Welcome to a deep dive into talent acquisition and its crucial role in scaling direct-to-consumer (DTC) brands. As teams grow and complexity rises, the ability to hire and keep A-players can define the success of a DTC brand. Today, we are unpacking strategies to not just participate but thrive in this space.
In this blog post, we explore hiring and team building for e-commerce, featuring insights from Jan-Lütje Thoden, one of Germany’s best-known headhunters in the DTC and SaaS space. Whether you are building your first team or professionalizing a fast-growing operation, you will gain practical tips on spotting top performers, structuring your hiring process, and avoiding costly missteps during rapid scale.
In this talk it is all about hiring strategy for high-growth DTCs:
Growth stages and org design: Jan outlines how brands evolve from lean founder teams to multi-department organizations, and what changes at 1 to 2 million, 5 to 7 million, 10 to 15 million, 20 to 40 million, and 50 to 100 million in revenue.
How to recognize A-players: Learn why the CV is a trendline, why proven motivation beats potential, and which real-world signals matter, from side projects to hospitality experience.
Timing and capacity: Discover why hiring too late or too early hurts growth, why a steady 110 to 120 percent load is a healthy target, and how to avoid overhiring.
Inhousing the right way: Use agencies to test channels, then bring proven functions in house. Compare top-down hiring with bottom-up promotion and pick the path that fits your speed and budget.
Designing a rigorous hiring process: Mix fast screening, practical case work, and realistic simulations. Keep candidates excited while you verify skill, speed, and cultural fit.
Senior hires without culture clash: Set expectations on pace and structure, then bridge founder urgency with leadership process, so experience strengthens rather than slows the team.
Stay tuned as we dive into these topics, giving you the playbook to hire better and scale faster.
Hiring A-Players for DTCs
Markus Repetschnig, Admetrics CEO: Welcome to the DTC Dive Podcast. Today we are in Frankfurt with Jan-Lütje Thoden, headhunter for e-commerce, SaaS, and agencies. Jan, great to have you.
Jan-Lütje Thoden: Thanks, Markus. Happy to be here.
Markus: You work with brands across many stages. How do growth phases typically look from your vantage point?
Jan: We often see first contact around 1 to 2 million in annual revenue, then 5 to 7 million with a small team, 10 to 15 million as the first real professionalization, 20 to 40 million with full departments, and 50 to 100 million with 100 people, own warehouse, and a mix of office and remote. Each step changes the org chart, leadership layers, and what you need from hires.
Markus: Why is it so critical to hire A-players during the 5 to 50 employee surge?
Jan: Because weak performers are organizational brakes. You spend time supervising, fixing, and covering. A single excellent hire can change your day from firefighting to progress. Poor hires leave scars long after they leave.
Markus: How do you recognize A-players before they are on your team?
Jan: Think of the CV as a trendline. Look for evidence that someone ships, improves, and gets promoted. Strong academic or vocational signals, relevant internships, side projects, and jobs that build grit, like hospitality. I care less about abstract potential and more about proven output.
Markus: What are the biggest mistakes in hiring timing?
Jan: Too late or too early. Waiting too long keeps founders stuck in execution. Overhiring after a hot quarter can force layoffs when growth normalizes. Aim for a steady 110 to 120 percent team load. Slight stretch creates growth, chronic overload breaks people.
Markus: When should brands inhouse functions like performance or influencer marketing?
Jan: Test with agencies first. Prove a profitable path, then build in house and copy what works. Do not hire a specialist to both invent the channel and execute on a blank page. If two experiments run at once, you cannot tell whether the failure is the channel or the hire.
Markus: How do you structure a great hiring process?
Jan: Two goals. Vet skill and fit, and make candidates excited about joining. Use a short screening call to align expectations. Add a practical case or simulation that mirrors the real job at real speed. For sales, run a live role play. For recruiting, do a live LinkedIn search. For finance, give real receipts with hidden errors and see who flags them. Include cultural fit interviews with future peers. Keep momentum high.
Markus: What about senior hires from large companies into fast DTCs?
Jan: Expect friction on pace and planning. Founders want movement today. Senior leaders want structure and sequencing. Address this early, define decision rights, and set a joint operating rhythm. Otherwise you overspend for experience that never lands.
Markus: Final advice for fast-scaling founders?
Jan: Decide fast. If a great person is in front of you, hire. If a hire shows clear red flags, part ways quickly and kindly.
The essence of hiring A-players
Hiring A-players is a discipline of evidence and environment. Evidence means looking for consistent proof of output, initiative, and learning. Environment means creating the structure, goals, and feedback that let strong people do their best work and compound over time.
Why elite hiring matters for DTC brands
DTC brands move quickly and margins are tight. Elite hiring protects speed and quality, reduces management overhead, and shortens time to value for new roles. It also stabilizes culture during rapid headcount growth, which reduces churn and preserves momentum.
Effective strategies for high-impact hiring
Hiring well is one of the fastest ways to accelerate a direct-to-consumer brand. The right people shorten feedback loops, raise execution quality, and free founders to focus on growth. Below is a simple, repeatable playbook that turns hiring from a one-off scramble into a system you can trust.
Define the stage and the org need
Start by mapping your next 12 months of initiatives. Turn those initiatives into outcomes, then into the capabilities you need to deliver them. From there, back into roles, seniority, and headcount. This keeps hiring tied to strategy and prevents vanity titles or accidental overstaffing.
Source with intent
Use three lanes in parallel: referrals from trusted operators, targeted outbound search, and tightly written job ads. Keep your pipeline short and curated so you spend time with the most promising people. Quality sourcing up front saves hours later in the process.
Screen fast, test real work
Open with a short introductory call to align on role, expectations, and compensation. Follow quickly with a practical exercise that mirrors the job. Measure quality and speed, not presentation flair. Realistic simulations reveal far more than hypothetical questions.
Check motivation and trajectory
Look for evidence of forward motion: promotions, side projects, and stick-to-itiveness. A track record of finishing hard things beats polished slogans about ambition. Past behavior is the best predictor of future contribution.
Assess cultural fit
Create multiple touchpoints with future peers and cross-functional partners. Let candidates meet the people they will actually work with. Do not signal your preferred outcome. You want unfiltered impressions on collaboration style, communication, and values.
Decide quickly
Great candidates have options. Compress your loop into one to two weeks, keep momentum high, and communicate clearly. Slow, meandering processes send a signal about how decisions get made inside the company.
Onboard for outcomes
Set clear 30, 60, and 90 day goals. Establish the operating rhythm, the KPIs that define success, and a mentor who unblocks and accelerates learning. Onboarding should produce early wins and create confidence on both sides.
Review and refine
Track performance for each hire and track the hiring process itself. Time to fill, pass-through rates, case quality, and onboarding success all provide signals. Use them to improve your job specs, sourcing mix, interview flow, and onboarding plan.
Conclusion
High-impact hiring is not luck. It is a system that ties headcount to strategy, tests real skills, moves with speed, and sets new teammates up to win. When you define the stage and org need, source with intent, validate with practical work, and onboard for outcomes, you shorten time to value and protect culture while you scale.
Start small and make it repeatable. Map the next 12 months, write scorecards, create one practical case per role, and set a clear 30, 60, 90 day plan. Track process and performance, then refine your playbook with each hire. Do this consistently and you will build a team that compounds execution quality, lifts growth, and keeps your focus on what matters most.
FAQs
How do I spot an A-player early in the funnel
Look for a strong trendline of achievement, relevant side projects, and signs of grit. Verify with a practical test at real speed.
What should my first inhouse hires be
Start with functions that are already working with agencies. Bring proven channels inside once you know what good looks like.
How long should my process be
Aim for one to two weeks. Use a short screening, one practical case, and two to three culture interviews.
What is a healthy team load
Target 110 to 120 percent average load. Enough stretch to grow, not so much that burnout sets in.
How do I avoid a culture clash with senior hires
Set expectations on pace, decision rights, and operating rhythm before day one. Pair structure with founder urgency.
When should I part ways
If core behaviors or output are clearly off and do not improve with feedback, decide quickly and respectfully.
By treating hiring as a repeatable system, you turn people decisions into a competitive advantage. Define the role, test what matters, move fast, and give A-players an environment where they can win.
