Twenty things a non-programmer should do in a startup; a list compiled by Spencer Fry in response to a question asked on Hacker News:
- Writing the copy for the website. Mainly keeping the support documents up-to-date.
- Doing all the business related tasks.
- Doing all the customer service.
- Handling all incoming e-mail.
- Doing all of the social networking stuff (facebook, twitter).
- Doing all of our marketing. Handling Google AdWords, banner advertising, text advertising, etc.
- Dealing exclusively with our accountant.
- Tracking all of our expenses, etc., into Excel and getting everything ready for accountant (see 7).
- Handling all legal work with our lawyer.
- Doing all of our networking. I’m the guy that goes to all of our relevant events.
- We all come up with ideas for product development.
- Blogging. I do all the blogging.
- Handling payroll. I do that.
- Dealing with the bank accounts. I deal directly with the small business rep at our bank.
- Market research. I find out as much as I can about our competitors, what they do, etc. I also learn about our market as a whole.
- Handling all incoming advertising requests, setting up their campaigns, etc.
- Dealing directly with all our merchants (credit cards + PayPal). Dealing with the very few chargebacks we receive.
- Paying all of our bills (server expenses, software licenses, domains, advertising, etc.) and monitoring our cash flow.
- Pitching. I handle all of that.
- Anything that requires a phone call. Incoming or outgoing.
Fry has now written an article that provides information on what exactly these twenty tasks entail.
via @alexjmann