

The 15 Roles Absolutely Necessary in a Startup, No Matter How Small it is - jshajan
http://micahelliott.blogspot.com/2008/05/web-startup-surgeons.html

======
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.

~~~
alabut
It's all in the viewpoint - I don't see "blogger" as dismissive at all and see
"author" a bit pompous for the level of writing.

~~~
swombat
I don't see what the level of writing has to do with whether one is an author
or not. You're the author of your comment, and a graffiti artist who draws a
penis on a wall is the author of that graffiti. Author merely implies who
created the thing.

Anyway, all I was commenting is that I find it quite unpleasant when I write
blog posts and people refer to me in the third person, as either "the author"
or "the blogger", but between the two, "the author" seems less dismissive and
I'd pick that over the other. It's worth keeping in mind that the author
probably reads these comments too.

~~~
alabut
I think the best way to explain our differences is that we have varying
preferences for specificity - I like "blogger" because it means "author of a
blog post" the same way that I like "commenter" as "author of a comment".

And yes, just because you like the more generalized description of "author"
doesn't change that they'll all 3rd person labels, which I'm not sure is
pejorative either.

------
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.

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

~~~
scorxn
Thanks for that term, hadn't heard it before.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lifestyle_business>

That's exactly what it is, and I want out.

~~~
swombat
Then leave. From the sound of it, you've already proven that you can wear all
the necessary hats anyway, so you should feel pretty confident about it.

------
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?

~~~
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...

~~~
run4yourlives
Twitter also lacks an income, but I digress.

One could argue that viral marketing is business development. The main
difference is that in the former, your customers are doing the work for you,
while in the latter, you've got a defined role.

I'd be careful to suggest though that this role isn't being done at all.

~~~
jpwagner
My only point is that he does not have a broader view in which bizdev is a
super important role in and of itself.

I think the author is suggesting that the "Marketer" fulfills this
specifically in the vertical he's approaching.

------
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.

~~~
brandnewlow
Digg's design is not horrible. C'mon. They've won design awards with it and
have millions of users. Hacker News has no design, which appeals to an
audience that would love to think that code (a.k.a. content) is the only thing
that matters in a business' success and that everything else is superfluous.

Digg's audience is more into fashion/style/cool stuff. So they should get some
colors and a few gradients here and there.

I actually think Digg's design is very low-key.

~~~
amvp
I agree - digg has a fairly elegant design that's easy on the eye, without
being obstructive. I don't think hacker news would suffer a great deal if a
:little: more attention was paid to visual design. It doesn't really matter, I
think people come here for the content, and that's fine.

Rater than comparing hn with digg, the comparison I saw somewhere was with
<http://www.newspond.com/> \- an example of a site that looks nice (if you
like gradients and glasy, round corners), at the expense of usability (only 3
posts per screen height etc). The first time I visited it, I was genuinely
impressed by what they've archived, visually. But I've never been back since.

------
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

