As Katharina Klausberger – the founder of Shpock – would say, startups should hire for personality and not for skills! This is because the right skills can be taught, while personality is much harder to change. If you want to or are already part of the startup environment, you know what we talk about. You need a certain type of personality, like Anna Alex, the founder of Planetly shared with us in her interview: she has the courage to question what everyone else says.
The study behind: Startup Anatomy
Speedivest Heroes conducted a study in 2019, called Startup Anatomy, with more than 230 founders from all over Austria. The aim of the study was to reveal the essence of startup founders: what are the differences between startup founders and managers? How do their minds differ? Is there any secret recipe for a successful startup? Those were the questions to keep us up at night – and some of the main findings are:
- Startup people are more emotional than corporate managers: do you also feel like you truly care about many issues in your environment?
- The activity level is higher for startup people since they are doers, they want to make an impact and change the status quo: you also cannot wait to execute the brilliant ideas that come to your mind?
- Startup fits are more open-minded, they are more curious and interested in experiencing intellectual stimulation, new ideas, and theories. The willingness to learn and develop is also higher: do you feel like you don’t have enough hours a day to learn all the things you’re interested in?
- The level of interest in creativity is higher: do you find yourself thinking about how to solve current problems with innovative ideas?
- Working autonomously and in a flexible environment are key motivators for startup fits! Taking initiative is a routine task for them: does passion lead you in your daily work and do you want to have more freedom in your working life?
Then you probably need to get a job in one of the coolest startups in Europe!
And if you’re also interested in the whole study, make sure to check it out here.
What kind of jobs are available in a startup?
Since startups start small, they don’t necessarily have a lot of money to spend (unless they are the hottest unicorns with at least one funding round behind their back). They cannot afford to spend big amounts on creative agencies or IT outsourcing services, that’s why usually diversity is key. Many people with many backgrounds are working together to add their value to the final product. What kind of people you can find in a startup?
- Developers: since the majority of startups are tech-driven, developers are one of the most researched roles. They create the products from scratch and they are responsible for any changes or further improvements needed. Don’t get confused: engineers, front-end developers, back-end developers and full-stack developers are all developers, possessing their own set of skills needed to fulfill their specific tasks.
- UI/UX designers: User Interface (UI) and User Experience (UX) design is crucial for any digital product to be successful. The UX/UI designers are cooperating with a team of developers to make the product look appealing and easy to use for the customers.
- Product managers: they are extremely important for the proper development of the product. Product managers are in charge of alignment between the team of developers and the market feedback & market needs. They are the point of contact between the developers and the rest of the team.
- Business developers: they are in charge of fully understanding the product, therefore also being able to sell it to customers. Being convincing and trustworthy is very important since business developers present added value compared to that of the competitors.
- Marketers & Growth Hackers: they raise awareness about the product using social media, SEO strategies, content marketing, and paid advertising online. They evaluate the product and identify new needs, and report them to the project manager.
- Customer success managers: the customer is what matters the most. In order to have a customer-centric approach, the client needs to be heard and their feedback needs to be evaluated and translated into changes in the product: and that’s exactly the main task of a customer success manager.
Cool right? If that sounds like the dynamic environment you’d like to be part of, just check out our job board and get the perfect job for you!
