"In tech startups, marketers are more important than developers."
That's what one aspiring Web entrepreneur and software developer told me the other
night in a huddle at Charlie O'Donnell's NextNY "NYC
Media: Meet the Startups" event at Sun Microsystems' New York City office. After learning that I was a marketing guy, three other young entrepreneurs at early-stage startups nodded their
heads in agreement about that assertion. I was surprised, honored and a little embarrassed.
While I love to celebrate my art and craft, I disagree. In the case of these fledgling entrepreneurs,
who admitted being one-dimensional engineering types, marketing was their weak spot. They believe they were penalized as a result. Therefore, they overvalued marketing's relative importance.
Yet here's the truth: Marketing and product development are mutually dependent competencies in any successful Web startup -- and in any business, really. It can be that both competencies come
organically to a single person, or separately via multiple people on a team.
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Product development and engineering must lead, for without it, there is nothing beyond an idea. But development also
needs marketing to identify opportunity, reconcile development with that market opportunity, and channel development in a way that creates extraordinary value. Without marketing, development is
nothing beyond a science project.
That's why it's important to be multidimensional -- as individuals as well as teams. But being multidimensional doesn't just happen. For
individuals, it comes through conscious investment in things like education, cultural enrichment, social activities and environment. In the case of teams, it comes through hiring choices and openness.
At Clickable, our startup, multidimensionality is one of our three core values. We refer to it as being an "and" culture. We
wouldn't be where we were if we weren't multidimensional.
It's not easy to be multidimensional, but it's critical to success.