Building Your Startup Team 6 Must Have Roles
The 8 most important startup positions to hire
Some startups are founded by a single person or a pair of co-founders who run every aspect of the company from the beginning, but even the smallest startups need to hire staff to fill key positions as they grow and expand:
Chief executive officer
Every startup should have a chief executive officer (CEO) in place to direct the overall strategy and growth of the business. The CEO establishes a company’s vision, creates its mission statement, monitors the performance of other executives, and serves as a liaison between company leaders. The CEO is frequently one of the first positions that founders create for their startup business because they are responsible for the overall strategy and business plan of the organization. CEOs are leaders who are in charge of making important business decisions and achieving success for the company, even on a team of other executives.
CEOs play a crucial role in startups because they aid in the expansion of the business. They determine how to expand product lines, what significant benchmarks they want to hit, and how they want the company to look once it moves past the startup stage and becomes a mature company. To make informed decisions about company management, CEOs consider variables such as the talent pool, the state of the economy, and market trends.
Chief product officer
A startup’s chief product officer (CPO) is responsible for being knowledgeable about every aspect of the product or service being developed. Their primary objective is to supervise the development of products that address issues for their target market. Product management team members like product designers, testers, and engineers are managed by CPOs.
CPOs take the initial product concept for a startup and look for ways to enhance how users interact with that product, develop new features, improve existing products, and discover new applications or uses for existing products. CPOs make sure that a product idea can be turned into a working prototype before using testing, troubleshooting, and product refinement techniques to get the product ready for sale.
Chief financial officer
Having a chief financial officer (CFO) is crucial because startups heavily rely on fundraising and investor acquisition to maintain the business, buy company infrastructure, and expand operations. A startup’s CFO is in charge of creating the budget and revenue projections for various stages of business growth and then presenting that information to investors to show the viability of the company. They make sure the startup has enough funding to buy necessary supplies and fuel growth.
The initial financial controls and guidelines for the startup’s spending are also created by CFOs. This enables them to manage debt, assets, and equity while ensuring that the business can turn a profit as soon as possible. They seek out areas where the business can save money and assist in choosing how to invest revenue to maximize profit.
Chief operations officer
Chief operating officers (COOs) establish the operational framework for startups and plan the logistics of running a business, including hiring staff and delivering goods to customers. When given information about the company’s objectives by other executives, COOs determine what doable tasks must be completed in order to carry out those objectives and sustain long-term operations.
Startup COOs oversee all aspects of the company’s operations setup, including locating suppliers, creating a supply chain timeline, liaising with manufacturers, ordering equipment, scheduling inspections, and implementing quality control procedures. They forecast the positions they will need to fill in order to meet demand at various stages of the company’s development.
Chief technology officer
The chief technology officer (CTO) oversees all technological operations necessary to run a contemporary startup. CTOs identify the technology products and interfaces that a company’s target market uses to make its products accessible to consumers. They decide what hardware and software tools the startup will require to develop and grow the business. To ensure that potential customers and clients can easily navigate web pages to make purchases or request more information about products, CTOs oversee the website launch of the business and plan updates.
CTOs at tech-based startups play a particularly important role because they investigate cutting-edge technologies to incorporate into the businesses’ goods and services. They aid in developing novel technological fixes for issues within the organization, incorporate updates, and instruct staff on cutting-edge technological systems.
Chief marketing officer
A chief marketing officer (CMO) is in charge of managing the company’s sales, advertising, and marketing efforts across a variety of media. They make financial decisions for the company by figuring out how to draw clients and promote return business. A startup’s CMO chooses the initial target market, carries out market research projects, and decides how to position its products. Before, during, and after the startup’s launch, the CMO finds ways to raise awareness of its products and services. She also assists in developing the startup’s brand identity.
Additionally, CMOs can create a plan for selecting and preparing salespeople to pursue customers. They conduct market research to identify sales opportunities, design a plan for establishing sales territories, and create funnels to lead customers through the transactional process. CMOs at startups decide on appropriate sales goals early on in the company’s development, then raise them proportionately as the company grows. CMOs gather data and metrics about a startup’s sales and marketing success, then examine the data to revise their plan of action.
Customer relations manager
After a startup releases a product, they require a person to handle customer complaints. The customer relations manager at a startup is in charge of creating best practices for responding to any queries or worries a customer may have regarding their product. Customer service representatives accept consumer feedback in order to enhance business procedures and raise customer satisfaction. Customer service representatives assist startups in establishing a solid reputation and a loyal following of repeat clients, both of which can help the startup gain traction in the market.
Human resources manager
For startups that are prepared to grow, human resources managers establish hiring, recruiting, and employee relations procedures. Even small-staff startups should have a human resources manager to oversee the hiring process and assist current employees with any ongoing workplace issues. As a business grows, having a good human resources manager can help startups retain more staff and create consistent workplace policies. Setting up employee benefit programs, such as health insurance, is the responsibility of human resource managers and is crucial for luring qualified candidates to the startup team.
What is a startup?
A startup’s managers and founders must be able to attract capital to invest in the business, convincing potential investors that their idea can succeed in the consumer market. This entails overseeing a growing company’s organizational structure, hiring strategy, marketing plan, and technological requirements.
Tips for hiring people for startup positions
Building a leadership team that can assist a startup realize its full potential requires the use of strategic hiring techniques. When selecting and hiring executives and managers for a startup in its early stages, consider using the following advice:
FAQ
What are the best job titles for early startups?
Prospecting and closing sales are the primary duties of a startup’s vice president of sales. Creating and defining a sales strategy, process and tactics. Recruiting, training and managing sales reps. helping sales representatives with their current deals and offering advice
What are the 4 types of startups?
- The founder of the startup. …
- The co-founder. …
- Chief executive officer (CEO) + chief operations officer (COO) …
- Chief technology officer (CTO) or VP Engineering. …
- Product Manager and Project Manager. …
- Chief marketing officer (CMO) …
- SMM, PR, Communication Manager.
What does startup job mean?
- Small business startups.
- Buyable startups.
- Scalable startups.
- Offshoot startups.
- Social startups.
