5 ms·

Stop Looking For A Technical Co-founder

91 points by ssclafani 15y ago

losethos 15y ago
I have to get out of jail. God says... C:\LoseThos\www.losethos.com\text\BIBLE.TXT took each man his sword, and came upon the city boldly, and slew all the males. 34:26 And they slew Hamor and Shechem his son with the edge of the sword, and took Dinah out of Shechem's house, and went out. 34:27 The sons of Jacob came upon the slain, and spoiled the city, because they had defiled their sister. 34:28 They took their sheep, and their oxen, and their asses, and that which was in the city, and that which was in the field, 34:29 And all their wealth, and all their little ones, an
alain94040 15y ago
I don't quite agree with the options listed in the article. I still believe finding a great technical co-founder is the right answer. How you find one is what should be discussed. But maybe I'm biased, since I run a meetup whose goal is to help find co-founders. I believe that if you are passionate and a "doer", technical people will want to follow you.
- WalterSear 15y ago
  In my experience, "Doers" are by-and-large (and often by definition) other technical people.
  - NonTechGuy 15y ago
    I second that and I'm not a technical guy
    - WalterSear 15y ago
      Neither was I. Come on in, the water's great :)
acchow 15y ago
He links to another article which states clearly what he was trying to say: Don't look for a technical cofounder; earn one. http://www.humbledmba.com/please-please-please-stop-asking-how-to-find http://www.humbledmba.com/please-please-please-stop-asking-h...
crewtide 15y ago
Great article. I learned to code in my 30s, and about six months later the full meaning of it dawned on me: I could make any of my crazy ideas happen myself! No need to find someone else, no need to wait, I could just do it. It was awesome.
- rollypolly 15y ago
  The problem with working on your own is getting things done in a reasonable time frame. Sometimes opportunities are fleeting and you need a team of people to succeed while the getting is still good.
  - jreeve 15y ago
    I agree. A secondary problem with going it alone for coding your MVP is that you don't amass skills at the same rate as someone who is working full time as a programmer. You can learn quite a bit more material if you are under the gun to get changes made for clients who are paying you, and this can be multiplied when you are working with other people who know more about solving programming problems. For what it's worth, I aspire to be the "technical founder" for a couple of startup ideas that I work on, but I quit doing other things with my one-man-shop media business. My strategy (as someone who programmed in HS/College and quit for a decade, and who is now moving from being a wordpress hack to owning a more diverse set of programming tools to solve the problems I am give) has been to find work as a freelancer for a progressively higher-level agencies. Even though ultimately my goal is to have the tech chops to realize my vision (and working for other people is a sideline to that), it doesn't hurt that I've been making a really good living programming for other people while learning how to do a diverse set of technical tasks. This plan, of course, has taken me two years so far, and I have budgeted another two years for the same path. If your time frame is short for a real product, indeed: "you need a team of people to succeed while the getting is still good".
  - WalterSear 15y ago
    I disagree. Ideas are cheap. Experience is valuable. The way to tackle large problems is to tackle enough small problems to build the experience and track record you need, not 'find-someone-to-pay-me-to-hire-someone-else-to-do-it'.
kurtvarner 15y ago
>Be conservative with your equity. One of the easiest ways to scare off a technical co-founder is to offer 50% of your company in an initial email or meeting. Freelancers in particular take this as a sign of your trying to get free labor. 50% of nothing is still nothing. I completely disagree with this. You want to find a co-founder, not an employee. In the early stage your technical co-founder will be doing 90% of the actually work. To offer them a small equity stake because it's your idea is an absolute joke.
- moped 15y ago
  Plus, with a vesting schedule (~4 years), a potential co-founder would have motivation to stick around long-term, or cut his losses and move on.
- buu700 15y ago
  It doesn't sound like he was suggesting what you think at all. To me, it seemed like his advice boiled down to this: "If you want a technical co-founder, prove yourself and get some traction for an MVP first (it isn't impossible if you're committed). When you later meet with a potential co-founder, don't sound like you're desperately seeking the first person who knows how to fix a sinking ship."
- IsaacL 15y ago
  I would say the advice should be: don't offer equity too soon. I've met some random "business guys" at conferences who offer me an equity stake in their startup within moments of meeting me. That smacks of desperation and turns me off. It's like dating, the legit business guys who've interested me have got to know me first before discussing startup ideas. In particular, offering equity as part of a freelance arrangement is just dumb all round. It's a lose-lose situation. A freelancer wants cash, not lottery tickets in your non-existent startup. And giving away a chunk of your company to someone who's only going to be around for a few months hurts you too. I know there's one UK startup that was founded that way (built by a web agency that got a chunk of equity) and it caused no end of problems. Either get a co-founder who's in for the long haul and reward them with equity, or get a freelancer and reward them with cash.
brianlynn11 15y ago
My accelerated method is to do both at the same time: outsource and learn to code. My very first project ever which was a relatively simple PHP site that I outsourced. I learned HTML, CSS and JS as a freelancer in the mean time. Once I got the code base I learned how the front-end works with the server quickly. Doing so I was able to build new features whenever I wanted at a reasonable pace after like 3-4 months. That's just the tip-of the iceberg though. There're so many programming discipline that newbies need to learn if they're serious about building a great product and being a project manager.
timr 15y ago
I joined a non-technical co-founder to do a startup (1). Now, I'm as allergic to the usual MBA-seeking-coder-monkey as any technical guy, but Jamie had a few qualities that really pulled me in: * Jamie came well-referred by technical people I trusted. That introduction makes a huge difference (being approached by a random "biz guy" cold is almost always a non-starter for me.) * She produces -- objectively. Jamie got the initial version of the product built, brings in crazy amounts of press, and has don a ton of work to seed our marketplace. Oh...and she also writes HTML and CSS. I'm amazed by what she's been able to accomplish. * During the "founder dating" phase, she never made me feel unequal. Too many business people do things (inadvertently or otherwise) that make potential technical co-founders feel like the unwanted, silent partner who is little more than an equity drain on a world-changing business idea. Jamie was looking for a business partner, not a coder. The bottom line is that finding a technical co-founder is hard, but not impossible. You have no idea how many smart coders I know who would theoretically love to do a startup, but "don't have an idea", or are hesitant to take risks, or have some other form of inertia that's keeping them in a boring day job. If you bring demonstrable value to the table, have respect for the people you're recruiting, and treat them as equals, you've got a chance. [1] I'm putting this down here because I'm honestly not trying to plug anything, but some of you may be curious: http://www.vayable.com http://www.vayable.com
- dwynings 15y ago
  I'm curious, did you join before or after being accepted to 500 Startups?
  - timr 15y ago
    Long enough after that it played no role in my decision. I'm enthusiastic about the idea, I work well with Jamie, and, of course, she did all of the things I mentioned in the OP.
- crdoconnor 15y ago
  Uh, is this a clone of http://SideTour.com http://SideTour.com ?
stygianguest 15y ago
"Most quality software engineers today have offers of amazing work environments and 6-figure salaries from the likes of Google and Facebook." Most? Really? The thing that really gets me is the implied equivalence of salary and ability, surely a belief shared by all those floating on the startup bubble, but pushed sustematically by techcrunch et al. as subtly as the propaganda of fox news.
ChrisNorstrom 15y ago
I try to put myself in the shoes of the technical co-founder. Imagine how annoying it must be to meet all these people who want you to build their site, without paying you a lot of money, and while keeping most of their equity. First, what are the technical co-founders getting out of it if the risk fails? Next, how exactly are you, the non-technical entrepreneur, going to pull your weight? The scary thing about startup weekends are how many idea people walk around looking for others to build their product. I'm a designer and even I got stalked. So I've decided to try and hack together whatever I can, just to show my potential future technical co-founder that I'm willing to do the dirty work and pull my weight. Do whatever you can, use wordpress temporarily, get started by outsourcing the work, set up a landing page with email signups. Show your co-founder that you've taken significant steps, minimize their risk, prove your product or service has traction, and already start heading towards some kind of success. Make it so that your co-founder doesn't have to build everything from scratch. A product/service is what makes a company. Asking a programmer to make your product is basically asking them to build the foundation of your company for you. And no one is going to do that.
robomartin 15y ago
The problem I have with the "just learn to code" crowd is that there's a huge gap between being able to write "for" loops and programming. Take data representation as an example. In school one of my professors used to harp all the time that data representation is, in his view, the most important aspect of programming. He'd say something like: "Pick the wrong data representation representation and you can make a simple project into a nightmare to write, maintain and extend". Programming is about having an arsenal of non-language-specific concepts come to your fingers as you think about the problems you are trying to solve. Data structures, algorithms, data representation, design patterns, optimization, tool selection, workflow, etc. This is particularly true today when a programmer might have to be comfortable with half a dozen languages in order to create "a simple website" or a mobile app. Yes, anyone can learn to code. Programming and building non -trivial products takes time, experience and lots of hours making lots of mistakes while you continue learning. By all means, go and learn. Anyone can do it given time and dedication. I just don't agree with articles that seem to imply that an art student can go out and buy one of those "learn in 21 days" books and become a programmer. Not how it works.
- nchlswu 15y ago
  I used to think I wanted to be technical. To an extent I still want to, but that approach didn't work out for me. Whenever I hear "just learn to code," the rationale is totally wrong. As you said, anyone can code, but to expect a non technical guy to learn and maintain a product can be unreasonable in some cases (the blog posts section on MVP and simplifying your product can only go so far in some cases). The true value in learning to code is gaining an understanding of whats involved in the process. No matter how minute the experience is, anything at all can help
- reso 15y ago
  The intent of the "learn to code" sentiment is not actually to turn business people into 95th-percentile engineers, but rather to acquaint them with the particular challenges of the discipline. This helps them understand the engineers they are trying to manage, and better command their respect. As for "how much is enough", I would suggest that you should be able to hack together a prototype of whatever product you're trying to build. It doesn't have to be pretty, just show the interaction. I think with the tools available today, most people should be able to go from zero to something workable in six months or so.
spitfire 15y ago
Stop telling us what to do.
Nate75Sanders 15y ago
In the fall of 2004, Rose withdrew $1,000 — nearly one-tenth of his life savings — and paid a freelance coder $12 an hour to mock up a Web page. He got a deal on server space over the Web for $99 a month. $99/month? Shouldn't that be $99/year?
- gwillis13 15y ago
  My brain stated the same thing. Someone is not going about money management properly, if $99/month is true for only a $1000 investment plus freelance budget.
bignoggins 15y ago
Not sure if I'm the only one out there like this, but I'm actually a technical guy who wants to be a non-technical cofounder. I'm a decent programmer but I find myself much more drawn to the business and product side of things and would be more than happy to have someone else who is a much stronger programmer than me handle the bulk of the technical work.
- peacemaker 15y ago
  You're never the only one. If you have the programming skills but the interest in learning the business side you should use that to your advantage. I think more technical people could do with understanding the business side and vice versa.
eps 15y ago
That's an opinion of some random "CS senior" that somehow made its way on TC. It's basically HN version of "Top 10" lists on digg - a pseudo-informative speculation on a popular subject. Speculation. It might be a good conversation starter, but it's hardly insightful on its own.
- AlexeyMK 15y ago
  Hey, that hurts! :D. Agreed, a lot of the material has been covered before. A lot of the value in the piece is structure rather than particularly original insight (though I'd love it if the Peanuts/Monkeys meme caught on). I did my best to link to as many of the better pieces on the subject; I hope some find it useful.
birken 15y ago
I really dislike articles like this, which state unproven thoughts as facts and useful advice. 1) Learning to code isn't hard? It is. But let's say you did learn some basic stuff and put up an MVP which is gaining traffic. You now need to hire more engineers. How are you going to vet them? When you hire them are you going to manage them or are they going to manage you? Are they just going to take over the product? How do you know if they are doing a good job or not? 2) Hire an external team. Good luck! You have all the same problems as above but now you are probably paying a lot more cash and less equity for the work. 3) Simplify your MVP. Wait, but I already did simplify it, and now I need to grow it! An MVP does not a company make, and once you do make an MVP all your problems don't naturally go away. 4) No settling for a mediocre team. I spend a lot of time interviewing people for engineering positions, I have a very strong technical background, and I can assure it is extremely difficult. Great people and mediocre people don't walk around with signs around their neck. They all blend together and it is your job to identify them, and it isn't easy at all. As somebody mentioned in a comment post, I think this similar article which is linked to is significantly better: http://www.humbledmba.com/please-please-please-stop-asking-how-to-find http://www.humbledmba.com/please-please-please-stop-asking-h... This response for how to find a technical co-founder is just perfect: > I can't help you with that, but all the good entrepreneurs seem to figure it out. Hopefully you will too. I also think it applies for a technical person finding regular co-founders as well. You need to have skills that another person thinks would compliment them, and then convince them of that. I think the distinction between "technical" and "non-technical" already is bucketed too much, since being able to write code is just a skill on a talent spectrum just like anything else. You don't need one person who is amazing at writing code and one person who doesn't know anything. Two people who each know a little bit might work. One person who knows a little might work. There are no preset rules, because every company and idea is different. You gotta figure it out.
rwhitman 15y ago
I like to think about this "find a technical cofounder" stuff by imagining myself, a highly technical person who's entire work experience being on the computer - dropping everything to start a bakery. Would my expectation be that I could find a great baker to work with me for free or half-salary? Or that I could learn to bake well enough to keep up with the competition out the gate? No - chances are I'd either have to shell out good money to hire a skilled baker who actually knew what they were doing (and probably fail a lot regardless based on my total lack of knowledge in selling bread) and/or spend a few years producing deformed loaves of bread by myself before this plan would work. So for the non-technical founder to start a technology company without the money to hire experienced technologists I think its completely unreasonable to expect anything less
- NonTechGuy 15y ago
  Yes, but if you started a bakery to sell a new item that no one else was making and were first to market with it you might find early success. This in turn would allow you to make a subpar marble rye because people are coming to your bakery for your unique new pastry not the bread.

91 points by ssclafani 15y ago

I have to get out of jail. God says... C:\LoseThos\www.losethos.com\text\BIBLE.TXT took each man his sword, and came upon the city boldly, and slew all the males. 34:26 And they slew Hamor and Shechem his son with the edge of the sword, and took Dinah out of Shechem's house, and went out. 34:27 The sons of Jacob came upon the slain, and spoiled the city, because they had defiled their sister. 34:28 They took their sheep, and their oxen, and their asses, and that which was in the city, and that which was in the field, 34:29 And all their wealth, and all their little ones, an

alain94040 15y ago

I don't quite agree with the options listed in the article. I still believe finding a great technical co-founder is the right answer. How you find one is what should be discussed. But maybe I'm biased, since I run a meetup whose goal is to help find co-founders. I believe that if you are passionate and a "doer", technical people will want to follow you.

WalterSear 15y ago
In my experience, "Doers" are by-and-large (and often by definition) other technical people.
- NonTechGuy 15y ago
  I second that and I'm not a technical guy
  - WalterSear 15y ago
    Neither was I. Come on in, the water's great :)

acchow 15y ago

He links to another article which states clearly what he was trying to say: Don't look for a technical cofounder; earn one. http://www.humbledmba.com/please-please-please-stop-asking-how-to-find http://www.humbledmba.com/please-please-please-stop-asking-h...

crewtide 15y ago

Great article. I learned to code in my 30s, and about six months later the full meaning of it dawned on me: I could make any of my crazy ideas happen myself! No need to find someone else, no need to wait, I could just do it. It was awesome.

rollypolly 15y ago
The problem with working on your own is getting things done in a reasonable time frame. Sometimes opportunities are fleeting and you need a team of people to succeed while the getting is still good.
- jreeve 15y ago
  I agree. A secondary problem with going it alone for coding your MVP is that you don't amass skills at the same rate as someone who is working full time as a programmer. You can learn quite a bit more material if you are under the gun to get changes made for clients who are paying you, and this can be multiplied when you are working with other people who know more about solving programming problems. For what it's worth, I aspire to be the "technical founder" for a couple of startup ideas that I work on, but I quit doing other things with my one-man-shop media business. My strategy (as someone who programmed in HS/College and quit for a decade, and who is now moving from being a wordpress hack to owning a more diverse set of programming tools to solve the problems I am give) has been to find work as a freelancer for a progressively higher-level agencies. Even though ultimately my goal is to have the tech chops to realize my vision (and working for other people is a sideline to that), it doesn't hurt that I've been making a really good living programming for other people while learning how to do a diverse set of technical tasks. This plan, of course, has taken me two years so far, and I have budgeted another two years for the same path. If your time frame is short for a real product, indeed: "you need a team of people to succeed while the getting is still good".
- WalterSear 15y ago
  I disagree. Ideas are cheap. Experience is valuable. The way to tackle large problems is to tackle enough small problems to build the experience and track record you need, not 'find-someone-to-pay-me-to-hire-someone-else-to-do-it'.

kurtvarner 15y ago

>Be conservative with your equity. One of the easiest ways to scare off a technical co-founder is to offer 50% of your company in an initial email or meeting. Freelancers in particular take this as a sign of your trying to get free labor. 50% of nothing is still nothing. I completely disagree with this. You want to find a co-founder, not an employee. In the early stage your technical co-founder will be doing 90% of the actually work. To offer them a small equity stake because it's your idea is an absolute joke.

moped 15y ago
Plus, with a vesting schedule (~4 years), a potential co-founder would have motivation to stick around long-term, or cut his losses and move on.
buu700 15y ago
It doesn't sound like he was suggesting what you think at all. To me, it seemed like his advice boiled down to this: "If you want a technical co-founder, prove yourself and get some traction for an MVP first (it isn't impossible if you're committed). When you later meet with a potential co-founder, don't sound like you're desperately seeking the first person who knows how to fix a sinking ship."
IsaacL 15y ago
I would say the advice should be: don't offer equity too soon. I've met some random "business guys" at conferences who offer me an equity stake in their startup within moments of meeting me. That smacks of desperation and turns me off. It's like dating, the legit business guys who've interested me have got to know me first before discussing startup ideas. In particular, offering equity as part of a freelance arrangement is just dumb all round. It's a lose-lose situation. A freelancer wants cash, not lottery tickets in your non-existent startup. And giving away a chunk of your company to someone who's only going to be around for a few months hurts you too. I know there's one UK startup that was founded that way (built by a web agency that got a chunk of equity) and it caused no end of problems. Either get a co-founder who's in for the long haul and reward them with equity, or get a freelancer and reward them with cash.

brianlynn11 15y ago

My accelerated method is to do both at the same time: outsource and learn to code. My very first project ever which was a relatively simple PHP site that I outsourced. I learned HTML, CSS and JS as a freelancer in the mean time. Once I got the code base I learned how the front-end works with the server quickly. Doing so I was able to build new features whenever I wanted at a reasonable pace after like 3-4 months. That's just the tip-of the iceberg though. There're so many programming discipline that newbies need to learn if they're serious about building a great product and being a project manager.

timr 15y ago

I joined a non-technical co-founder to do a startup (1). Now, I'm as allergic to the usual MBA-seeking-coder-monkey as any technical guy, but Jamie had a few qualities that really pulled me in: * Jamie came well-referred by technical people I trusted. That introduction makes a huge difference (being approached by a random "biz guy" cold is almost always a non-starter for me.) * She produces -- objectively. Jamie got the initial version of the product built, brings in crazy amounts of press, and has don a ton of work to seed our marketplace. Oh...and she also writes HTML and CSS. I'm amazed by what she's been able to accomplish. * During the "founder dating" phase, she never made me feel unequal. Too many business people do things (inadvertently or otherwise) that make potential technical co-founders feel like the unwanted, silent partner who is little more than an equity drain on a world-changing business idea. Jamie was looking for a business partner, not a coder. The bottom line is that finding a technical co-founder is hard, but not impossible. You have no idea how many smart coders I know who would theoretically love to do a startup, but "don't have an idea", or are hesitant to take risks, or have some other form of inertia that's keeping them in a boring day job. If you bring demonstrable value to the table, have respect for the people you're recruiting, and treat them as equals, you've got a chance. [1] I'm putting this down here because I'm honestly not trying to plug anything, but some of you may be curious: http://www.vayable.com http://www.vayable.com

dwynings 15y ago
I'm curious, did you join before or after being accepted to 500 Startups?
- timr 15y ago
  Long enough after that it played no role in my decision. I'm enthusiastic about the idea, I work well with Jamie, and, of course, she did all of the things I mentioned in the OP.
crdoconnor 15y ago
Uh, is this a clone of http://SideTour.com http://SideTour.com ?

stygianguest 15y ago

"Most quality software engineers today have offers of amazing work environments and 6-figure salaries from the likes of Google and Facebook." Most? Really? The thing that really gets me is the implied equivalence of salary and ability, surely a belief shared by all those floating on the startup bubble, but pushed sustematically by techcrunch et al. as subtly as the propaganda of fox news.

ChrisNorstrom 15y ago

I try to put myself in the shoes of the technical co-founder. Imagine how annoying it must be to meet all these people who want you to build their site, without paying you a lot of money, and while keeping most of their equity. First, what are the technical co-founders getting out of it if the risk fails? Next, how exactly are you, the non-technical entrepreneur, going to pull your weight? The scary thing about startup weekends are how many idea people walk around looking for others to build their product. I'm a designer and even I got stalked. So I've decided to try and hack together whatever I can, just to show my potential future technical co-founder that I'm willing to do the dirty work and pull my weight. Do whatever you can, use wordpress temporarily, get started by outsourcing the work, set up a landing page with email signups. Show your co-founder that you've taken significant steps, minimize their risk, prove your product or service has traction, and already start heading towards some kind of success. Make it so that your co-founder doesn't have to build everything from scratch. A product/service is what makes a company. Asking a programmer to make your product is basically asking them to build the foundation of your company for you. And no one is going to do that.

robomartin 15y ago

The problem I have with the "just learn to code" crowd is that there's a huge gap between being able to write "for" loops and programming. Take data representation as an example. In school one of my professors used to harp all the time that data representation is, in his view, the most important aspect of programming. He'd say something like: "Pick the wrong data representation representation and you can make a simple project into a nightmare to write, maintain and extend". Programming is about having an arsenal of non-language-specific concepts come to your fingers as you think about the problems you are trying to solve. Data structures, algorithms, data representation, design patterns, optimization, tool selection, workflow, etc. This is particularly true today when a programmer might have to be comfortable with half a dozen languages in order to create "a simple website" or a mobile app. Yes, anyone can learn to code. Programming and building non -trivial products takes time, experience and lots of hours making lots of mistakes while you continue learning. By all means, go and learn. Anyone can do it given time and dedication. I just don't agree with articles that seem to imply that an art student can go out and buy one of those "learn in 21 days" books and become a programmer. Not how it works.

nchlswu 15y ago
I used to think I wanted to be technical. To an extent I still want to, but that approach didn't work out for me. Whenever I hear "just learn to code," the rationale is totally wrong. As you said, anyone can code, but to expect a non technical guy to learn and maintain a product can be unreasonable in some cases (the blog posts section on MVP and simplifying your product can only go so far in some cases). The true value in learning to code is gaining an understanding of whats involved in the process. No matter how minute the experience is, anything at all can help
reso 15y ago
The intent of the "learn to code" sentiment is not actually to turn business people into 95th-percentile engineers, but rather to acquaint them with the particular challenges of the discipline. This helps them understand the engineers they are trying to manage, and better command their respect. As for "how much is enough", I would suggest that you should be able to hack together a prototype of whatever product you're trying to build. It doesn't have to be pretty, just show the interaction. I think with the tools available today, most people should be able to go from zero to something workable in six months or so.

spitfire 15y ago

Stop telling us what to do.

Nate75Sanders 15y ago

In the fall of 2004, Rose withdrew $1,000 — nearly one-tenth of his life savings — and paid a freelance coder $12 an hour to mock up a Web page. He got a deal on server space over the Web for $99 a month. $99/month? Shouldn't that be $99/year?

gwillis13 15y ago
My brain stated the same thing. Someone is not going about money management properly, if $99/month is true for only a $1000 investment plus freelance budget.

bignoggins 15y ago

Not sure if I'm the only one out there like this, but I'm actually a technical guy who wants to be a non-technical cofounder. I'm a decent programmer but I find myself much more drawn to the business and product side of things and would be more than happy to have someone else who is a much stronger programmer than me handle the bulk of the technical work.

peacemaker 15y ago
You're never the only one. If you have the programming skills but the interest in learning the business side you should use that to your advantage. I think more technical people could do with understanding the business side and vice versa.

eps 15y ago

That's an opinion of some random "CS senior" that somehow made its way on TC. It's basically HN version of "Top 10" lists on digg - a pseudo-informative speculation on a popular subject. Speculation. It might be a good conversation starter, but it's hardly insightful on its own.

AlexeyMK 15y ago
Hey, that hurts! :D. Agreed, a lot of the material has been covered before. A lot of the value in the piece is structure rather than particularly original insight (though I'd love it if the Peanuts/Monkeys meme caught on). I did my best to link to as many of the better pieces on the subject; I hope some find it useful.

birken 15y ago

I really dislike articles like this, which state unproven thoughts as facts and useful advice. 1) Learning to code isn't hard? It is. But let's say you did learn some basic stuff and put up an MVP which is gaining traffic. You now need to hire more engineers. How are you going to vet them? When you hire them are you going to manage them or are they going to manage you? Are they just going to take over the product? How do you know if they are doing a good job or not? 2) Hire an external team. Good luck! You have all the same problems as above but now you are probably paying a lot more cash and less equity for the work. 3) Simplify your MVP. Wait, but I already did simplify it, and now I need to grow it! An MVP does not a company make, and once you do make an MVP all your problems don't naturally go away. 4) No settling for a mediocre team. I spend a lot of time interviewing people for engineering positions, I have a very strong technical background, and I can assure it is extremely difficult. Great people and mediocre people don't walk around with signs around their neck. They all blend together and it is your job to identify them, and it isn't easy at all. As somebody mentioned in a comment post, I think this similar article which is linked to is significantly better: http://www.humbledmba.com/please-please-please-stop-asking-how-to-find http://www.humbledmba.com/please-please-please-stop-asking-h... This response for how to find a technical co-founder is just perfect: > I can't help you with that, but all the good entrepreneurs seem to figure it out. Hopefully you will too. I also think it applies for a technical person finding regular co-founders as well. You need to have skills that another person thinks would compliment them, and then convince them of that. I think the distinction between "technical" and "non-technical" already is bucketed too much, since being able to write code is just a skill on a talent spectrum just like anything else. You don't need one person who is amazing at writing code and one person who doesn't know anything. Two people who each know a little bit might work. One person who knows a little might work. There are no preset rules, because every company and idea is different. You gotta figure it out.

rwhitman 15y ago

I like to think about this "find a technical cofounder" stuff by imagining myself, a highly technical person who's entire work experience being on the computer - dropping everything to start a bakery. Would my expectation be that I could find a great baker to work with me for free or half-salary? Or that I could learn to bake well enough to keep up with the competition out the gate? No - chances are I'd either have to shell out good money to hire a skilled baker who actually knew what they were doing (and probably fail a lot regardless based on my total lack of knowledge in selling bread) and/or spend a few years producing deformed loaves of bread by myself before this plan would work. So for the non-technical founder to start a technology company without the money to hire experienced technologists I think its completely unreasonable to expect anything less

NonTechGuy 15y ago
Yes, but if you started a bakery to sell a new item that no one else was making and were first to market with it you might find early success. This in turn would allow you to make a subpar marble rye because people are coming to your bakery for your unique new pastry not the bread.