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Is it possible you need business founders more when building something people have to pay for, and tech founders more when building 'consumer web' stuff? If so
by akkartik 17y ago
Is it possible you need business founders more when building something people have to pay for, and tech founders more when building 'consumer web' stuff?
If so, that explains several observations: the anecdote-based disagreements that keep coming up about the need for business folks, the general bias of YC for consumer web startups in the early years (I think they tended to fund all-programmer teams more so than they do now)
It also seems incredibly useful for figuring out what your startup should do, far more useful than whatever idea you have this week. The skills of the initial team are perhaps the most immutable of resource constraints you have. If you don't have a business/sales guy, don't get into selling software just because "37signals told you to." If you are a business guy, don't waste your time on a twitter app or social network.
Like Dijkstra said, "Do what only you can do."
And yes, I'm aware of Mark Zuckerberg, patio11 et al. Are they counter-examples or exceptions?
- dcharlton 17y agoI think the key point is nothing happens in the beginning with our great technical people. You will always need great business people in the end to drive the business (Google). But we're talking about startup programs where there is little capital and little time.
- akkartik 17y agoYes of course, I'm focusing on the beginning.