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as the business guy in a tech startup, i feel your pain. everything you've said, i've gone through myself on a smaller scale. the difference between us is that

as the business guy in a tech startup, i feel your pain. everything you've said, i've gone through myself on a smaller scale. the difference between us is that i, fortunately or unfortunately, was blessed/cursed with a mildly successful startup exit which gave me a substantial amount of money to build my next startup. why unfortunately? i squandered almost all the money by trying to make too bold of a leap from my unsophisticated first startup to what i aspired to be a very technologically-driven and innovative startup. i too used a contractor, except it wasn't just one dude but i hired an indian software firm to build my product with a team. this was a terrible decision because the machine i wanted to build was too ambitious, and far too complex for the indians to understand. anyway, i started seeking tech co-founders after the failure of that outsourcing attempt. it was too hard - the few talented people in my school (i was still in college at the time) who i befriended were either more interested in gainful employment with competitive salaries after graduation, or they wanted to do their own startups and not ride on mine. i believe i have successfully sold my vision to a few of them, and a few of them have informed me that when i described my ideas, it has changed the way they look at the industry i'm tackling (advertising). some has expressed interest, but without external funding and significant traction, they usually fizzle off after a short period. so anyway, right now i'm at a stage where since i can't find a tech cofounder, i've decided to BECOME one myself. that's right - i'm returning to school for a computer science degree. i start school in january next year, and hopefully over the next 3-4 years i will build my skills up to a level where i'm either a successful founder, or i'm one of those engineers you mentioned in your article who are deluged with attractive offers. good luck to you and your startup though, as a fellow entrepreneur i sincerely wish you the best. it's a hard road to tread.

Major_Grooves 13y ago
That's cool that you're going back to school to learn CS. Can I ask how old you are? It's something I've thought about, but I'm 33, and at some point you have to accept your skill set and focus on your strengths. If I was 23, I would probably try to learn programming. That sort of talk usually prompts a bunch of people to say - hey - you can teach yourself to be quite decent in just 6 months! Possibly true - but that requires a lot of spare time that I don't have. Also, there's no way I would have been able to build Satago with 6months of experience. In fact I briefly tried and started blogging about it: http://newbiehacker.wordpress.com/ http://newbiehacker.wordpress.com/
- jjsz 13y ago
  I want to put a Drake quote here from "Too Much", but I think that's too much so I'll just paraphrase it: there's still time to check things off your bucketlist.
- gotrecruit 13y ago
  i'm 27 this year, and i too consider myself very old to return to school. unfortunately, i'm also a foreigner (to US) and the only viable way i can continue pursuing a startup in the US, where i want to be, is to return as a student. so i guess there are a few different reasons i choose to return to school, including getting a visa as well as pursuing technical knowledge. if i was allowed to return on a different visa, i would not choose to go back to sch for CS and would instead learn these stuff on my own. unfortunately, i was denied such a visa and thus... here we are.
highace 13y ago
Have you tried any one of the plethora of code-school type websites that'll teach you what you need to know over the web for a fraction of the time and cost? A degree will get you what you need to progress into employment, not necessarily what you need to become a technical founder.
- mooreds 13y ago
  I agree. I am not sure exactly what the poster was trying to tackle, but a CS degree can be overkill for a developer.
- gotrecruit 13y ago
  yes, i've completed most of the tutorials on codecademy and other self-help books as well. however, as i've explained in my other post, the other reason why i'm returning to school is also because of the visa which would allow me entry back into US.

Major_Grooves 13y ago

That's cool that you're going back to school to learn CS. Can I ask how old you are? It's something I've thought about, but I'm 33, and at some point you have to accept your skill set and focus on your strengths. If I was 23, I would probably try to learn programming. That sort of talk usually prompts a bunch of people to say - hey - you can teach yourself to be quite decent in just 6 months! Possibly true - but that requires a lot of spare time that I don't have. Also, there's no way I would have been able to build Satago with 6months of experience. In fact I briefly tried and started blogging about it: http://newbiehacker.wordpress.com/ http://newbiehacker.wordpress.com/

jjsz 13y ago
I want to put a Drake quote here from "Too Much", but I think that's too much so I'll just paraphrase it: there's still time to check things off your bucketlist.
gotrecruit 13y ago
i'm 27 this year, and i too consider myself very old to return to school. unfortunately, i'm also a foreigner (to US) and the only viable way i can continue pursuing a startup in the US, where i want to be, is to return as a student. so i guess there are a few different reasons i choose to return to school, including getting a visa as well as pursuing technical knowledge. if i was allowed to return on a different visa, i would not choose to go back to sch for CS and would instead learn these stuff on my own. unfortunately, i was denied such a visa and thus... here we are.

highace 13y ago

Have you tried any one of the plethora of code-school type websites that'll teach you what you need to know over the web for a fraction of the time and cost? A degree will get you what you need to progress into employment, not necessarily what you need to become a technical founder.

mooreds 13y ago
I agree. I am not sure exactly what the poster was trying to tackle, but a CS degree can be overkill for a developer.
gotrecruit 13y ago
yes, i've completed most of the tutorials on codecademy and other self-help books as well. however, as i've explained in my other post, the other reason why i'm returning to school is also because of the visa which would allow me entry back into US.