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I met with a non-technical cofounder a few months ago who is in his early 20s. He had a great idea for a product and was looking for a technical co-founder (he

I met with a non-technical cofounder a few months ago who is in his early 20s. He had a great idea for a product and was looking for a technical co-founder (he also had an investor who already put up some money and he was already deeply involved in the sales channel and had two customers already sold). I have no doubt this product would very successful. Probably not a unicorn, but could make a few people quite wealthy. But, from our two hour meeting I could tell that he wanted to make all of those same mistakes I now know not to make. Your point about building complex shit is exactly his main problem, and I problem I suffered from at that age too. Yes, it might be complex one day if that's what the market needs, but simple can be so much more and it's especially the right move for an MVP. To some degree, I don't blame him and he doesn't know me well enough to trust me to guide him away from those pitfalls, but man I wish he had a little more humility -- we'd be a couple months away from an MVP at this point.

opportune 8y ago
“Non-technical cofounder in early 20s” sounds like a massive red flag to me. Ideas are cheap, execution is what matters
- billyggruff 8y ago
  He already had investor monies and two customers.
- conductr 8y ago
  This is common sentiment but I disagree. As a tech person, I’d much rather partner with a non-tech person already selling and raising funds. Sounds like a winning combo but the parent just didn’t want to go on the path this specific person was heading down.
  - pdimitar 8y ago
    I don't see the disagreement with your parent. He has reservations about the age and thus the experience of the person, not if they are already actively raising money and doing sales. You can do these at 30+ as well.
  - cabaalis 8y ago
    I've always been better with an "idea man" to work with. I'd be careful though with an inexperienced non-technical cofounder, as they tend to not understand the intricacies of implementation. Setbacks will happen, and I have seen non-technical cofounders place a ton of blame on the technical ones when things go wrong. A rift in the relationship could mean the end of the business.
  - SmellyGeekBoy 8y ago
    To be fair, "non technical co-founder" could mean anything from GP's pretty great sounding example to "I have an idea for the next Facebook, if you build it for free I'll give you 10%".
- jowiar 8y ago
  Execution is not just technical. Sales, marketing, fundraising, recruiting, hiring, design/product, media, strategy, etc...
  - AstralStorm 8y ago
    But if you have no technical innovation or your innovation is trivial to clone, then you don't have a startup. Many startups fail because they're actually not innovative. Nobody needs another database from a tiny company that is just tiny bit better. No matter how good rest of your offering is, bigger does often mean better. Other fail due to entanglements, especially hardware ones. Their supply chain fails and that's that. No amount of media will help and you cannot afford to hedge this kind of risk.
- fouc 8y ago
  Execution is what matters. Execution has nothing to do with technical skills however. If you're already bringing the technical skills, you probably want to partner with someone that has the skills you lack. In particular you'd probably want business development skills, but you'd also want them to be able to jump in and get involved with designs/mockups so you can focus on the technical side.
- bonestamp2 8y ago
  I agree; however, after the MVP is built the execution continues... and a hard part of that phase in the execution is actually getting customers and raising money and he had already done both. So, he had real value beyond the idea. I think we can all agree that some ideas are better than others, and the idea was on the better side of that spectrum too.
taneq 8y ago
> ...non-technical cofounder [...] had a great idea for a product and was looking for a technical co-founder As an aside, maybe I just don't 'get it' or maybe I've just met bad examples but this scenario always reads to me like "guy wants someone to do the work for him so he can be the boss". Good ideas are cheap. Execution is the hard bit.
- SmellyGeekBoy 8y ago
  "Execution" also includes selling the product and securing funding. A good non-technical co-founder handles all of this side of things so the technical guy can get on and write the code.
  - AstralStorm 8y ago
    Without actual code you will fail after round 1. Even the best salesman can weasel for funding only for so long. If the product is not innovative or much better than competitors, you will fail in a later round and best exit you can hope for is an acquihire. This is why many startups fail, their ideas are meh and/or the execution does not follow.
- blihp 8y ago
  While there are a ton of snake oil salesmen/women out there, there actually are people who are non-technical bringing other real skills to the table. Sometimes it's general business, sometimes sales, sometimes they really do have a deep domain understanding etc. So it's not always them looking to be the boss, but rather that they recognize a skills/knowledge gap and are trying to fill it.
- deleted 8y ago
  [deleted]
- mastazi 8y ago
  It seems you are assuming that execution is done mostly by technical co-founders. I would argue that many crucial aspects of what we categorise as "execution" are non-technical business aspects.
antoniuschan99 8y ago
It's all about the focus. In the end, the system that a company is built from will be complex. Execution is about knowing which parts of the system should be complex and which parts should be simple.

opportune 8y ago

“Non-technical cofounder in early 20s” sounds like a massive red flag to me. Ideas are cheap, execution is what matters

billyggruff 8y ago
He already had investor monies and two customers.
conductr 8y ago
This is common sentiment but I disagree. As a tech person, I’d much rather partner with a non-tech person already selling and raising funds. Sounds like a winning combo but the parent just didn’t want to go on the path this specific person was heading down.
- pdimitar 8y ago
  I don't see the disagreement with your parent. He has reservations about the age and thus the experience of the person, not if they are already actively raising money and doing sales. You can do these at 30+ as well.
- cabaalis 8y ago
  I've always been better with an "idea man" to work with. I'd be careful though with an inexperienced non-technical cofounder, as they tend to not understand the intricacies of implementation. Setbacks will happen, and I have seen non-technical cofounders place a ton of blame on the technical ones when things go wrong. A rift in the relationship could mean the end of the business.
- SmellyGeekBoy 8y ago
  To be fair, "non technical co-founder" could mean anything from GP's pretty great sounding example to "I have an idea for the next Facebook, if you build it for free I'll give you 10%".
jowiar 8y ago
Execution is not just technical. Sales, marketing, fundraising, recruiting, hiring, design/product, media, strategy, etc...
- AstralStorm 8y ago
  But if you have no technical innovation or your innovation is trivial to clone, then you don't have a startup. Many startups fail because they're actually not innovative. Nobody needs another database from a tiny company that is just tiny bit better. No matter how good rest of your offering is, bigger does often mean better. Other fail due to entanglements, especially hardware ones. Their supply chain fails and that's that. No amount of media will help and you cannot afford to hedge this kind of risk.
fouc 8y ago
Execution is what matters. Execution has nothing to do with technical skills however. If you're already bringing the technical skills, you probably want to partner with someone that has the skills you lack. In particular you'd probably want business development skills, but you'd also want them to be able to jump in and get involved with designs/mockups so you can focus on the technical side.
bonestamp2 8y ago
I agree; however, after the MVP is built the execution continues... and a hard part of that phase in the execution is actually getting customers and raising money and he had already done both. So, he had real value beyond the idea. I think we can all agree that some ideas are better than others, and the idea was on the better side of that spectrum too.

taneq 8y ago

> ...non-technical cofounder [...] had a great idea for a product and was looking for a technical co-founder As an aside, maybe I just don't 'get it' or maybe I've just met bad examples but this scenario always reads to me like "guy wants someone to do the work for him so he can be the boss". Good ideas are cheap. Execution is the hard bit.

SmellyGeekBoy 8y ago
"Execution" also includes selling the product and securing funding. A good non-technical co-founder handles all of this side of things so the technical guy can get on and write the code.
- AstralStorm 8y ago
  Without actual code you will fail after round 1. Even the best salesman can weasel for funding only for so long. If the product is not innovative or much better than competitors, you will fail in a later round and best exit you can hope for is an acquihire. This is why many startups fail, their ideas are meh and/or the execution does not follow.
blihp 8y ago
While there are a ton of snake oil salesmen/women out there, there actually are people who are non-technical bringing other real skills to the table. Sometimes it's general business, sometimes sales, sometimes they really do have a deep domain understanding etc. So it's not always them looking to be the boss, but rather that they recognize a skills/knowledge gap and are trying to fill it.
deleted 8y ago
[deleted]
mastazi 8y ago
It seems you are assuming that execution is done mostly by technical co-founders. I would argue that many crucial aspects of what we categorise as "execution" are non-technical business aspects.

antoniuschan99 8y ago

It's all about the focus. In the end, the system that a company is built from will be complex. Execution is about knowing which parts of the system should be complex and which parts should be simple.