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Hire Ready launches 15 April – the first hire book for bootstrapped founders. Pre-order now: hfbac.com/hire-ready
HFBAC Hiring For and Building Awesome Companies
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HFBAC Hiring For and Building Awesome Companies
  • 4-Week Group Intensive | 5 Founders Per Cohort | Next: May 5th

Stop Winging It.
Start Hiring Well.

A 4-week intensive for founders with teams of 1-15 who want to build a proper hiring system – so every hire sticks.

Join the Waiting List
  • 27 years recruitment expertise
  • 400+ founders helped
  • Author of 'Hiring on a Shoestring'

Does This Sound Like You?

  • You're on your third marketing person in just over two years - and you still can't work out what's going wrong
  • You wrote a job spec at 11pm by Googling 'how to write a job description' - and the applications were terrible
  • You interview based on gut feel, pick the person who seemed nicest, and six months later you're starting again
  • You can't afford a recruiter at 15 - 20% of salary - but you also can't afford another bad hire
  • You know hiring is important, but nobody ever taught you how to actually do it
Here’s the thing: hiring isn’t a talent. It’s a skill. And like any skill, it can be learned.

The Hiring Clinic

A 4-week group intensive for founders who want to stop guessing and start hiring properly. Think of it as your crash course in building teams that actually work – with an expert guiding you through every step, using your real roles.
This isn’t a lecture series. It’s a small cohort of 5 founders getting real coaching, doing real work, on real hires. You’ll walk away with a complete hiring system you can use every time you grow your team.
Phase 1

The Intensive (4 Weeks)

  • 8 live sessions - 2 per week (Tuesday + Thursday), 60 - 75 minutes each
  • Private cohort group for accountability and peer support
  • Your copy of 'Hiring on a Shoestring' (the book behind the method)
  • Complete template pack - job specs, scorecards, offer letters, onboarding plans
  • Homework between sessions - you'll be building your system as we go
Phase 2

The Support Circle (8 Weeks Post-Intensive)

  • 2 monthly group coaching calls while you're actively hiring
  • Continued access to the private group
  • Email support for quick questions between calls
This is where the real learning happens – when you’re using the system on a live hire

The 4-Week Curriculum

Diagnosis + Role Design

The question we answer: Do you actually know what you need?
  • Hiring readiness assessment - are you genuinely ready to hire, or should you wait?
  • Role design workshop - building a job spec that attracts the right people
  • Chemistry First fundamentals - why team fit matters more than CVs

You leave with:

A proper job specification for your actual role, not a generic template.

Sourcing on a Shoestring

The question we answer: Where do you find great people without spending thousands?
  • Free and near-free sourcing channels that actually work for small teams
  • Writing job ads that attract the right candidates (and repel the wrong ones)
  • LinkedIn sourcing techniques you can do yourself

You leave with:

Your sourcing channels set up, job ad written, and posted - for free or near-free.

Chemistry First Screening

The question we answer: How do you actually tell who’s going to work out?
  • Building your interview framework using the ALIGN methodology
  • Screening criteria and evaluation scorecards
  • How to test for chemistry, not just competence
  • The reference check that tells you what you actually need to know

You leave with:

Your complete interview framework with Chemistry First questions, role-specific screening criteria, and a ready-to-use evaluation scorecard.

Making the Hire Stick

The question we answer: How do you close and keep the right person?
  • Compensation strategy for bootstrapped budgets
  • Offer structure and negotiation for founders
  • The 90-day onboarding plan that prevents early exits

You leave with:

Your personalised offer template, compensation strategy for your budget, and the 90-day onboarding plan that turns a new hire into a committed team member.

What You Walk Away With

A complete hiring system – job specs, sourcing strategy, interview framework, offer structure, and onboarding plan – that you can use for every hire after this

Confidence to hire without a recruiter –because you’ll know exactly what to look for and how to find it

A peer network of founders – You plus four other people who understand your challenges and will hold you accountable

12 weeks of expert support – 4 weeks intensive + 8 weeks while you’re actually making the hire

Your copy of ‘Hiring on a Shoestring’ – the book that underpins the entire methodology

Access to the Interview Toolkit – our AI-powered app that helps you prepare smarter interviews, included with your enrolment and yours to keep.

The Real Cost of Getting It Wrong

A bad hire at £40k salary costs you £15–20k minimum when you factor in recruitment time, training, lost productivity, and starting over. Your third marketing person in just over two years? That’s probably cost more than £40k already.
The Hiring Clinic costs less than one week’s salary for most roles – and gives you a system you’ll use for every hire after this.

Is This For You?

This is perfect if you're...

  • A founder with a team of 2-15 people who's hiring or about to hire
  • Someone who's hired before and it hasn't stuck - you want a proper system this time
  • Making your first hire and you're terrified of getting it wrong
  • Bootstrapped or founder-funded - you can't afford a recruiter but you can't afford bad hires either
  • Willing to do the work - this isn't passive learning, you'll be building your system in real time

This isn't right if you...

Investment

Read these and notice your gut reaction:

4-Week Intensive Only

£1,497

+ VAT
  • 8 live sessions over 4 weeks
  • Private cohort group
  • Complete template pack
  • Your copy of 'Hiring on a Shoestring'
Join the Waiting List
  • Recommended

Intensive + Support Circle

£1,997

+ VAT

  • Everything in the Intensive, plus:
  • 8 weeks of follow-up group coaching (2 monthly calls)
  • Continued group access while you're actively hiring
  • Email support for quick questions between calls
Reserve Your Place
Payment plans available. Split over 3 monthly payments of £499 + VAT or £666 + VAT.
Note: £499 x 3 = £1,497 (4-Week Intensive). £666 x 3 = £1,998 (Intensive + Support Circle, rounds to £1,997).
Only 5 places per cohort. Waiting list members get first access when the next cohort opens.
Helen Sanders, Founder of HFBAC and host of Bootstrapped Founders Community

Meet Your Guide

Helen Wingrove-Sanders is the founder of HFBAC (Hiring For and Building Awesome Companies) and has spent 27 years helping companies build teams that work.

She started her career as the BBC’s first female football commentator – where she learned that winning teams aren’t built on individual talent alone. They’re built on chemistry. That insight became the Chemistry First methodology, which now underpins everything HFBAC does.

Helen has helped 400+ founders through the British Library’s Business & IP Centre, delivered workshops for Virgin Start Up, and spent 10+ years as the embedded recruitment partner for Shadow Robot Company – one of the UK’s leading robotics firms.

She wrote ‘Hiring on a Shoestring’ because she kept meeting brilliant founders who were winging the most important decisions in their business. The Hiring Clinic is the live, guided version of that book.

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startup
business ip center
shadow robot

Questions Founders Ask

When does the next cohort start?

The first cohort is planned for Tuesday June 23rd 2026. Then every Thursday and Tuesday for 4 weeks. Exact dates will be confirmed to everyone on the waiting list before places open.

Join the waiting list to get first access.

Hiring well in Q4 is the difference between a strong year-end and a scramble. Cohort 2 is built for exactly that and will kick off on Tuesday Sep 15 2026.

Five founders maximum. This isn’t a webinar – it’s a working group. You’ll get real coaching on your real roles, and that only works with a small group.

Sessions run twice weekly (Tuesdays and Thursdays), 60-75 minutes each.

Times will be confirmed with the cohort, but expect UK daytime or early evening hours.

If you’re in a different timezone, let me know when you join the waiting list and we’ll see if it works.

Not at all – this is designed for founders at every stage.

Whether you’re making your first hire or your tenth, the system works the same way.

First-time hirers actually get the most value because you’ll build good habits from day one.

This is exactly who it’s for.

Most founders who’ve had bad hires aren’t bad at picking people – they just don’t have a system.

We’ll diagnose what went wrong and build a process that prevents it happening again.

Expect 2-3 hours per week between sessions for thinking and homework.

However, this isn’t busywork – you’ll be building your actual hiring system for a real role, so it’s time you’d need to spend anyway.

Yes, however you’ll get more out of it if you have a hire planned in the next 1-3 months.

The programme is designed around working on a real role, so having one in mind makes the exercises immediately practical.

Many Hiring Clinic graduates go on to work with HFBAC for individual hires as their team grows.

You can book a Hiring Health Check (£300) for a focused diagnostic, or explore our Project-Based Hiring and Fractional Talent Partner services.

There’s no pressure – the Clinic gives you the skills to do it yourself.

If you attend all sessions, do the homework, and genuinely feel you haven’t got value, I’ll refund you in full.

I’ve never had to for any workshops in the last 8 years, however the guarantee is there because I’m confident in what this delivers for you.

Zoom for live sessions.

The private group will be on a platform confirmed before the cohort starts (likely WhatsApp or Slack, based on what works best for the group).

Yes. If you miss a session, you’ll have access to the recording. However live attendance is strongly encouraged – the value is in the live coaching and group discussion, not just the content.

Ready to Learn How to Hire Well?

The next cohort starts Tuesday June 23rd 2026.

Five places only.

People on the waiting list get first access when it opens.

Questions first? Email helen@hfbac.com
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