

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.<p>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.<p>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).<p>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?<p>2)When do YC companies tend to start opening up to “non-coding product manager types”?<p>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?<p>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?<p>TL;Dr – I’m a Product Manager and want to work at a startup in a non-coding capacity, what makes sense?
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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
antoniovitti@gmail.com Cheers!

