July 28, 2007

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Pillar #1 - The Entrepreneur

Before we get into each of the people pillars, I forgot to mention one thing: Although there are three separate pillars, there doesn’t necessarily need to be three separate persons. All three could be lumped into the sole founder, though this is not the ideal situation. On the other hand, a whole team could encompass one pillar.

The startup starts with the entrepreneur. Without the entrepreneur, the engineer doesn’t know what to build. The designer doesn’t know what to interface with the customer. In contrast, he relies on the engineer and designer to realize the vision and goals. So what are the entrepreneur’s responsibilities?

• Provides the vision and the stepping stones to achieve that vision.
• Communicates the vision to the technical engineer and user-interface designer.
• Promotes until blue in the face
• Redirects the startup due to customer feedback and/or market changes if needed
• Makes sure milestones are met and project stays on task

This is a just a short list, what other things must the entrepreneur do?