

Ask HN: Tips for the first employee joining a tech startup - captainNemo

Hi,  I would be the first employee joining a funded,tech startup in US , providing a service which is  a web-based,consumer facing.   
I don't have much experience under my belt-  and I would to make sure the ramp-up process goes with as few hitches as possible.  
Any tips, any previous experiences of being the first few employees (as a developer) of a tech startup, would be really helpful.<p>Thanks  a lot in advance, for your  tips!! 
 :-)
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chime
You're going to be building things that many people will use for a long time
in the future. Even that small script that converts a customer email to PDF,
copies it to the shared folder, and prints it on the copy room printer could
become a critical system. Find these small one-off projects and solve them
before they slow down the business. I've made many small utilities that
overtime got replaced by larger systems but without them, maybe the company
wouldn't have grown large enough to afford the large system.

Think of yourself as a foundation-builder than a typical developer at an
established company. Once you setup a git-flow or email distribution lists,
you'll own these systems for a while and will be the expert on
managing/fixing/growing them. Plan well but not too much. Get it out in
production (inside the premises) immediately.

If you're working on external customer-facing stuff, start writing policies on
how things should happen, if such policies don't already exist.

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hga
Could you tell us at what stage the startup is? I.e. is there already code?
One or more technical co-founders you're going to be working with?

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neurokinetikz
"Buckle up Dorothy, 'cause kansas is going bye bye"

