Big Red Car here. Hey, it’s cold and rainy here in the ATX. Hell, they were talking about snow and sleet in the Hill Country. Can that be right?
So, The Boss was talking to one of his brilliant CEOs and they got on the subject of the founding team for a startup. The discussion took an interesting turn.
Many startups — web based products in particular — entail a founding team which includes an entrepreneurial leader, an operations guy, maybe a marketing guy and a technical guy. There are variations of the theme but this is a recognizable structure. Some folks play more than one position but in general it’s leadership, operations, marketing and tech.
What is notably missing is a finance guy. Finance guys have long since faded into the background as they can be bought in bite sized increments as they are needed. We spoke of that here. Building An Organization — Financial Talent.
Startups can hire part time financial talent as shown here. Click on it to see it at a larger scale.
Now with the advent of a more structured approach to developing web based products, it is also possible to explore the notion of an outsourced tech team to provide the necessary development for a web based product — a web site. I am not suggesting outsourcing like offshoring though that is a legitimate approach. Rather I am suggesting exploring tech development companies which are emerging to provide a turnkey service for website development.
You will still need someone with a bit of experience and a learned hand to direct the outside effort but there are now a myriad of development shops which can provide a turnkey, sometimes fixed price development effort.
This should provide food for thought for a founder, entrepreneur, CEO who is a bit technical or is particularly adept at directing such efforts. You can still bring in a bit of talent to oversee things but you may not have to bring in a co-founder and to share the equity.
This strategy is NOT for everyone but it is worthy of your serious consideration.
But, hey, what the Hell do I really know anyway? I’m just a Big Red Car.
