The 15 Roles Absolutely Necessary in a Startup, No Matter How Small it is

[alabut]

Summary - the blogger envisions the bare minimum of roles needed in a startup and lists them all as different hats.

The Hat List

* Visionary/Architect

* Lead Developer(s). AKA Hackers.

* Sysadmin

* Toolsmith

* Webmaster

* DBA

* Graphic Artist

* CSS Designer

* Content Creator

* Customer Support

* Tester

* Marketer

* Manager

* Lawyer

* Chef

The roles don't necessarily equally different people - the smaller your startup, the hats combine into larger multitasking sombreros.

The Sombrero List

* Developer

* Sysadmin

* Artist

* Marketer

Overall, I found this to be a useful exercise. Although I'd disagree with which hats are the bare minimum and how they'd combine into larger sombreros, it got me thinking about what my personal list would look like and it wouldn't be too different (remove Marketer & Sysadmin, add another Developer, rename Artist as Designer), so in that sense it was still pretty useful as a thought experiment.

[swombat]

Personally, I'd hate to be referred to as "the blogger". "The author" seems a bit less dismissive.

[scorxn]

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.

[menloparkbum]

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.

[brandnewlow]

You realize you're working for a lifestyle business; his.

[YuriNiyazov]

That sounds a lot like what my ex-cofounder did. I resigned from the company.

[quizbiz]

Have a talk with the founder. Reading about good management isn't enough.

[moe]

Are you a 2-person company?

[strlen]

This particular piece of advice is something I want to highlight:

Learn about system administration. I don't have much data to back this, but I've found that many of the famously successful hackers have at one time in their careers been sysadmins. E.g., ESR, Robert Morris, Tim O'Reilly, and many more. Try browsing resumes of your hacker heroes and see if any of them don't have this qualification. Such work gives you an important practical perspectives on usage patterns, systems topologies, hardware limitations, lifecycles, automation, tool availability, user-friendliness, user-stupidity, etc.

This is very important piece of advice-- any great developer should be a minimally competent sysadmin (and any great sysadmin should be a minimally competent developer).

[rantfoil]

I like to summarize it as:

1) Coders, to code

2) Designers, to make stuff people want (interaction / product design, NOT visual design)

3) Hustlers, to get the stuff to the people

[Goladus]

That's almost the same conclusion he reaches in the blog. The only difference is that he includes the System Administrator role, for actually setting up and maintaining the platform that the code is going to run on.

[gfodor]

The 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?

[mde]

I appreciate the call-out of an important omission from the article. I've learned that having a bizdev on the team is truly critical. That whacked me on the side of the head when I started thinking about Twitter's strategizing (http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/01/13/twitter-decides-to-hire...), and thinking about the shaping of various features that customers are not getting a chance to weigh in on. I've tried to wear the bizdev hat myself but it is all-consuming. Now I have a full-time bizdev partner and it's making a world of difference in focus/direction. The XP practice of "on-site customer" is really enabled by having bizdev pull the customers close early on.

Another valuable role I've discovered is that of the incubator (I'm not YC; doing OTBC in PDX). It's another secondary role similar to Lawyer, but can be very supportive in making sure you're focused on doing all the business stuff that hackers can easily lose sight of. I'm presently being shown the value of having a solid business plan, perfecting multi-length elevator pitches, and refining the more formal investor and sales pitches. This is all possible thanks to experienced entrepreneurial coaches who really want to see you succeed.

Lastly, the "consort" is a non-obvious role -- someone who can give validation to your thinking, and exchange predicament stories with you. You may find him through the incubator, or at a hacking event, or wherever. My main consort is an extremely capable hacker and our regular discussions are gold.

So with the core team containing the right hacking, creative, and outreach balance, you can make progress. But I want to stress that the supporting people (Lawyer, Consort, Coach, et al) provide a lot of necessary elements.

[jpwagner]

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...

[hhm]

"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.

[blhack]

I also just want to chime in and say that I absolutely HATE websites that feel like they're been over-designed.

perfect = hackernews

horrible = digg.com

I feel like the "uses webframework python $buzzword, javascript $buzzword $buzzword $buzzword" speaks to this. SOOO many websites have got too many distracting buttons and things to click on, and no actual <i>content</i>. Look at something like craigslist...its perfect. It's clean, and it gives you only the information that you want.

Look at hackernews...same thing, nothing but content...yes there is some of that web2.0 (i hate that term) sauce on it, but it is a compliment to the content, not the main attraction of the site.

[cjc]

Can you offer a better one?

[oldgregg]

And someone to pay the bills and maintain accounting...

[wvenable]

It's a great list as long as your startup doesn't intend to ever make any money! No accountant, no business people, nothing of the sort? Speaking from experience, the business management side is very important if you want your venture to be successful (or take advantage of success when it comes).

[njharman]

These are/can be all business people.

* Visionary/Architect * Marketer * Manager * Lawyer * Chef

Accountant is something you rent/outsource.

[coglethorpe]

Points where I know I'm exceptionally weak:

- Graphic Artist.

- CSS Designer.

- Tester.

- Manager.

- Lawyer.

I'm not trying to be negative, but assessing what I need to outsource or partner to get my company strong.

[ktharavaad]

A low cost way to handle the role of "Chef" is to outsource it the microwave and packs of raman, at least fo me.

[djahng]

don't forget an accountant