Who's who in a corporate zoo?

A question asked on QUORA that I answered as follows:

What would the ideal web technology start-up team be composed of in terms of positions, skills sets, personalities, knowledge base, and experience?

This question previously had details. They are now in a comment.

Jeannette Marshall, Rewards can outweigh risk if you do your homework

Answered Oct 31, 2011

I'll throw my hat in, not worrying about titles, except for clarity and consistency.   I recommend you would draw out an organizational chart with core function bullets underneath.

1. CEO:  Lead:  visionary, investment community face, organization voice
2. CFO:  Finance budgets, spending, takes care of bottom line, manages growth, HR
3. Operations:   Execute, Implementation, Customer Service, Customer Retention
4. Marketing:  Communicate, SEO/SMO, web, Social Media, Business Development/Sales, Customer attention
5. Technical:  Create, Design, Engineering, Developers

Not all have to be "employees".  There is a lot of talented people that will work on contract.  What is important is based on the strength of the product developed, will determine how many people it would take to:

p.s.  Replace "product" with service, idea, etc.  The basics apply to most offerings.

• launch the product, (Technical, Vision, Costs, Communicate)
• maintain the product (Operations, Technical, Financial)
• promote the product (CEO, Marketing, Business Development, SEO/SMO, Events)
• manage the product (Operations, Technical, Financial, Customer Service, Education/Training)
• keep the product going (Technical, Operations, Financial, Education/Training)
• grow the product (CEO, Marketing, Business Development, SEO/SMO Technical, Operations, Financial)

More times than not, key functions are typically shared by individuals, for example:

1. CEO:  How it looks:  Vision, Marketing, Product Development, Communication
2. CFO:  How it gets done:  Financials, Operations, HR,
3. CTO:   How it works:  Product Creation, Product Development, Engineer, Design

There are numerous examples of successful launches and organizations that start out with only two key people that work jointly that branches from there:

• FACE of the organization (CEO, Marketing, Design, etc.)
• BRAINS of the organization (CFO, Developer, Design, Financial, Operations, Engineer)