I've been recruiting for 20+ years and I know that recruiting often requires some level of selling - you're selling the opportunity to candidates and showcasing what they get out of it. But for anyone who's ever worked at an early stage startup (that no one has ever heard of), it requires you to sell what the candidate can look forward to without sugar coating the job itself.
We all know that early stage companies can't offer the most competitive salaries, but they CAN offer high upside in equity. Educate the candidate on what that means. They also get to work alongside the founders, move really fast, avoid bureaucracy and red tape and experience what a true rocket ship feels like. These things are rarely available at large, corporate environments.
However, there's also a dark side to startups. You will likely work more than the average 40 hour week, get interrupted emails / slack messages / phone texts on your vacations and be required to provide updates on weekends or evenings. These are realistic expectations that every TA hiring for startups should be sharing candidly with the candidate. Providing a 'realistic job preview' isn't just the right thing to do, it's what any hiring manager should be focusing on to ensure they bring on the right talent, not someone who will jump ship once they realize they've been sold something that they didn't bargain for.
What have you done to ensure you attract the best candidates without sheltering them from the realities of a startup job?