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Ask HN: How can my girlfriend get plugged into a startup?

5 points by joshmlewis ↗ HN
tl;dr: My amazing, beautiful, and talented girlfriend is really interested in the startup world but can't code or design. Does anyone have a void in their startup she could fill? Maybe a customer interacting, support, organizer, or assistant type role?

HN has been the source of several jobs and work for me and I thought I'd put this out there to see what the community thinks. In a more general sense, how can we include women that can't necessarily code or design? If we need more women in tech, there has to be a good way. The women who may start out not being able to code or design may spark their interest and inspire them to learn when they are in that environment.

My girlfriend would love to be in the same realm as I, but isn't sure how she can be of use. Too bad we aren't in SF or close-by either. Does anyone have any ideas? If you'd like to know more about her I'll send her information onto you and you can chat.

4 comments

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joshmlewis
If you don't have a position available, but know of where to even look for these types of things, that'd be good too.
persona
I believe it would be easier for someone to reply if she (you) can identify at least some areas she can be of value, has any type of experience or even interest alone. Usually startups are about optimizing value each one adds to the total. For some ideas of areas/skills she could be helpful look this post from today: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5210184 Not that she (or someone else even) has to master all items listed there, but shows what some startups may be looking for (or need help with).
joshmlewis
Yeah, good call. She's 19 and currently in school to be a teacher of little kids. In the meanwhile and even after she graduates she said she wanted to explore startups and finding a role that uses her personality traits that are good with people such as being very empathetic and a good communicator. Blogging, social media, public relations, customer service, organizing, handling and giving feedback, etc are all things I could see her doing.

Edit: Also I've been seeing people that hire interns that can be users for early stage startups. Stuff like that as well. It wouldn't have to be high wages either for starting out or interning.

joshmlewis
A better question might be: What would you pay someone a thousand dollars a month or less to do for you that would allieve some headaches that you have that are fairly straightforward?