Building the management team has been something I've been struggling with since started out with onlyinpgh. While the 5-headed structure as described in "The Team" certainly covers the things that a business will surely need, it seems to me that it isn't necessary to have all 5 people from the outset. There are certainly cases where smaller founding teams built a startup and hired people to fill the other roles mentioned, and 5 just seems like a large number of founding people.
Where I'm at, however, is certainly not optimal. I am the only "founder" of onlyinpgh, and while I have no problem with giving equity as part of a compensation package for talented people, it seems like after running the website for 2 years and working on developing the business for almost 1 year now, the founder ship has sailed.
It is obvious, though, that I need to find people to fill the other needs. I've been working with a technical expert on a freelance basis for about a month and things are going well with developing the prototype, but he's not an official employee at this point. I also recognize that I need help with interface design (that's how I translate "delivery specialist" for my venture), sales, marketing and a financial advisor. On the mentor front, however, there are a number of people that have been closely involved thus far and have already proven extremely valuable.
Some other advice I've received regarding finding founders/partners is that while it's very important, it's important not to rush. In a lot of ways it's like a marriage--you need to make sure you're compatible with each other, and that's not something that can get done hastily. It'd be great to find at least a sales person before officially launching, but my gut tells me that will be difficult to do. Otherwise, my plan right now is to hire people when I can to fill the roles as they become critical and offer them a bigger role if they pan out.
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