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Meet Rita Xu
Rita Xu has been working with Web3 and blockchain startups since 2021 as a talent acquisition and HR operations partner, helping founders build and scale distributed teams across Europe, Asia, and the Americas. She has partnered with startups backed by investors such as Animoca Brands, Kraken Ventures, and Binance Labs.
She joined Terminal 3 as employee #22, growing the team to 31 while splitting time between Barcelona and the Hong Kong HQ.
Her superpower: bringing structure without bureaucracy to high-speed web3 teams.
Key Takeaways
Founders must own early culture
Most founders treat their first hires as tasks to delegate. Rita flips this completely, the first 5-10 hires should be founder-led, period.
“For the first five to ten hires, founders should always do it themselves. That’s the best and most reliable way.”
This isn't about control, it's about cultural DNA. Terminal3's three co-founders understood this from day one, setting clear values before they even had an office. The result: a team that naturally reinforces the culture without heavy-handed management.
- Every early hire sets precedent for who belongs
- Founders learn what resonates (and what doesn't) through direct recruitment
- A single cultural misalignment at hire #5 can ripple through hires #15–50.
- “When you onboard talent, they organize systems. But at the earliest stage, you should do it yourself.”
Action for founders: Block 50% of your calendar for hiring until employee #10. This isn't optional, it's foundational.
Remote work demands designing for connection
Terminal3 runs remote-first, but the co-founders & Rita engineered connection points that make distributed feel intimate.
This isn't organic—it's orchestrated.
"Remote is our default mode but connection is what we're trying to deliver most as a people team."
Terminal 3’s three-layer connection system:
- Weekly rituals: Friday Game Time Happy Hour that bring people together beyond work
- Local clusters: Company supported regional team local meetups
- Annual intensives: Multi-day off-sites with founders presenting vision, mini-hackathons, structured bonding
Rita's insight:
“We’re intentional about creating moments where people feel part of something bigger than their screens.”
Action for founders: Budget for connection activities from day one. Rita’s clear, and so are the founders:
“It’s not just about retention. It’s about making remote work meaningful.”
Values aren't posters, they're daily operations
Terminal 3’s culture is built on four core values:
Good people make great teams. Vision defines paths. Start with unexplored. We’re formidable.
Unlike values that live on a wall, these show up in how we hire, collaborate, and grow together.
“Values only matter when they show up in how people work with each other.”
Rita embeds values into every touchpoint:
- First screening call asks: "What kind of team do you want to work with?"
- We look for curiosity, humanity, and collaboration from day one
- We celebrate people who bring these values to life — not just through formal programs, but in everyday recognition.
- These values shape how we give feedback, make decisions, and work together.
“And when it comes to hiring, both skills and culture fit matter. One without the other just doesn’t work for us.”
Action for founders: Define values before your first hire. Then weave them into how you hire, communicate, and work every day.
Global talent needs timezone truth
Rita dismantles the "hire anywhere" myth. Geography doesn't matter much, but time zones absolutely do.
“I don’t think there’s a universal rule for whether you should hire globally or remotely. But one thing you can’t ignore is timezone overlap.”
Her hiring framework prioritizes just two things:
- Skill set match: Does candidate meet technical/functional needs?
- Culture fit: Do they align with team values and working style?
And the hidden requirement is clear:
Teams need at least a few hours — ideally a half-day — of overlap to avoid friction. Async has its limits, especially when building fast.
Action for founders: Set minimum overlap requirements upfront. . Don’t find out the hard way after hiring someone 12 time zones away.
The 20-30 employee chaos point
Rita pinpoints exactly when to bring in full-time people ops: 20-30 employees, post-funding, entering growth mode.
“When you start talking to a lot of people — especially in a remote team — you’ll start to feel the chaos.”
Before 20 people:
- Founders can handle the cultural consistency
- Systems stay lightweight and flexible
- Everyone knows everyone
After 30 people without people ops:
- Culture starts to fragments across locations
- Candidate experience slips
- Hiring managers spend too much time on logistics
Her advice cuts against the "hire HR early" gospel. Until you hit this inflection, stay lean with part-time support for specific needs (contractors for design, fractional help for systems).
Action for founders: Don’t rush to hire full-time people ops. Wait until you really need it — and use your early budget for product hires instead.
Founder involvement never stops
Even at 30+ people, every single Terminal3 hire meets all three founders at least one founder. This seems unscalable — and that's exactly the point.
“It’s not just us evaluating candidates — it’s also their chance to meet the founders and understand who we are.”
Rita's system that keeps this sustainable:
- Share founder content (talks, articles) before meetings
- Bring founders in early for their domain
- Keep founder time focused on culture/vision, not skills assessment
- Structure the conversation for signal, no small talk
The founders don't see this as overhead.
“They care deeply about the culture. It’s not optional — it’s part of building the company.”
Action for founders: Accept that hiring is your job, always. Build systems that make your involvement high-leverage, not high-friction.
Metrics that matter
Engagement signals:
- Team voluntarily refers without being asked
- Candidates excited about mission, not just comp
- Local meetup attendance without mandate
Operational health:
- Time to hire: Under 3 weeks from first contact
- Founder time per hire: 2-3 hours max
- Culture interview pass rate: Expect rejections for values misalignment
Long-term strength:
- Annual offsite boosts team connection and shared vision
- Internal referral maintain quality and conversion
- Values show up across teams, not just on a slide
Key takeaways
✅ First 10 hires = founder's job. You're coding culture into DNA. This can't be outsourced, delegated, or rushed.
✅ Remote works when connection is designed. Weekly rituals, local meetups, annual intensives—engineer the touchpoints or watch culture fragment.
✅ Hire for both skills and culture. Terminal 3 values strong talent who also share how we work and what we believe in. Gaps in skills can be closed — culture gaps grow wider.
✅ 20-30 people triggers chaos. That's your signal for bringing in full-time people ops. Before that, stay lean with fractional support.
✅ Founders stay in every hire. Not for control—for cultural protection. Make it sustainable through content, structure, and focus.
Pro tips
💡 Years of working side by side with fast-moving Web3 founders taught Rita to balance scaling fast and staying steady. It’s about seeing the whole employee journey — not just the starting line.
💡 One week to add value: Rita knew exactly what to do from day one because Terminal3 had clear OKRs. If your talent lead needs more than a week to start contributing, your structure is the problem.
💡 Founder videos > founder time: Share talks and articles before candidates meet founders. They arrive pre-sold on vision, making conversations about mutual fit, not pitching.
💡 Annual offsites aren't parties: Plan early. Include vision sessions, hackathons, and structured activities. It’s strategic culture building disguised as fun.
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