How In Five Years supports scale-ups from 2 to 80+ FTE
As companies grow, the way they hire needs to evolve. What works at 5 people won’t work at 50. At In Five Years, we help fast-growing companies to build and execute a recruitment strategy that fits their stage, without losing speed, culture or quality.
We’re not only here to advise. We scout, assess, and deliver the right people, at the right time. Here is how we advice scale-ups and work with them across four core phases of growth. For each phase, we outline:
- What your company needs to focus on
- How In Five Years can support you in that growth phase
Phase 1: From 2 to 10 FTE
Founders still lead hiring. Most candidates come through the personal network. Decisions are fast, but the cost of a bad hire is high.
Focus areas:
• Define clear and objective hiring criteria, even when moving quickly
• Create space in your hiring process for open conversations about strategy, mission, vision and values. These discussions help both sides uncover alignment and cultural fit.
• Keep tooling light, but consistent. At In Five Yeras, we have examples of score cards through Google Sheets.
How we help:
We can help as your hands-on recruitment partner: creating role scorecards, screening early candidates, and helping you translate your culture into something tangible. However, we emphasize the power of your own network for those key first hires.
Phase 2: From 10 to 30 FTE
You start hiring outside your core network. Quality becomes harder to assess. You need more structure, but speed still matters. The pressure to “fill the role” increases, especially when there are investors on board.
Focus areas:
• Clear, structured assessments (4-eye principle, business cases)
• Founder(s) or C-level still involved, rightly so
• Consider using an ATS. An ATS structures your hiring process, for your team and your candidates, making it easier to manage, track, and improve every step.
• Consistent articulation of vision & values to new hires
How we help:
We step in as your recruitment engine. We bring consistency and bandwidth, by structuring your process, sourcing the right profiles, and running searches end-to-end. Next to that, we can help to make the assessment which ATS is relevant, and implement it together with your team. You stay in control, we do the heavy lifting ;).
Phase 3: From 30 to 50 FTE
Hiring is decentralised. Team leads make decisions. Quality, culture fit and candidate experience can vary across teams. Talent Partners often get involved.
Focus areas:
• Training of internal employees to conduct interviews (peer interviews, structured feedback)
• Focus on creating a strong employer brand, throughout the entire recruitment process
• C-level is still involved in key hires
• Smarter & more concrete use of platforms (LinkedIn Recruiter, job boards, ATS)
How we help:
We operate as your embedded hiring partner. We support your teams, set hiring standards, and deliver talent that fits: not just on paper, but in your culture. Together, we also assess where your hiring bottlenecks are, whether it’s quality, quantity or conversion, and take action to fix them. We find the right people, manage the process and make sure they sign. Closely collaborating, to find the perfect candidates.
Phase 4: International Expansion
You’re hiring across borders. Each market has its own dynamics, expectations and challenges. HQ wants control, but local teams need flexibility.
What matters here:
• Take local insights into account: where to look, and how to position
• Mapping local communities and their roles is key to meaningful engagement with your target audience
• Global consistency, local relevance: unified tools with region-specific inputs like salary benchmarks.
• Treat HQ as a talent factory, growing future leaders who can transfer culture to new locations
How we help:
We help you expand with confidence. Whether it’s building your local team or transferring internal talent, we know what it takes to land great people in new markets. We combine global coordination with local execution.
Let’s build your hiring engine
In Five Years helps you scale your team: intelligently, intentionally, and with quality from day one. We source, screen and deliver the people that will shape your next phase.
Let’s get in touch!
