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In my opinion, learning the skills to build "Uber the company" will get you nowhere without a compelling product first, whereas if you have a compelling product

by Mahn 11y ago

In my opinion, learning the skills to build "Uber the company" will get you nowhere without a compelling product first, whereas if you have a compelling product you can be a complete idiot when it comes to business and still have a chance to learn and make something out of it. By all means don't focus solely on development if your goal is to build a startup, and in particular be aware you need to attract users once you launch; but don't focus on learning the intricacies of raising money or leading a team without a product either.

downandout 11y ago
If you have business skills, you can always find/team up with people that have a compelling product, or team up with others others to bring your compelling product to life through code while you build the business. In this case, it appears that OP has an idea and wants to build the product himself, starting from scratch with no coding knowledge. I am saying that he should team up with someone to accomplish the actual coding, and he should focus on the business. BTW, I am saying all of this as a fairly accomplished software engineer that has grown to understand that business skills are far more important than the programming skills I have spent nearly 20 years working on. I find myself agreeing more and more with this statement from Chris Sacca, who is a billionaire that knows a thing or two about successful tech startups [1]: "...most of the value is created by the execution, not the idea itself." [1] http://lowercasecapital.com/prospecting/ http://lowercasecapital.com/prospecting/
unclebucknasty 11y ago
IMO, this is a little bit of a false debate that's been kicked around for years. For instance, in your first paragraph, you could just as easily switch business skill and product (and many people do). Also, business and product are intimately related. Building, say, the tech for a SaaS business doesn't mean you've built a good product. Business skill can help here. As developers who can build, I think we sometimes emphasize the tech (product) from a functional perspective vs. from a business one. In short, it can be very difficult to create a compelling product without solid business thinking. And, even with a compelling product, it can be difficult still to gain any traction. My experience has been that both skillsets are needed equally.

by Mahn 11y ago

downandout 11y ago

If you have business skills, you can always find/team up with people that have a compelling product, or team up with others others to bring your compelling product to life through code while you build the business. In this case, it appears that OP has an idea and wants to build the product himself, starting from scratch with no coding knowledge. I am saying that he should team up with someone to accomplish the actual coding, and he should focus on the business. BTW, I am saying all of this as a fairly accomplished software engineer that has grown to understand that business skills are far more important than the programming skills I have spent nearly 20 years working on. I find myself agreeing more and more with this statement from Chris Sacca, who is a billionaire that knows a thing or two about successful tech startups [1]: "...most of the value is created by the execution, not the idea itself." [1] http://lowercasecapital.com/prospecting/ http://lowercasecapital.com/prospecting/

unclebucknasty 11y ago

IMO, this is a little bit of a false debate that's been kicked around for years. For instance, in your first paragraph, you could just as easily switch business skill and product (and many people do). Also, business and product are intimately related. Building, say, the tech for a SaaS business doesn't mean you've built a good product. Business skill can help here. As developers who can build, I think we sometimes emphasize the tech (product) from a functional perspective vs. from a business one. In short, it can be very difficult to create a compelling product without solid business thinking. And, even with a compelling product, it can be difficult still to gain any traction. My experience has been that both skillsets are needed equally.