What do you do if you find yourself having to wear all these hats, while the founder forwards emails and reads FastCompany all day? I don't see a hat for that.
Are you a 2-person company?
The 15 Roles Absolutely Necessary in a Startup, No Matter How Small it is
11–20 of 43 posts
Re: The 15 Roles Absolutely Necessary in a Startup, No Matter How Small it is
#12Re: The 15 Roles Absolutely Necessary in a Startup, No Matter How Small it is
#13"Uses web framework, creates functionality; knows Python/Ruby, Javascript, AJAX, Flash(?), HTML, databases."
This is a very weak description of what a hacker is by the way.
Re: The 15 Roles Absolutely Necessary in a Startup, No Matter How Small it is
#14Earlier quoted context omitted.
Are you a 2-person company?
Yeah. I'm employee #1.
Then, if what you say is true, why do you put up with it?
Does he pay a salary? Did you receive an appropiate equity share for the work you put in relative to his? Or, to put it bluntly, what do you need him for?
Re: The 15 Roles Absolutely Necessary in a Startup, No Matter How Small it is
#15The pruned down list seems to be missing the very important "business development" role (which generally is mixed into other stuff.) Who's calling leads, creating deals, making contacts (substantial ones, not marketing-based ones) in the local business and technology community, understanding new feature requests, and basically making sure operating costs and revenue projections are on track?
Agree in a general sense. He introduces the list as "...that I see as important to making a new site come together." Not "startup", "site." I could be wrong, but Twitter doesn't need to focus on lead-gen...
Twitter also lacks an income, but I digress.
One could argue that viral marketing is business development. The main difference is that in the former, your customers are doing the work for you, while in the latter, you've got a defined role.
I'd be careful to suggest though that this role isn't being done at all.
Re: The 15 Roles Absolutely Necessary in a Startup, No Matter How Small it is
#16"Uses web framework, creates functionality; knows Python/Ruby, Javascript, AJAX, Flash(?), HTML, databases." This is a very weak description of what a hacker is by the way.
Can you offer a better one?
Re: The 15 Roles Absolutely Necessary in a Startup, No Matter How Small it is
#17Earlier quoted context omitted.
Yeah. I'm employee #1.
Then, if what you say is true, why do you put up with it? Does he pay a salary? Did you receive an appropiate equity share for the work you put in relative to his? Or, to put it bluntly, what do you need him for?
I get a salary that would be laughable by most standards, partly because I'm a young autodidact with a BFA, and partly because I live in a part of the US with very little web dev opportunity. I'm stuck here while my SO finishes grad school. I think it's time to start looking again, this time remotely.
Re: The 15 Roles Absolutely Necessary in a Startup, No Matter How Small it is
#18Earlier quoted context omitted.
Then, if what you say is true, why do you put up with it? Does he pay a salary? Did you receive an appropiate equity share for the work you put in relative to his? Or, to put it bluntly, what do you need him for?
I get a salary that would be laughable by most standards, partly because I'm a young autodidact with a BFA, and partly because I live in a part of the US with very little web dev opportunity. I'm stuck here while my SO finishes grad school. I think it's time to start looking again, this time remotely.
Toss some links in your profile of stuff you've done. There are always folks on here who get asked for recommendations or who are looking to hire.
Re: The 15 Roles Absolutely Necessary in a Startup, No Matter How Small it is
#19What do you do if you find yourself having to wear all these hats, while the founder forwards emails and reads FastCompany all day? I don't see a hat for that.
That sounds a lot like what my ex-cofounder did. I resigned from the company.
Re: The 15 Roles Absolutely Necessary in a Startup, No Matter How Small it is
#20What do you do if you find yourself having to wear all these hats, while the founder forwards emails and reads FastCompany all day? I don't see a hat for that.
I had a similar situation many years ago. It lasted about 3 months - which was about 2.5 months too many. Complete waste of time.
This actually happens to a lot of startups. Usually it doesn't happen until after a certain amount of funding has been raised (often after the series A). If the CEO has checked out and is just pretending to work, the company is doomed - find a new job.