01
Founding Engineers
Generalist engineers who can own a product from first prototype through to first customers.
Founding Teams & Early Hires
AI startup recruitmentfor founders building the first team.
Lio helps AI startups hire the people who will define their technology: founding engineers, technical co-founders and the first specialists who turn an idea into a product. Early hires shape culture, architecture and speed, so we treat every search as a partnership with the founder.
Who we recruit
The first hires we recruit
02
Technical Co-founders
Senior technical partners who share the commercial risk and set the company’s technical direction.
03
Founding AI Engineers
Engineers who build the first models, data pipelines and integrations the product depends on.
04
First Engineering Hires
Early employees who set standards for code, hiring and delivery as the team grows.
05
Early Research Scientists
Researchers who explore the problems the business is built on, often before a product exists.
06
Early Infrastructure Engineers
Engineers who make compute, data and deployment reliable before scale becomes a constraint.
Our perspective
What early hires have to do
At the earliest stage, a hire is a bet on the company as much as on the person. Founders need people who can work without structure, make sound decisions with incomplete information and build the next version of the product while the current one is still being tested. We assess these qualities alongside technical depth, because they predict success far more reliably in small teams.
Most AI startups hire under pressure, with an unclear job description and a funding timeline that cannot slip. We help founders define the first three to five roles in order, decide where to hire generalists and where to hire specialists, and write briefs that strong candidates take seriously.
We partner with AI startups across the US, and adapt each search to the stage of the company.
Challenges
The early-stage hiring trade-offs
- 01
Competing with larger companies
Strong early engineers often want to join ambitious startups, but they need a clear reason to move. We help founders articulate the mission, the scope and the opportunity in terms candidates understand.
- 02
Hiring ahead of the roadmap
Early teams often hire for problems that have not fully emerged. We work backwards from the milestones the company must reach in the next twelve months.
- 03
Keeping the bar high at speed
Rapid hiring tempts teams to skip rigorous assessment. We build a process that stays fast but still tests for ownership, judgement and real technical depth.
Related specialisms
Explore more of our search areas.
Get in touch
Exceptional teams start with the right people.
Whether you're building something ambitious or considering your next move, let's talk.
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