I had to learn most of this stuff on my own, but it's a very good summary to pass on to my friends. Seems like startups are getting more and more mainstream.
The problem is most college grads in non-technical fields generally don't have skills beyond being smart, maybe. I was one of them. This wouldn't be too much of an issue but most also don't like or aren't any good at selling. The way I see it, you have to do something technically tangible or you have the sell the lights out of stuff. If you can't do either, sad to say, you're fairly worthless in early stage companies.
I'd agree with designer and possibly video, but I count those as technical skills depending on the type of startup.
Writing and research, I think, have to be bundled with other skillsets at the very early stages. If you have 2-3 people, you can't have a pure writer or researcher.
The problem is most college grads in non-technical fields generally don't have skills beyond being smart, maybe. I was one of them. This wouldn't be too much of an issue but most also don't like or aren't any good at selling. The way I see it, you have to do something technically tangible or you have the sell the lights out of stuff. If you can't do either, sad to say, you're fairly worthless in early stage companies.