Doubling an engineering team in 90 days, with a hiring system built to outlast the engagement

5 hires

four engineers and a UI/UX designer, in three months

2x

engineering team size

$40M

Series B raised by the company since, still hiring on the system I set up

CLIENT

Trunk Tools, an AI platform for construction

ENGAGEMENT

Hiring and people operations, reporting to the CEO

DURATION

July to fall 2022, a year before the company’s seed round

AREA OF WORK

Organizational infrastructure

The situation

Trunk Tools needed to double its engineering team and add a UI/UX designer. The company had no hiring infrastructure in place, and every hour the CEO and CTO spent on sourcing and screening was an hour away from building the product.

What I did

1. Built the infrastructure first. Implemented Ashby as the applicant tracking system, set up the full interview process inside it, and built the HR systems and candidate communications around it.

2. Defined the roles. Wrote the job descriptions and ran sourcing through LinkedIn.

3. Ran a structured assessment. Screened dozens of applicants, interviewed finalists, and administered a technical coding assessment, sending each candidate a thank-you gift card for their time.

4. Spent leadership time only where it counted. Scheduled assessment reviews with the CEO and CTO for vetted finalists only.

5. Onboarded each hire. Brought every new team member in through a consistent onboarding process.

The outcome

Four engineers and one UI/UX designer were hired in three months, doubling the engineering team. The company still runs hiring on Ashby today, and it has since raised a $40M Series B.

WHY IT TRAVELS

Hiring is usually the first system a growing company outgrows, and the one founders are least able to step away from. Build it once, properly, and the founders get their time back while every later round of hiring runs faster.