Assist them by helping them test everything you can.
Ask HN: What makes coders happy?
11–13 of 13 posts
Re: Ask HN: What makes coders happy?
#12Ok, lots of administrative suggestions here, which is good insight, I appreciate it. What about collaboration and working with developers to incorporate their knowledge of sound programming structure and data architecture into the site? My site looks simple from the front end, but has a ton of stuff happening on the back end of things. Excellent data management will be key for me and its something I need a lot of hel…
Assuming you've hired a good coder, be clear when explaining what the requirements are and what needs to be done but don't tell him/her how it should be done. Coding and design is where their expertise lies so give them the freedom to use their professional judgement.
You may also find Joel Spolsky's "Field Guide to Developers" article interesting, in particular the section entitled Independence and Autonomy http://www.joelonsoftware.com/articles/FieldGuidetoDeveloper...
Re: Ask HN: What makes coders happy?
#13Remember, an idea is worthless. They have people asking them to build things for equity all the time. You have to compete with these people. If you want to attract a tech-cofounder you have to show value. No one is interested in a one-side partnership where they have to do all the work and then give up a large portion of any profits. How are they going to know you can bring anything to table if you have nothing to show?
After I had identified a potential pain point and thought up a solution, this (in order) is how I proceeded.
I enrolled in a relevant classes (business fashion/intro to entrepreneurship), wrote a business plan/financial statement, figured out the features and how I wanted the app to work, contracted wireframe mockups, raised money from family, hired a lawyer to form a corporation, had the graphic design done, had the front end done.
It took a year and $4500 before I finally found my co-founder.
All the stuff had to be done anyways and it was stuff I, as a non tech-cofounder could do. After I met my technical co-founder we spent a week transferring knowledge (after working on it for a year, i had a lot to say) and now he is coding away.
Also everything took way longer then I expected.