Ask HN: When does a project manager become valuable?

It depends what resources/requirements you're working with.

If you're just a bunch of dudes in a room building simple software on your own, you don't need a PM.

If you're a bunch of dudes building more complex software (various moving parts) who need to interface with different vendors, part timers, outsourced stuff (e.g. design, copywriting) and have critical deadlines e.g. customer expecting your product on 2010/XX/XX - then you'll probably find it a lot more useful to have a PM :)

I will say though that a PM who cannot jump in and get his hands dirty coding or designing, is probably not so useful in the early stages.

The role of a project manager primarily filled the gaps in the Review and Monitor processes, I dun quite see the need for such a role in a startup environment where it's not part of the core stuffs. - a PRINCE2 pm.

From what I've been told, you might want a PM once you start using systems engineering processes.