Hire slow, fire fast: your first 5 hires
Who to bet on, who to eject – 
and how to tell in the first 90 days.

Your first hires will make or break the company, and most founders get the timing exactly backwards. They agonise over who to bring on, then wait too long to let the wrong person go. This session is a straight conversation about how to hire when no one’s heard of you yet, how to spot the hire who looks great on paper but is wrong for the stage, and how to read the first 90 days honestly.

What you’ll leave with:

• ​How to find good early hires when nobody’s heard of you and you can’t outbid on salary

• ​Why the best CV in the pile is often the wrong hire for where you’re at — and how to tell the difference

• ​What to actually watch for in the first 90 days to know if it’s working

• ​How to let someone go early and decently, without dragging it out

​Join Skalata Venture Partners Tracie Clark and Shahirah Gardner, alongside three founders who’ve built teams from scratch:

• ​Ruth Hatherley, Stryd

• ​Simon Renwick, WaveX

• ​Jak Tidman, Paperly