It's less about what the laws say and more about what the consequences of not following industry standard would be.
If you explicitly flout standard and as a result get sued for violating one of the related hiring/discrimination laws, your investors may have a good case to sue you personally because you didn't act in the best interest of the company by opening your company up to that extra risk for no tangible benefit.
If you explicitly flout standard and as a result get sued for violating one of the related hiring/discrimination laws, your investors may have a good case to sue you personally because you didn't act in the best interest of the company by opening your company up to that extra risk for no tangible benefit.