Startup Hats and Combinations
In my last entry I alluded to the discrete hats that somebody needs to be wearing in any sort of web startup. Others have expressed a long list of roles, and just the other day on the Seattle Tech Startups email list someone inquired about how they could get into a Project Manager role on a startup, so it's clear there is some question over what is needed. So, here are the hats according to me, and the configurations I've seen work to cover the bases well.
Developer - Someone has to build the thing. You are generally much better off with MacGuyver than with "Wall Full of Certifications Guy", and absolutely avoid a programming theologian/idealist. They must be very fast, good at writing straightforward, readable code, use but not go overboard with object orientation, and generally be more proud of the site they create than the structure of the code they wrote.
People Skills - Evangelist, salesperson, press releaser, blogger, pitcher, glad-hander, copy-writer, PR strategist. The face and the voice of your company.
Computer Guy - Linux/Solaris Admin, caching strategist, cluster deployer, migration script writer, database maintainer, scaling planner. Someone who giggles when you say "sudo make me a sandwich".
Right Brain - Someone who knows their way around Photoshop. A user experience design pro - pixel pushing and clickstream, ideally with freehand ability for the logo. Color, font, and CSS person.
Product Specialist - Social networking sites can skip over this one, but many niche startups will have a unique skillset required for what they do. For us it's a Mathematician, but it's as specialized as your startup.
Most startups won't start with five people one wearing each hat, nor is it maintainable for one person to wear all five - it's overwhelming. Natural combinations are between:
Right Brain - People Skills and Developer- Computer Guy
I've made the case previously that from an hours-of-work perspective that one founder wearing the developer hat isn't enough and I still think so... to me an ideal pair is:
1. Developer-Computer Guy-Product Specialist and 2. Developer-Right Brain-People Skills
You periodically see MBAs (People Skills) who have "an idea" and try to get funding so they can outsource everything else. More power to them. In my opinion Developer and People Skills are integral and can't ever be totally outsourced.
Right Brain is the easiest to farm out... in my experience it's a gift your founders either have or they don't - you can study enough to fake it and get by, but inspired user experiences come from naturally talented professional designers. It's also relatively narrow-term. Once you have your UI and "experience arcs" defined, this hat is largely pixel pushing until your feature set expands.
Computer Guy is tricky. On the one hand getting set up and developing a plan to scale is very short term, but you want more than a contractor's phone number when your server says it's in "maintenance" mode at 3 am. Most good developers at least know their way around a unix box, which is enough to get started. I can't imagine a core founder who only brings the Computer Guy skill to the table for a web app, but I suppose it depends.
People Skills - A true passion for your product is the best PR skill there is. The debate over hiring a PR firm will be raging years from now, and I've never done it, so I can't say. But I do think it's important for one founder to be able to make friends and influence people, and I've yet to meet someone who could do that who wouldn't make a fine People Skills guy.
Outsourcing development is another eternal question... if you can use it to turn dollars into an earlier release date it's a lovely idea, just make sure that you actually can. If you don't have someone on staff who can review the code you're getting you will probably come to wish you did.
All that said, I don't know any perfect teams. Motivated, passionate people can move mountains, and often do a much better job at tasks they have no experience with than professional contractors would.
Hats
Developer - Someone has to build the thing. You are generally much better off with MacGuyver than with "Wall Full of Certifications Guy", and absolutely avoid a programming theologian/idealist. They must be very fast, good at writing straightforward, readable code, use but not go overboard with object orientation, and generally be more proud of the site they create than the structure of the code they wrote.
People Skills - Evangelist, salesperson, press releaser, blogger, pitcher, glad-hander, copy-writer, PR strategist. The face and the voice of your company.
Computer Guy - Linux/Solaris Admin, caching strategist, cluster deployer, migration script writer, database maintainer, scaling planner. Someone who giggles when you say "sudo make me a sandwich".
Right Brain - Someone who knows their way around Photoshop. A user experience design pro - pixel pushing and clickstream, ideally with freehand ability for the logo. Color, font, and CSS person.
Product Specialist - Social networking sites can skip over this one, but many niche startups will have a unique skillset required for what they do. For us it's a Mathematician, but it's as specialized as your startup.
Combinations
Most startups won't start with five people one wearing each hat, nor is it maintainable for one person to wear all five - it's overwhelming. Natural combinations are between:
Right Brain - People Skills and Developer- Computer Guy
I've made the case previously that from an hours-of-work perspective that one founder wearing the developer hat isn't enough and I still think so... to me an ideal pair is:
1. Developer-Computer Guy-Product Specialist and 2. Developer-Right Brain-People Skills
Outsourcing
You periodically see MBAs (People Skills) who have "an idea" and try to get funding so they can outsource everything else. More power to them. In my opinion Developer and People Skills are integral and can't ever be totally outsourced.
Right Brain is the easiest to farm out... in my experience it's a gift your founders either have or they don't - you can study enough to fake it and get by, but inspired user experiences come from naturally talented professional designers. It's also relatively narrow-term. Once you have your UI and "experience arcs" defined, this hat is largely pixel pushing until your feature set expands.
Computer Guy is tricky. On the one hand getting set up and developing a plan to scale is very short term, but you want more than a contractor's phone number when your server says it's in "maintenance" mode at 3 am. Most good developers at least know their way around a unix box, which is enough to get started. I can't imagine a core founder who only brings the Computer Guy skill to the table for a web app, but I suppose it depends.
People Skills - A true passion for your product is the best PR skill there is. The debate over hiring a PR firm will be raging years from now, and I've never done it, so I can't say. But I do think it's important for one founder to be able to make friends and influence people, and I've yet to meet someone who could do that who wouldn't make a fine People Skills guy.
Outsourcing development is another eternal question... if you can use it to turn dollars into an earlier release date it's a lovely idea, just make sure that you actually can. If you don't have someone on staff who can review the code you're getting you will probably come to wish you did.
All that said, I don't know any perfect teams. Motivated, passionate people can move mountains, and often do a much better job at tasks they have no experience with than professional contractors would.
posted by aseever at
5:51 PM
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