Before you hire in the U.S., know what you need to decide first.
A focused 90-minute working session for international founders and business leaders preparing for their first U.S. hire, building an initial U.S. team, or reviewing an early U.S. setup. Get clear on what needs to happen, what to prioritize, who should own what, and where you need specialist support.
Complete a short 5-7 minute intake. We'll review your situation and confirm the proposed session focus and booking details.
Your first U.S. hire is more than a hiring decision
Entering the U.S. can introduce People and operating decisions that work differently from what your company is accustomed to.
You may need to determine how someone will be employed, what needs to be ready before an offer is made, how payroll and benefits will work, or which questions require legal, tax, or immigration guidance.
But the decisions are not limited to employment setup. Your first U.S. hire may also raise questions about what that person owns, how success will be assessed, what decisions remain with headquarters, what the U.S. team can decide independently, and how managers will work across different workplace expectations.
Getting clear on those decisions early gives you a stronger foundation for the team you intend to build.
Who this session is for
Designed for international founders and business leaders who are:
What we work through
Before the session, you complete a short questionnaire about your business, hiring plans, intended location, and timeline.
Directional uses that information to focus the 90 minutes on the two or three decisions most important to your situation.
Employment setup
Understand the practical differences among direct employment, an employer of record, and PEO support. Identify the questions that need to be resolved with legal or service providers before selecting an arrangement.
First-hire readiness
Identify the employment requirements and operational preparations relevant to your planned hire, including offer documentation, onboarding, payroll, benefits, and workplace policies.
Hiring and relocation dependencies
Understand where relocation or work-authorization questions may affect your hiring sequence or timeline, and prepare the information an immigration attorney will need to evaluate available options.
Roles and decision ownership
Clarify what your first U.S. hire will own, how success will be assessed, and which decisions belong with the founder, headquarters, or U.S. team.
Working across cultures
Identify where workplace expectations may differ across countries, and what those differences mean for communication, feedback, management, and day-to-day decision-making.
For Korean executives building a U.S. team
The goal is not to replace one management approach with another — it is to identify where different expectations affect the business and keep your U.S. team aligned with headquarters.
The employment system may be different. So may be the expectations inside the workplace.
For Korean executives building a U.S. team, some of the most important questions are not about hiring mechanics. Expectations around communication, feedback, decision-making, and the relationship between headquarters and the local team may differ — and those differences affect how roles are understood, how managers lead, and how effectively the U.S. team operates.
Esther Lee
Works bilingually in English and Korean, with experience across Korean and U.S. business environments. Sessions run in English, Korean, or a combination of both.
Why Directional
Make the right decisions for the business you are building, rather than adding process for its own sake.
Directional brings hands-on experience building People functions and partnering with founders and executive teams through organizational growth and international complexity.
The work goes beyond asking whether the right HR processes are in place. We connect hiring decisions to how the business will actually operate day-to-day:
- Clarifying who owns the work and holds decision authority
- Establishing how leaders make decisions and managers lead effectively
- Building tailored People infrastructure aligned with your stage of growth
Investment
What's included
Scope and specialist support
Directional helps you identify the questions that need specialist review so you can have more productive conversations with qualified legal, tax, immigration, or other advisers. Introductions may be available where appropriate.
The U.S. First-Hire Readiness Session is a People and organizational readiness consultation. It does not include entity formation, recruiting, document drafting, filings, or implementation. Legal, tax, and immigration advice — including visa eligibility and pathway recommendations — is outside the scope of the session.
This focused session is separate from the full Directional Diagnostic. If the situation reveals broader organizational or implementation needs, a separate Directional engagement can be discussed.
Make your first U.S. hiring decisions with a clear plan.
Tell us where you plan to hire, the role you have in mind, and your target timeline. We'll review your situation before confirming that it fits the standard session scope and providing booking details.
Intake takes 5–7 minutes.
Executive-level People leadership for founder-led, tech-enabled startups that have outgrown case-by-case People decisions.
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