3 ms·

Are you willing to try to solve non technical problems by yourself? You know, researching the market to assure you're actually building something people will w

Are you willing to try to solve non technical problems by yourself? You know, researching the market to assure you're actually building something people will want to use, finding paying customers or advertisers, dealing with investors, finding decent PR people, recruiting etc... nothing too fancy.

rguzman 16y ago
Yes. A bit less snarky: a good measure of a technical co-founder is him trying to solve the business problems himself. For the same reasons I cited above.
- marionogueira 16y ago
  That's the right attitude. Unfortunately, that's not the norm at all. Mostly, technical folks tend to behave as spoiled brats when dealing with non technical people as cofounders (which amazes me given that one of the best performing tech companies today is run by a non technical guy - Steve Jobs). Update: no need for the technical guy to actually work on non technical issues... given the current scenario, respecting the non technical guy within his domain would suffice. It's not like non technical people try to tell programmers how to do their job.
  - sachinag 16y ago
    Steve Jobs soldered with everyone else at Atari. Just because he didn't engineer at Apple doesn't mean he's non-technical.
    - marionogueira 16y ago
      Just soldering doesn't make anyone "technical". Woz's designs were the technical assets that made Apple a successful startup. Furthermore, that experience certainly didn't mean a thing for his second tenure at Apple since 1997, during which the company became bigger than ever. I also doubt he had anything to do with the technical aspects of the operation during this time.
      - staunch 16y ago
        You can be technical without being an engineer. Steve Jobs has been working closely with some of the best engineers in the world full-time for 30 years. He probably knows more about display, memory, graphics, processor, and battery technology than 99% of programmers. Not to mention his knowledge of a dozen other technologies.
      - mfukar 16y ago
        I'm sorry, but every reference I've ever read to the history of Apple has only reinforced my opinion that Jobs is a marketing bully. A clever one, perhaps, but still. PS. I'm counting seconds until I get to -5.
c1sc0 16y ago
I think you'll find lots of technical founders are willing & able to pick up those skills along the way. Programming is perpetual self-education. This means that for a large subset of entrepreneurial programmers picking up business skills is easier than you'd think.

rguzman 16y ago

Yes. A bit less snarky: a good measure of a technical co-founder is him trying to solve the business problems himself. For the same reasons I cited above.

marionogueira 16y ago
That's the right attitude. Unfortunately, that's not the norm at all. Mostly, technical folks tend to behave as spoiled brats when dealing with non technical people as cofounders (which amazes me given that one of the best performing tech companies today is run by a non technical guy - Steve Jobs). Update: no need for the technical guy to actually work on non technical issues... given the current scenario, respecting the non technical guy within his domain would suffice. It's not like non technical people try to tell programmers how to do their job.
- sachinag 16y ago
  Steve Jobs soldered with everyone else at Atari. Just because he didn't engineer at Apple doesn't mean he's non-technical.
  - marionogueira 16y ago
    Just soldering doesn't make anyone "technical". Woz's designs were the technical assets that made Apple a successful startup. Furthermore, that experience certainly didn't mean a thing for his second tenure at Apple since 1997, during which the company became bigger than ever. I also doubt he had anything to do with the technical aspects of the operation during this time.
    - staunch 16y ago
      You can be technical without being an engineer. Steve Jobs has been working closely with some of the best engineers in the world full-time for 30 years. He probably knows more about display, memory, graphics, processor, and battery technology than 99% of programmers. Not to mention his knowledge of a dozen other technologies.
    - mfukar 16y ago
      I'm sorry, but every reference I've ever read to the history of Apple has only reinforced my opinion that Jobs is a marketing bully. A clever one, perhaps, but still. PS. I'm counting seconds until I get to -5.

c1sc0 16y ago

I think you'll find lots of technical founders are willing & able to pick up those skills along the way. Programming is perpetual self-education. This means that for a large subset of entrepreneurial programmers picking up business skills is easier than you'd think.