The tears of the unglamourous non-coding geek

Chapter 1 - Setting up a team Turns out I can't code. Yes, I - the furious technology enthusiast since the first time I discovered Star Trek - can't code. When you realize that, it hurts. You try to figure out what went wrong in your education. You realize that your child house was pretty close to overhead power lines, and it may have affected your brain. Too much violent movies too soon also, you don't know, maybe. And then you start being suspicious of your mother : this rocking child bed was way too close from the wall. I remember the exact day of the revelation : September 23th, 2002. It was the first day of class in that Engeneering school I picked after 2 years of those very generalist french "Classes preparatoires". Coding 101. Harsh reality, hurting feelings : This will never be crystal clear for me. How could this guy already built a multiplatform chat client in Java when I was still fighting debugging this damned basic function? So, being very realistic, I did what all bad students do: I became a successful business consultant. But years after, as my business skills got stronger, my product development power got sharper, the legal retirement age got higher, a little inner voice became louder and louder. This voice was the need to create a facebook-success-alike mainstream web product with that crazy mix of SoLoCo features disrupting 2 or 3 industries at the sametime. Duuude ! You talk about your idea to consultants colleagues. Everyone wants to join in...and nothing happens. Nobody is coding in the room. And then the tears of the unglamourous non-coding geek flood the place. But the sadness of the situation is nothing compared to what's coming next : 5 mistakes to avoid to set up a startup team - All have been carefully tested and non-approved 1. Team up with 6 guys you've just met with no clear agreement and leadership structure. It appears that no one wants to do exactly the same thing, the same way, and taking a decision is just impossible. 2. Go alone pursuing that big idea. See your first grey hair growing. See a lot of grey hair. Looks like you don't have hair anymore. 3. Ask quotes from freelancers and try to get some (generous french) public subsidies to build your product. Just lame. Period. 4. Propose sexual favors to a former classmate (you know the java chat client one) to team up with you. The guy already has a 70k€ job in back office finance, and just bought this damn condo-and-SUV-value-pack. 5. Say to every body that this topgun friend is your business partner... but the guy already told you twice, that despite your idea is sexy he wants to move to another country some day. And the day, has days always did, happens. Turns out that i can't code. But that I can do a lot of things that coders need. Turns out that the freelancers I've worked with for years like a charm on consulting gigs, want to pursue big ideas too, and share a same vision and work ethic. Turns out that my dream co-founders were near me since the beginning. Lessons learned the hard way: 1. Having no coding talent means you have to worry twice as much about technical issues. To define well your product, understand and foresee the challenges,and adress it with co-founders. You can't play it "It's not my part" or just change industry. 2. Co-Founders must have a past together, know each other professionally and share same vision and work ethic. That can't be determined in a 2 weeks observation period. 3. This is hazardous, risky and always a failure in the making to team up with wrong people, for wrong reasons or in wrong timing just because you've got a urgent need. 4. The best way to find a technical partner is to be concerned about technical issues Network and integrate technical communities ask questions, try to understand as much as you can, show love and love will be flowing back.