **Don't copy a fixed sequence.** The most common order of the four main functions covers only 11.5% of the startups that hired all four. Let your customers set the order.
- **Customer success comes late, and growers brought it forward.** The first support or success hire came at hire 13 at growers, against 17 at stallers.
- **Pace set the growers apart most.** They reached 20 hires 13 months sooner, while their mix differed by about 3 points. Neither proves the hires caused the growth, so hire when there is demand to serve.

## Data and method

- **Data:** Ken internal data: the public work histories and company records Ken uses for sales and outreach, reused by Cristian Frunze for this study, plus SEC Form D filings for one check on US companies. Work histories cover people currently in six English-speaking countries.
- **Sample:** 6,951 software startups with at least 20 hires, holding 609,278 hires. Product-software industry labels include some consumer software. Outcome comparison: 606 startups that grew to 100 people and 1,462 that stayed under 50.
- **Date range:** Startups founded 2012 to 2022, hires counted to March 2026.
- **Method:** Pre-registered study. Hires ordered by start month, with the median first-arrival hire number per function, and growers compared with stallers using bootstrap 95% intervals. A separate analysis recomputed 88 numbers, and all matched.
- **Excluded:** Founders (12,289 tagged), interns, advisors, board members and investors, who are not counted as hires; Startups with fewer than 20 hires, or with 3 or more people who joined before the founding year; Hires who joined after March 2026, because profiles add new jobs late.
- **Privacy:** Aggregates only. Any group smaller than 50 people is suppressed, and no individual is named.

[Full methodology as Markdown](/research/first-20-hires/methodology.md) · [Download the full methodology (PDF)](/research/first-20-hires.pdf)

## Related studies.

- No. 2: [When should you hire your first salesperson?](/research/first-sales-hire.md) - Oct 18, 2026 · Founders and startups, Sales teams, Hiring and org design. 36 months to the first AE at startups that grew past 100 people. Startups that grew past 100 people hired their first AE at 36 months, a year sooner than those that stayed small, but with 28 people on the team, not 11. Full methodology: [Markdown](/research/first-sales-hire/methodology.md) · [PDF](/research/first-sales-hire.pdf).
- No. 14: [Do sales reps get promoted faster by changing companies?](/research/stay-or-jump-sales-promotions.md) - Oct 26, 2026 · Sales teams, Hiring and org design. 15 months longer to manager for AEs who changed company. No. AEs who reached manager after changing company took a median 46 months, against 31 for AEs promoted where they started. Yet 72.5% of AE-to-manager promotions involved a switch. Full methodology: [Markdown](/research/stay-or-jump-sales-promotions/methodology.md) · [PDF](/research/stay-or-jump-sales-promotions.pdf).
- No. 13: [How long do SDRs stay in the seat? Half leave by month 14](/research/sdr-tenure.md) - Oct 24, 2026 · Sales teams, Hiring and org design. 14 months median time an SDR or BDR stays in the seat. The typical SDR or BDR leaves the seat 14 months after starting, or about 12 once short jobs left off profiles are counted. After a 3.0-month ramp, that leaves 11 months of full output. Full methodology: [Markdown](/research/sdr-tenure/methodology.md) · [PDF](/research/sdr-tenure.pdf).

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