Background: Start-ups foster economic development, create new jobs and generate economic value. However, most start-ups fail during the development phase. Generally, after five years 80% of the start-ups fail and need to shut down their business. A challenging task that start-ups need to overcome is the labour shortage within the industry. With the existing literature focusing on how business generally can attract employees, a gap in the literature was identified on how start-ups can attract employees.   Purpose: The study’s purpose is to explore how start-ups can work to attract employees during the development phase of the business. Moreover, the aim is to explore why employees are attracted to the start-up industry and how managers work with recruitment.  Method: Semi-structured interviews with nine relevant participants who operate in the start-up environment as managers or employees were performed. The interviews were conducted by using a qualitative method with an inductive approach and data were analysed by using a systematic thematic analysis, which further led to the creation of a conceptual model.   Conclusion: The findings suggest start-ups to implement employer branding to increase the brand’s visibility. The beneficial opportunities associated with start-ups is a factor that would be recommended to prioritise to increase the attraction to the industry. This means that there is space for improvement regarding start-ups attraction. In addition to this conclusion, findings also suggest start-ups to implement a recruitment system.