A rise from start-up to unicorn involves much growth in capabilities, gaining new customers, and winning against the competition. This needs a well-rounded team to help the start-up thrive despite the many challenges in the marketplace. A start-up with only one type of employee having a limited skillset will not be able to win in the marketplace. That includes IT talent – so having only great IT talent and no other skills will not make the start-up successful.
This article shares insights so entrepreneurs, employees, bureaucrats, and politicians can understand what helps build large companies in their city that help bring revenue, jobs, and taxes to the city economy.
To attain the unicorn status a start-up requires a team with diverse talent, skill, and expertise. Here are the key types of employees vital to scaling the unicorn status:
- Founders – Leading the founders’ team is the CEO or the Chief Executive Officer, followed by the CTO (Chief Technical Officer), and CFO (Chief Financial Officer). The CEO is the visionary leader who instils confidence in his team, communicates the mission, and formulates strategies, thus providing direction to the rest of the team and the organization to achieve success. The other chief officers are experts in their core areas, helping the CEO to create the product and market it.
- Product Development Team – This team comprises the software engineers and developers or coders to ideate, innovate, develop, and maintain the start-up product, focusing on reliability, scalability, and fixing glitches. The designers of (UI/UX) whose role is to create engaging User Interface for enhanced user satisfaction. Then come the product managers who focus on the market reach of the product by tracking customer needs and ensuring the product delivers the same.
- Finance and Legal Team – This team consists of financial analysts and accountants with legal advisors. The former plans finance does the budgeting and ensures compliance regarding the same. The latter focuses on legal matters like intellectual property rights, regulatory compliance, and contracts for the company.
- Human Resources Team – Popularly known as the HR department, it consists of HR managers and talent acquisition specialists managing recruitment, organizational culture, employee satisfaction, identifying talent, and hiring resources to fill crucial roles. They also create a talent pool for the organization to bank upon.
- Marketing Team has managers, strategists, and content creators who build brand reputation, create a strong presence in the market using the media channels, acquire clients, drive growth, and create interesting and engaging content to attract target customers and retain them. They also support the inbound marketing efforts.
- Sales and Business Development Team – This team is divided into business development managers, sales executives, and customer success managers who establish strategic collaborations and partnerships, generate leads, close deals, and manage customer relationships. Also, they ensure customer satisfaction to drive expansion and generate revenue for the organization.
- Operations Team – This team consists of the operations manager and supply chain specialists supervising the everyday operations to optimize team performance and scalability. They look after inventory, logistics, and relationships with suppliers.
- Data Analytics Team – This team collects and analyses data to optimize decision-making and operations personalize customer experiences, and develop models to improve product features.
- Customer Support Team – Consists of customer care executives dealing with customer issues and assisting them, thus ensuring positive feedback.
- Advisors and Mentors – They are industry experts who provide guidance and advice to the organization from their experience.
Optimal performance of all these teams is necessary for a start-up to gain unicorn status.