A sales/management type can work on developing and qualifying leads; communicating with legal, accounting, and insurance consultants; and raising outside investment to the extent these are appropriate to the business model.
Even more importantly they add slack. This means there's someone to take out the trash and stock the refrigerator with Diet Coke, Caffeine Free Coke, and almond milk.
The idea of slack entails the possibility that a programming ninja can wash the coffee mugs while the sales/administrative person is head down in payables for last month.
Above jumping into the dumpster to retrieve a dollar isn't limited to one skill set.
Also "slack" might be a useful concept here. E.g. I frequently ended up doing the backups at the startups I worked for, because it's one of my specialties and I really care about avoiding data loss. And after doing the setup, "turning the crank" each day was some non-intense work to do, a welcome break from the 7 hours of heads down programming that's always been my max of "real work".
Comments
A sales/management type can work on developing and qualifying leads; communicating with legal, accounting, and insurance consultants; and raising outside investment to the extent these are appropriate to the business model.
Even more importantly they add slack. This means there's someone to take out the trash and stock the refrigerator with Diet Coke, Caffeine Free Coke, and almond milk.
Of course a large fraction of these types are too proud to do that.
One thing I always look for, in every member of a startup, is that they aren't too proud "to sweep the floors" if needed.
The idea of slack entails the possibility that a programming ninja can wash the coffee mugs while the sales/administrative person is head down in payables for last month.
Above jumping into the dumpster to retrieve a dollar isn't limited to one skill set.
Absolutely.
Also "slack" might be a useful concept here. E.g. I frequently ended up doing the backups at the startups I worked for, because it's one of my specialties and I really care about avoiding data loss. And after doing the setup, "turning the crank" each day was some non-intense work to do, a welcome break from the 7 hours of heads down programming that's always been my max of "real work".