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To name a few non-technical co-founders off-hand: Steve Jobs, Andrew Mason (Groupon), Ev Williams, Marc Benioff (salesforce.com), etc. The list is a mile long
by webwright 15y ago
To name a few non-technical co-founders off-hand: Steve Jobs, Andrew Mason (Groupon), Ev Williams, Marc Benioff (salesforce.com), etc. The list is a mile long. A few of those folks can code a bit, but none of them coded much at all when they were doing their best work.
There is nearly infinite non-programming work for most startups. Design, fundraising, writing, support, sales, bizdev PR, QA, accounting, talking to lawyers/tax-folk, recruiting, marketing etc.
That said-- a hackathon-style event is a different critter than a startup. You need coders, designers, and (a distant third), people who can write compelling copy.
- srgseg 15y agoSteve Jobs once described himself as "the best programmer I know". I think I read this in the book "Apple Confidential"
- yalogin 15y agoI don't necessarily agree that Jobs was not a programmer but when you say design as a non-programming skill do you mean the UI and the 10000 ft view? Every entrepreneur has the rest of the skills you mentioned. I am not saying there is no need for the non-programmer type but not when the first team is formed. They will be part of the first group of hires in my opinion. I really don't think a business guy should go to a hackathon style event and say I need a programmer to implement my idea. That is just a glorified way of searching for an employee on craigslist.