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the Apple case of having a biz co-founder in Jobs and a tech co-founder in Woz is often cited, but Jobs is really a tech guy who knows his biz stuff. He made m

by bl4k 16y ago

the Apple case of having a biz co-founder in Jobs and a tech co-founder in Woz is often cited, but Jobs is really a tech guy who knows his biz stuff. He made most of the tech design decisions at Apple and NeXT including ObjC, Rhapsody, Carbon, Cocoa, Mach, etc. When OS X was in early beta I exchanged emails with Jobs about some FreeBSD libs and he definitely is a tech guy first as he knew the ins and outs of everything. My suggestion would be to just find another tech person who can talk to a room of people and has some level of confidence. It is far more important to have two tech hands than one guy fine tuning powerpoint presentations and other other busting himself coding. You will pick up all that biz stuff easily anyway, especially with all the other entrepreneurs out there to help you.

mkramlich 16y ago
thanks for the info! I did not know he was that technical. I'll have to go reread my early Apple history again. But despite this angle, I think we agree he made a great "biz" cofounder partner to Woz.
kranner 16y ago
Unfortunately Jobs is just the guy to have an engineer prepare replies on his behalf and pass them off without attribution, too.
- dennisgorelik 16y ago
  How do you know that?
  - kranner 16y ago
    I said 'just the guy to [do it]', not 'I know for sure that that's what he did'. He is known for obsessing about his public persona, meticulously preparing his speeches to appear off-the-cuff (to the point that it has become an inverted joke), and 'posing' in every way imaginable (when he needed to). See http://mixergy.com/steve-jobs-investment/ http://mixergy.com/steve-jobs-investment/
tcdent 16y ago
Definitely knowledgable, but Jobs is no implementer. Just very well informed and able to make low-level technical decisions.
SoftwareMaven 16y ago
> You will pick up all that biz stuff easily anyway, especially with all the other entrepreneurs out there to help you. I give that a maybe (at best). I've seen many companies that had two tech people going at it that forgot the business in favor of the technology. They eventually had an amazing technology that nobody cared about. That, IMO, is the biggest risk of not having a dedicated biz guy. > My suggestion would be to just find another tech person who can talk to a room of people and has some level of confidence. I like the idea of finding somebody who was a tech person (in fact, I think it's a requirement for a tech startup), but their focus in the startup should be 100% business. Now, of course, every startup member is giving 150%, so that leaves time left over to help on the tech stuff. ;) Depending on your startup, I think you need somebody with at least some experience in the sales and/or marketing. Engineers often trivialize these jobs, but they are not easy and can't be picked up in an afternoon with "Sales for Dummies." I'm a former tech guy who moved into product management and then into my current role as the biz founder. I spend most of my time talking to potential customers, potential partners, doing research to make sure we have a competitive differentiator, and, on the side, building the website (we are a B2C product) and testing.

by bl4k 16y ago

mkramlich 16y ago

thanks for the info! I did not know he was that technical. I'll have to go reread my early Apple history again. But despite this angle, I think we agree he made a great "biz" cofounder partner to Woz.

kranner 16y ago

Unfortunately Jobs is just the guy to have an engineer prepare replies on his behalf and pass them off without attribution, too.

dennisgorelik 16y ago
How do you know that?
- kranner 16y ago
  I said 'just the guy to [do it]', not 'I know for sure that that's what he did'. He is known for obsessing about his public persona, meticulously preparing his speeches to appear off-the-cuff (to the point that it has become an inverted joke), and 'posing' in every way imaginable (when he needed to). See http://mixergy.com/steve-jobs-investment/ http://mixergy.com/steve-jobs-investment/

tcdent 16y ago

Definitely knowledgable, but Jobs is no implementer. Just very well informed and able to make low-level technical decisions.

SoftwareMaven 16y ago

> You will pick up all that biz stuff easily anyway, especially with all the other entrepreneurs out there to help you. I give that a maybe (at best). I've seen many companies that had two tech people going at it that forgot the business in favor of the technology. They eventually had an amazing technology that nobody cared about. That, IMO, is the biggest risk of not having a dedicated biz guy. > My suggestion would be to just find another tech person who can talk to a room of people and has some level of confidence. I like the idea of finding somebody who was a tech person (in fact, I think it's a requirement for a tech startup), but their focus in the startup should be 100% business. Now, of course, every startup member is giving 150%, so that leaves time left over to help on the tech stuff. ;) Depending on your startup, I think you need somebody with at least some experience in the sales and/or marketing. Engineers often trivialize these jobs, but they are not easy and can't be picked up in an afternoon with "Sales for Dummies." I'm a former tech guy who moved into product management and then into my current role as the biz founder. I spend most of my time talking to potential customers, potential partners, doing research to make sure we have a competitive differentiator, and, on the side, building the website (we are a B2C product) and testing.