Ask HN: When do startups typically hire their first Product Manager?

[win_ini]

I’m a Product Manager at a B2B SaaS company that is profitable and has grown to over 250 employees – I have acquired some excellent experience along the way. We have some top-tier financing from VC’s and we are cash flow positive. I’ve been working there for about 5 years and have recently moved to the Bay Area (got married). I’m now looking to spread my wings a bit – and find another role at a smaller company - I miss the old days of small teams, faster decisions.

I am one of those “didn’t finish school and started working at an internet company in 1997”-type people. I have a knack for being the guy who can bridge developers and users needs…I have previous experience in IT running a server farm and ISP, as well as working on the Sales Engineering side, managed a SaaS product support team of 15 and currently am a customer focused product manager for an enterprise product in a fast growing vertical. I know that I can contribute to a company in a variety of ways.

The reason for the post - I am trying to figure out what to do next here in San Francisco. Ideally I’d like to have the ability to work at a small company where I can make a big impact on the product/operations side of things as a company scales up and moves from being “pure engineering” to a more wholistic company that needs things like product management/marketing, operational systems and processes put in place (ie: Marketing/Sales operations).

I’m wondering 4 things: 1) reading HN, It seems everyone on the startup side is looking for a co-founder with coding abilities (makes sense), when does it make sense for a guy like me to get involved with a growing company?

2)When do YC companies tend to start opening up to “non-coding product manager types”?

3)Know of any cool companies looking for a well rounded product guy who is fun to work with, thinks creatively and knows how to market web apps/products?

4)Do technical founders in the bay area consider founding companies with “non-coders”? I know there is a bias on HN towards “no”, but does it happen?

TL;Dr – I’m a Product Manager and want to work at a startup in a non-coding capacity, what makes sense?

[afbholly]

Hi...we are actually looking for someone like you. We are a startup in San Francisco in the mobile app space. We have technical people but are looking for a Product Manager like you. If you are interested, please email me at [email protected] Cheers!