skillsI have the following situation. We have a product which is still in development and we have funding and an environment at an university for that. If the product turns out to work it will solve several problems an industry had before so we want to turn it into a start-up. The point is we are funded for 2 years and until then a functional first product is the goal combined with a kickstarter campaign for initial marketing and funding of the production. Now my issue is the following: I do not work at the development, this is done by my two cofounders. I have a technical background though. I have a day job but want to develop skills needed when the start up “goes live”. What are skills you think are the most important in an early stage? Please be specific persistance and intelligence is sort of a prerequisite for considering to start up.
Thank you for the advice.
Congratulations on your startup.
According to me, there are 2 skills that every cofounder should have:
These are soft skills but that will help you stay longer in the market.
It is important to note, there many other skills that you will require and there are many roles that you will need to play when the startup goes live. Such as:
Roles such as:
Skills such as:
Above all, the most important skills that you will definitely need is:
Do take note, on my personal level: I always had this question while building the startup:
I wish I knew this
But it is important that you will encounter many more “things” that you need to learn but above soft skills will help you learn new things faster.
Hope this helps.
A second congratulations on your venture! If you have made it this far with your skills set, you clearly have the intelligence and drive to successfully continue. I applaud your desire to grow with your company.
Social skills are a great place to start. Between networking, looking for investors, and selling, you'll be spending a lot of time around people, so it's worth learning how to get comfortable around them. As you and your team put more on the line, you may also find relations between you and your co-founders getting more difficult to upkeep. Thus, you will also find that building a healthy communication pathway among yourselves from the onset will be of great value in the long run.
However, as your startup goes live and begins to grow you may realize you yourself cannot play all the necessary roles, unless you want a lifetime of stress. Remember that hiring others who specialize in different skills sets than you and your current team could really pay off in the long run. Good luck!
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