3 ms·

Developers should become owners! It is much easier for a developer to learn the business side of startups than it is for a business founder to learn how to code

by danjl 2y ago

Developers should become owners! It is much easier for a developer to learn the business side of startups than it is for a business founder to learn how to code. Not only will learning the business side allow developers to become founders, it will improve their development decision making, allowing them to communicate better with customers and the rest of the company about priorities and strategic decisions. Once you know how to talk the language, it becomes easier to convince people that technical factors are important to strategic decisions. Even if you don't become an owner, learning the business side of business will allow you to play a larger role in the decision making.

HalcyonicStorm 2y ago
I definitely want to become an owner and learn about the business. I've even conceived and executed projects to improve the bottom and top line revenue. That being said, as a developer in a small business, the thought is that I'm too expensive an employee to not be coding even if I had a lot of impact on my own initiatives. The thinking is that a lot of people can think about strategy but very few people can code so I get pigeonholed into just executing. This has been my experience at multiple startups at various stages of their lifecycle.
- hattmall 2y ago
  Sure, but the reverse of that is, you as the developer, are the owner, and you just hire the people to think about strategy, etc. What you are saying is true, because coding is the high value work that relies heavily on the individual effort and productivity. The team effect of coding is effectively the sum of each coders productivity. The business side is the opposite, it can be much lower value individual work, but the team efforts combined is exponential. If you want good software you can't really just throw more developers at something, in fact doing so can often lead to declining returns. But this is the idea behind things like SCRUM, Agile, Stand up etc. It's a way to try and figure out how to scale development by effectively just adding more manpower. It simply isn't a fit for development though. On the business side however you can scale just by adding more people. At the end of the day you can have excellent software that makes no money, and you can also have excellent business strategy that makes money and fails to deliver a product.
  - HalcyonicStorm 2y ago
    Coding will only be held as high value if its a product led growth company. Its a cost center otherwise.
yieldcrv 2y ago
As a tech feudalist myself, I think software developers could be the best at accounting, tax and corporate entity structures too, which can guide the business decisions as well. I generally see a segregation of those interests, but as business owners the interdisciplinary nature can become clearer
nradov 2y ago
That only works in some business domains. If, for example, you're trying to build products for a complex healthcare use case it takes years for most developers to start making a positive contribution as product owners. A lot of customer requirements are counterintuitive and don't make sense to anyone without deep domain experience.

by danjl 2y ago

HalcyonicStorm 2y ago

I definitely want to become an owner and learn about the business. I've even conceived and executed projects to improve the bottom and top line revenue. That being said, as a developer in a small business, the thought is that I'm too expensive an employee to not be coding even if I had a lot of impact on my own initiatives. The thinking is that a lot of people can think about strategy but very few people can code so I get pigeonholed into just executing. This has been my experience at multiple startups at various stages of their lifecycle.

hattmall 2y ago
Sure, but the reverse of that is, you as the developer, are the owner, and you just hire the people to think about strategy, etc. What you are saying is true, because coding is the high value work that relies heavily on the individual effort and productivity. The team effect of coding is effectively the sum of each coders productivity. The business side is the opposite, it can be much lower value individual work, but the team efforts combined is exponential. If you want good software you can't really just throw more developers at something, in fact doing so can often lead to declining returns. But this is the idea behind things like SCRUM, Agile, Stand up etc. It's a way to try and figure out how to scale development by effectively just adding more manpower. It simply isn't a fit for development though. On the business side however you can scale just by adding more people. At the end of the day you can have excellent software that makes no money, and you can also have excellent business strategy that makes money and fails to deliver a product.
- HalcyonicStorm 2y ago
  Coding will only be held as high value if its a product led growth company. Its a cost center otherwise.

yieldcrv 2y ago

As a tech feudalist myself, I think software developers could be the best at accounting, tax and corporate entity structures too, which can guide the business decisions as well. I generally see a segregation of those interests, but as business owners the interdisciplinary nature can become clearer

nradov 2y ago

That only works in some business domains. If, for example, you're trying to build products for a complex healthcare use case it takes years for most developers to start making a positive contribution as product owners. A lot of customer requirements are counterintuitive and don't make sense to anyone without deep domain experience.