Can a Startup Visa Founder Hire Employees?
Yes, the company can hire. Your start-up permit does not replace each employee’s own right to work. EU/EEA/Swiss staff are different from non-EU staff. There is a separate IND permit for essential start-up personnel.
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The founder’s permit is not a blanket work permit for others
Your start-up residence permit lets you stay to build the innovative company. It does not function as a sponsor licence that covers every nationality you might want to hire.
IND’s work section is the map for employees: highly skilled migrant, single permit (GVVA), EU Blue Card, intra-corporate transferee, and others. Which one applies depends on the job and the person.
Essential start-up personnel
The IND fees page lists a separate purpose: “Essential start-up personnel,” with a 2026 first-application fee of €423. That is not the founder’s start-up permit. It is a different product for people who work in the core team of a young innovative start-up. The IND currently describes that scheme as a pilot running to 1 June 2028. See Did the Netherlands extend the essential start-up personnel permit?.
Open the IND pages for that purpose before you offer a role to a non-EU colleague. We do not quote extra conditions that are not on a live IND page.
EU staff versus non-EU staff
EU, EEA, and Swiss employees generally do not need the founder to obtain an IND work permit for them. Non-EU employees do, unless they already have a Dutch residence document that allows that work.
A spouse is not “staff” unless they have their own right to work. See Can my spouse work?
What to put in the step-by-step plan
RVO expects the plan to mention personnel. That can be “founder only in year one” or a hiring sequence. Inflating headcount to look like a scale-up does not make the product innovative. Small companies can still qualify.
Dutch employment law (contracts, minimum wage, payroll tax) applies once you hire. That is not immigration advice; use an accountant or employment lawyer.
NLVentureDesk can help you think about whether hiring is even relevant to the RVO plan. We do not sponsor employees as a recognised sponsor for highly skilled migrants unless that is a separate, real arrangement, and it is not the start-up founder permit.
