As we all know the startup success rate is not as promising as we might think. My question is if there’s an actual need to have a person within the startup with a proper manager education or role, given the case, since it can be an actual manager or a designer, programmer, etc who assumes the role of the manager. Please do answer according to your experience (either personal or vicarious).
Questions
How important is it to have a manager in a startup?
2 answers from the community
A· Jun 16, 2014
I think it's definitely helpful to have one cofounder managing internal operations, making sure all of the trains run on time, etc. That's how we have it split up at my startup -- I take care of all the external stuff: sales, marketing, PR, recruiting, while my cofounder manages all of the internal operations: making sure our team adheres to release schedules, customer success, accounting, admin, etc.
It's helped us grow from $0 to $600K ARR in the last nine months since inception. As much as people like to talk a big talk about having no managers, it can be vital in a startup to have someone making sure everything is going to plan, because your time and resources are limited and everything depends on execution.
A· Jun 17, 2014
I think it's good having someone who can delegate and manage overall strategy and direction, but I don't think it's necessary for that person to have an MBA, or "a manager education" as you put it. You need someone who has a strong vision for the company, and the experience and knowledge to get it there, but that doesn't necessarily mean they need to have managed a company before.