I am surprised to see this question resurfacing last half year because I think that the answer to this question was pretty much nailed down by Vinicius Vacanti

I am surprised to see this question resurfacing last half year because I think that the answer to this question was pretty much nailed down by Vinicius Vacanti in his blog post in Sep 2010 http://viniciusvacanti.com/2010/09/27/should-you-hire-a-programmer-or-diy/ http://viniciusvacanti.com/2010/09/27/should-you-hire-a-prog... In short - it depends on the nature of your start-up and the challenges your start-up is tackling. Depending on those you 3 options: 1. Find tech co-founder (and don't do start-up w/o such person). 2. Learn to code. 3. Outsource the programming. If your case is #2, then read the guy's post http://viniciusvacanti.com/2010/09/13/cant-find-a-technical-co-founder-do-it-yourself/ http://viniciusvacanti.com/2010/09/13/cant-find-a-technical-... and some other posts in his blog.