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Obviously, at a tech startup, the primary street cred comes from being able to do something technical. This doesn't necessarily mean coding or sysadminning, bu
by Travis 16y ago
Obviously, at a tech startup, the primary street cred comes from being able to do something technical. This doesn't necessarily mean coding or sysadminning, but it DOES mean that you have to produce something in order to even get any credibility.
My biggest issue with non-technical people is so much of what they do doesn't produce deliverables. Sales/marketing? Might produce some brochures. Sure produces money. But they don't actually build anything, making it hard for my brain to properly evaluate their skills.
So if you're a non-technical person, what will you produce that can be evaluated? Soft deliverables, such as reports, sales figures, etc., are more difficult for a technical person to evaluate -- so we tend to discount them (rightly, or wrongly) because the underlying knowledge of "how much talent / time / effort did this require" isn't inherent in the work.
- talbina 16y agoSure you can. It's called revenue dollars. Most positions, whether we like it or not, can be evaluated on a quantitative basis. Sales/marketing ---> brochures? How about sales/marketing ---> money. That's your problem that you tend to discount sales reports.
- ant5 16y agoSure you can. It's called revenue dollars. Most positions, whether we like it or not, can be evaluated on a quantitative basis. To who, exactly, do you ascribe those revenue dollars? The UX designer that came up with the feature the critical customer wanted? The developers who collaborated and created it? The QA team that made sure it actually works? The sales person that sold what was there? The salesperson's value isn't particularly clear in this equation. Could we replace them with another sales person? What did they bring to the table that was actually unique to them and not easily replaced? Would we have made the sale anyway? It's an incredible relative, subjective judgement to have to make.
- billswift 16y agoAll sales are the result of sales people, just ask a sales person, they'll tell you.
- wdewind 16y agoI suggest you look at internships. Most startups don't really have the room for someone whose skills aren't among the first steps towards revenue (sales guys physically can't do anything that directly produces revenue until the product is done regardless of how you split up importance etc). A UX guy doing untrained sales is a lot more valuable in the beginning than a sales guy doing untrained UX (or nothing). The idea that you'd even have one single responsibility is kind of missing the point. Startups that are successful tend to be people who are really knowledgeable and at the top of the game in their field, and on top of that bring in other outside skills (like sales) to the table. Bridging the gap between two industries etc. Reddit is not really a startup anymore, I think maybe you are thinking of "tech companies" in general, who may have more slack and so the ability to hire full time sales people (or whatever it is you are looking for). What ARE you looking for if not programming/design in a startup? How would you help lead the company towards a process that produces revenue/profit?
- jasonlotito 16y agoSure, sales and marketing people are valuable, but your not either, so why bring it up? So, if you aren't making the product, and you aren't selling the product, maybe you can do support? You've made it clear that's your strong point, so you can be a customer service rep.
- Travis 16y agoI don't disagree that there are ways of doing it. I just think the prevailing attitude of (founder level) engineers and coders is that you're not really building anything. It's the typical dismissal that non-tech people get from tech people. FWIW, I'm definitely a tech person, and even though I'm aware of this bias, I still suffer from it. Further, there's the problem of assignment of responsibility/credit to the sales person that's brought up in other threads. In my company, the single most useful non-tech, non-sales/marketing person would be a company mom. Laundry, grocery shopping, cooking, cleaning. Every hour I spend doing that (which I hate) prevents me from working on company stuff.