The initial team of a software startup Narrow-shouldered innovation and broad-shouldered implementation
Pertti Seppänen, Markku Oivo, Kari Liukkunen · 2016
Research interest in software startups has been increasing in recent years in parallel with the increasing role of the startup as a source of new, highly innovative business and product ideas. In the early stages of the startup, the initial team plays a key role both in innovativeness and in transforming the idea into a product. The aim of this paper is to study the competencies that are present in the initial teams of software startups. The paper identifies characteristics of the competencies and maps how the competencies and personnel structures of the initial team reflect each other. The findings are presented in a competency distribution map with six high-level competency domains and three personnel categories. The competency map was created by conducting thematic synthesis of an empirical interview data from a sample of different software startups in four European locations. Our results show a strong dominance of the founder in the actions and competencies related to the business and product innovations of startups. The role and competencies of the rest of the initial team fall into the implementation-related work category.