Lunch & Learn: Hiring Your First Employee (Fractional or Full-Time) 

Hiring your first employee is one of the most critical decisions a founder will make. The right hire can accelerate growth and free up founder time; the wrong one can create drag, burn cash, and introduce avoidable risk. 

In this Lunch & Learn, Chris Wessell will share a practical, recruiting-focused framework for making your first hire. Defining the role, choosing between fractional vs. full-time, and effectively finding, attracting, and interviewing early employees in a startup environment. The session is intentionally focused on recruiting and selection; onboarding and an HR "starter kit" will be addressed in a follow-up session. 

• Knowing who to hire first and why 

• Fractional vs Full-Time 

• Practical Recruiting and Interview Framework 

This session is ideal for founders who are at or approaching the point of making their first hire and want to get it right the first time. 

About the Speaker 

Chris Wessell is the Managing Partner of PeopleWise, a boutique executive search and advisory firm that helps small and growing organizations solve high-stakes hiring challenges, often filling first-of-their-kind roles. A University at Albany alum ('02, MBA '04) and current adjunct business instructor, Chris has spent his 20+ year career working with founders and leadership teams as they scale, including hiring early employees in startup and growth-stage environments. He is actively involved in the Capital Region startup ecosystem and regularly advises founders on role definition, recruiting strategy, and candidate evaluation.