Assigning roles within the team

Assigning roles within the team. We partly covered the topic of assigning roles in the previous section; however, finding a co-founder and assigning roles are very closely linked. There are two approaches. The first: when a startup has enough co-founders, divide the roles among them. The second: when there is only one founder, look for a co-founder based on the missing roles, competencies and technical skills. Which roles do we identify? As a venture company that constantly evaluates various startup teams, we identify four roles according to Adizes: first, the entrepreneur; second, the producer; third, the organizer; and fourth, the communicator.

It is impossible to combine all four of these roles in one person, so for a startup to function fully, the roles must be distributed among the key team members. The entrepreneur is the person who drives the business: a strategist and a visionary. In a startup, this is the one who promotes the product and raises investment. The producer is the person who is actually responsible for production; in a startup, for the product, the app or the platform. The organizer is the person who brings order to the company, bureaucratizes it and builds processes. In startups, this is usually the role of the chief operating officer.

The communicator is the person who builds relationships within the team and is responsible for motivation, team spirit and a healthy atmosphere in the team. In a startup, this role is initially performed by one of the founders. Later, the role passes to the HR director. According to the theory, a person cannot combine more than two, or in rare cases three, roles, so it is important that the team consist of managers who complement one another. At the same time, it is always necessary to single out the role of the leader. Even if a startup has several co-founders, when various strategic issues are being decided, the final decision should be made by the team leader after first hearing all points of view.

There is also another approach used in the venture industry: the 3H theory, hipster, hustler, hacker, by Rei Inamoto. Rei identifies three types of people who should be on a minimum viable team. The first is the hipster, the person who anticipates trends and already knows today what will be in demand tomorrow. The hipster is a kind of visionary and designer. He knows what the final product should look like for the user and says how to make this product as convenient and clear as possible. The hustler is the person who will sell your product to the target audience and then switch to adjacent markets.

He will also raise investment and make potential investors line up. The hacker is the person responsible for the technical development of the product. He will bring all the wishes of the hipster and the hustler together into a single product and make it work.