In the early days of a startup, being a generalist can be exceptionally helpful – provided you do have at least a general working knowledge of the most relevant skills for that startup.
In my particular case, I always learn as much of a thing as is necessary for the task I am doing so as not to fall into the rabbit hole of learning (lest I be caught for days unnecessarily learning some new programming language, photoshop shortcut or SEO trick or something best left to a specialist.)
I’ve leveraged my adaptability as a generalist to run HR and Support departments, and even dabble in Social Media Marketing (even though my background is in engineering.)
However, if what you mean by Jack-of-all-Trades is someone who isn’t very good at anything, then no, there is no room for you in a startup.
Originally Posted: https://www.quora.com/Should-you-master-one-specific-business-product-skill-programming-growth-hacking-finance-etc-before-attracting-co-founders-and-talent
Originally Posted On: 2015-05-24