Life at a start-up is like looking at the universe in the early stages of creation: Young bodies moving at the speed of light, with unintended collisions creating new things and a complete mystery to anyone looking back years later. It’s loads of fun with lots of challenges. Even if you’re not the next Airbnb – you’ll hopefully end up with friends for life.
eRated is definitely a place like this. There are about ten of us these days in two countries, two different time zones and probably two dozen opinions on everything from code to coffee. The CEO does his own job … and then everyone else’s at one time or another. His nights are late doing all the most important work that everyone takes for granted: Making sure money is coming in and going out; juggling investors with varying interests and expectations; managing staffing issues and keeping everyone at sword’s length. If you’re managing a start-up – running a Fortune 500 company should be no problem.
The Head of Product is the company artist – someone who can think big. The difference between this guy and someone painting in a Parisian studio flat is that he always has a view to what’s professional and what’s catchy. Being creative has to fun, but it also has to add value. These days, where everything is viral, he’s building things for an audience of one, or possibly one million (fingers crossed!). He’s on the sofa with his computer on his lap and is the de facto social chair.
The CTO and the developers are the blood, sweat and tears of every tech start-up. They are the guys who actually deliver on our commitments to our customers and investors. They squish the bugs like a windshield on the highway and deliver on the ever-changing directions of the company as a whole. We love the boys because they have fun and get down to work – it’s a rare combination.
The rest of the team bring up the biz dev and content end. It’s about making sure we have an online presence, a personal connection to possible partners and getting the word out at events and conferences. The goal is to turn business cards into dollar bills. In a world with start-ups popping up like weeds – it ain’t easy, but we have fun watering the plants!
We literally refer to eRated as a family because at this early stage, it certainly resembles one as often or more as a traditional company. You’re working as hard for each other as you are for a pay-off at the end of day’s work. eRated is proud to have a great team and a great product – in a start-up, you’re always selling both.
With all that, now take a minute or two to better understand the team and the vision behind eRated.
