4 ms·

Never ever ever EVER take non-science/engineer as co-founders. EVER. I'm actually inclined to say not to hire either until you're profitable. Unless it's necess

by seivan 13y ago

Never ever ever EVER take non-science/engineer as co-founders. EVER. I'm actually inclined to say not to hire either until you're profitable. Unless it's necessary by evil, like lawyers. And by non-science, also include cultural science or political science.

Udo 13y ago
You're being downvoted but I can definitely see where you're coming from. In the case of the OP, those two family member seem to actually exploit him pretty heavily, or at least they're not placing any actual value on him. I think a case could be made that non-technical co-founders are often prone to this kind of behavior, while the technical founder is slaving away and being called "just our IT guy". For most online startups, tech is actually an integral part of the execution, not something tedious that needs to be tacked on by some exchangeable and exploitable programmer. I remember when we founded our first startup, it was three guys: the programmer (me), the business guy (a friend of mine), and our "account man" (an acquaintance of ours) - all equal shareholders. Shortly after founding, there was a discussion about having company cars. The two business guys wanted BMWs, and I was to get some cheap Japanese mini car. When I asked how they came to that idea, they explained that I was only the programmer and I could get by with basically nothing, whereas they insisted they needed BMWs for their role in the company. They also said, and I kid you not, that they were from wealthy families and I was not, so it seemed reasonable to them that everybody needed to keep their rightful place. Needless to say, I shot this down and shortly afterwards, the account guy left. It was for the best. Who knows what would have happened if I had let them get away with this. Self-entitled, hypocritical, non-technical entrepreneurs. There are probably a lot of good people with non-technical qualifications out there, but it's easy to suddenly find yourself working with the bad ones.
- dsuth 13y ago
  That's a bad experience, but it could easily go the other way, eg. a technical person taking advantage of a non-technical founder. The key is trust, regardless of the personalities involved. Trust, but validate as the saying goes.

by seivan 13y ago

Udo 13y ago

You're being downvoted but I can definitely see where you're coming from. In the case of the OP, those two family member seem to actually exploit him pretty heavily, or at least they're not placing any actual value on him. I think a case could be made that non-technical co-founders are often prone to this kind of behavior, while the technical founder is slaving away and being called "just our IT guy". For most online startups, tech is actually an integral part of the execution, not something tedious that needs to be tacked on by some exchangeable and exploitable programmer. I remember when we founded our first startup, it was three guys: the programmer (me), the business guy (a friend of mine), and our "account man" (an acquaintance of ours) - all equal shareholders. Shortly after founding, there was a discussion about having company cars. The two business guys wanted BMWs, and I was to get some cheap Japanese mini car. When I asked how they came to that idea, they explained that I was only the programmer and I could get by with basically nothing, whereas they insisted they needed BMWs for their role in the company. They also said, and I kid you not, that they were from wealthy families and I was not, so it seemed reasonable to them that everybody needed to keep their rightful place. Needless to say, I shot this down and shortly afterwards, the account guy left. It was for the best. Who knows what would have happened if I had let them get away with this. Self-entitled, hypocritical, non-technical entrepreneurs. There are probably a lot of good people with non-technical qualifications out there, but it's easy to suddenly find yourself working with the bad ones.

dsuth 13y ago
That's a bad experience, but it could easily go the other way, eg. a technical person taking advantage of a non-technical founder. The key is trust, regardless of the personalities involved. Trust, but validate as the saying goes.