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Yaw, FWIW I was going for a thesis of "For all the people pouring hate onto the biz guys, it's a bit more complex than that". Regarding the "shielding from the

Yaw, FWIW I was going for a thesis of "For all the people pouring hate onto the biz guys, it's a bit more complex than that". Regarding the "shielding from the outside world" idea: For a pre-funding startup, I don't think there's much outside world to shield you from-- certainly not 10-12 hours a day of it. There are some products that can benefit from sales effort on day 1. Most (especially consumer plays) really can't. For the first 3-4 months, what is a biz guy gonna do, other than sell? I should also add that I truly GET the value of a biz guy. Every company I have build has required that evolve (or devolve, if you want to be a hater!) from builder to biz guy. I've played the biz role for more of my adult life than I've played a development role.

sanswork 19y ago
"There are some products that can benefit from sales effort on day 1. Most (especially consumer plays) really can't." Admittedly selling(to customers) isn't always needed on day one but having someone working on building relationships with other companies and arranging cross promotion, etc is definitely valuable no matter what stage you are at.
anamax 19y ago
If you have a demo or a UI prototype, even just a click-through, someone (other than the designer) should be running tests with users. If you're planning on outside funding, someone should be working on that well before you need it. (You start raising round N before you close round N-1.)