Do Startups Even Need a PM? When to Wait and When to Hire
When to Wait, When to Hire, and How to Avoid the Costly Middle Ground
Hiring the wrong product manager too early can slow you down.
Hiring too late can cost you the market.
The real question isn't "PM or no PM?" — it's: "How much product thinking do I need right now — and who should own it?"
For some founders, the answer is "me, for now."
For others, even a few hours of outside product help can save months of wrong turns.
Start With the Founder
Ask yourself: Do I have strong product sense?
- •Deep understanding of users, market, and problem space
- •Ability to translate strategy into a clear, prioritized backlog
- •Comfortable running discovery and validation cycles
→ If YES → You can delay a full-time PM. Still, consider fractional or advisory support to avoid blind spots.
→ If NO → Even part-time PM expertise early can save you costly wrong turns.
Example: Brian Chesky stayed in "founder mode" at Airbnb for years. It worked because he lived in the product daily, understood users deeply, and made decisions fast.
But most founders aren't Chesky. "Founderitis" (routing every decision through yourself) slows teams and burns you out.
This challenge isn't new — Seedcamp frames it well in "Do I need a Product Manager (and when)?", noting that while founders often play PM in the first year, the role eventually shifts to strategy, making a dedicated PM essential.
The Quick Decision Matrix
| Your Situation | Signs You Can Wait | Signs You Need PM Help Now | Best First Step |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pre–product-market fit (idea → MVP) | You're talking to users daily, making product calls fast, and iterating without bottlenecks. | You're missing key insights, building without validation, or have no repeatable discovery process. | Hire a fractional PM or advisor for discovery frameworks. |
| Early dev team (2–5 engineers) | Founders align well, priorities are clear, and backlog is manageable. | Conflicting priorities, missed deadlines, or unclear requirements slow dev. | Add a part-time PM or PO to own backlog, grooming, and release clarity. |
| Scaling to PMF or beyond | You have a working product, aligned priorities, and consistent releases. | Feature creep, roadmap confusion, cross-functional misalignment. | Bring in a full-time PM to manage roadmap, trade-offs, and go-to-market alignment. |
| Founder skillset | You have strong product sense, business strategy, and customer empathy. | You're from sales/marketing/ops with no product discovery or delivery experience. | Get PM coaching or embedded support until you can hire full-time. |
Founder Background Matters
Not all founders have the same PM timing curve:
- •Product/Design/Tech founder → can delay hiring longer, but risk missing market signals while deep in build mode.
- •Marketing/Sales founder → may need PM earlier to translate vision into user-focused execution.
- •First-time founder without industry experience → benefits most from early product guidance to avoid expensive wrong turns.
This echoes findings in Product School's Future of Product Management Report (2023), which shows how startups often delay their first PM hire until after product–market fit but many later admit they waited too long and lost opportunities in the process.
Similarly, Lenny Rachitsky's research found most companies hire their first PM after 2–3 years, typically when the team reaches 10–25 people.
Signs You're Already Late
- •Backlog is messy, priorities shift weekly.
- •Founders spend >50% of their time on product decisions.
- •Dev, design, and marketing constantly block each other.
- •Opportunities pass because execution lags.
Superhuman's founder Rahul Vohra famously delayed hiring PMs until scale created pressure, then brought in product leaders to sharpen growth loops.
Intercom took the opposite approach, hiring PMs earlier to support rapid team scaling. Both approaches worked — because they matched founder skillset and stage.
Why Early PM Help Can Save Money
- •Cuts scope creep — prevents building features no one uses.
- •Speeds validation — proven frameworks > gut-only calls.
- •Sharpens messaging — connects product to go-to-market early.
- •Avoids rebuilds — architecture choices made with scale in mind.
Marty Cagan has long argued that PMs aren't "feature owners" but risk reducers. The earlier you confront risks (value, usability, viability, feasibility), the cheaper they are to fix.
Think of it like adding a sous-chef in a busy kitchen. Too early, and you're just sharing a cutting board. Too late, and orders pile up while you're still chopping onions.
Budget-Friendly Ways to Add PM Support
- •Part-time or fractional PMs: bring in a PM for a few days a week or specific hours, so you get product expertise without committing to a full salary. The concept of fractional PM is new and it's starting to emerge more often.
- •Equity or revenue share: if you feel you need the support of a PM but can't afford it for now, instead of cash, align incentives by offering small equity or tying compensation to growth/revenue.
- •Embedded PMs via agencies: hire through a product consultancy on a project basis. Flexible, usually more expensive short-term, but zero long-term commitment.
- •Advisory boards: seasoned PMs who meet with you a few hours per month. Great for founders who want guidance but still own day-to-day product decisions.
My Final Take
A PM isn't a luxury — it's a lever.
Sometimes that lever is a full-time hire. Sometimes it's a fractional expert.
As Hunter Walk puts it in "PM Zero: When to hire your first Product Manager", founders are always the first PM. The key question is how long you can play that role before it slows you down.
Find your balance. Make sure you get valuable product thinking in the room so it's not a cost but a strategic move.