employees, hiringI’m trying to start my own startup (a technology one) with a few associates and we’ve gotten stuck when choosing which employees we’ll need in order to run the startup.
Right now we’re 5 developers, 1 accountant and the 2 founders (they take the big decisions and speak with the clients).
Is there a key role that we’re missing? This question tries to get knowledge from people having found this problem in their own startups.
Thanks in advance.
Depending on your business, e.g. SaaS or Enterprise, there is one uber critical role you missed that I keep seeing startups miss continuously.
Sales
Marketing
You aren’t a business unless you have sales and no, getting an article on Mashable or other tech sites rarely means any success.
My business really started going once I realized this fatal flaw. Get a sales or marketing person on board as your first employee. Sell before you even have a product if you can pull that off.
As well as Sales/Marketing as Adam said there is something else to consider especially for a tech startup… a Designer.
Not all developers can design! So if you are doing anything with UI make sure that at least one of your developers has the skills to do design and even more importantly has that ‘eye’. If none of them do and neither you nor your co-founder(s) then you need someone as a designer.
If you have a great product with an ugly or non-user friendly UI you will cut yourself off from a large market segment.
You usually need these things - note that founders can occupy many of these niches, but there is a distinct role that they must occupy:
Depending on what you’re doing, you double up these roles. As an often-dev/CTO, I’ve done sales, accounts, QA, marketing, support. It’s a startup. That’s part of the fun. Being closely in touch with the customers and shaping the product experience. Strict role separation is… strange. Big company. Not startup. Not agile. Not lean.
There are 5 main roles that every business has to cover to function:
Product: This is covered by your 5 developers.
Legal: You are missing this one and I would suggest you get it on board fast or you might end up loosing everything to your competitors.
Marketing and Sales: As already noted by many, you need to sell your product and without sales there is no cashflow and no business.
Accounting You need someone to take care of cash coming in, taxes, salaries and other financials, but you already have one so this base is covered.
I’d say you need dedicated BA’s and Sales guys for pitching for projects and opening new business opportunities.
You would also need QA guys to validate your code and application. Maybe not so soon but as soon as you have a definite plan about your application / project.
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