We have an ugly truth to face in the startup world with subprime promises and people. Here are 5 obvious signs to lookout for:
1. Has your CEO product managed your startup’s product in its infancy?
Startups by their very nature are labs for product incubation that can scale massively in a short span of time. If you doubt your CEOs capability as a product person or he hasn’t got a capable right hand man (CTO) in early stage startup, count this as a red flag #1.
Mind it, CEOs of post market-fit startups must always delegate this role and focus on funds and leadership management.
2. Do you have more ‘senior leadership’ than developers?
Another obvious sign of trouble is when you join a new (pre market fit) startup and find there are more members of ‘senior leadership team’ or ‘C-level suit’ than the number of developers. This is a clear sign of a hierarchical structure to streamline processes too early that will only cause more in-fighting in future and readying itself for potential disaster.
3. Do you have project managers tracking time at developer level?
Project managers should only be needed in larger complex technical projects with many external dependencies. If you are in a regular software based startup and find a project manager sitting next to you then you should already count this as a big red flag. Another bad sign is if you find your development manager powerless in front of him. Lastly, if he is counting hours left in project— run!
4. The word ‘Agile’ used more on average than the word ‘value’.
I don’t think this needs any explanation. If you are in doubt then just count the use of word ‘agile’ and ‘value’ to run this simple test.
If Count(Agile) > Count (Value), then Flag = 🚩
5. Forget making profit, has your startup made any money yet?
For some this may come late, so relax. But if you see that there is no desire to get the first buck in through the door and the only thing burning is cash, it’s time for you to step in or step up Mr Product Manager.
So my friends, if you find any of this true in your company please don’t forget to share this piece with your colleagues.
