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How technical does a start-up founder have to be?

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Re: How technical does a start-up founder have to be?

#31

Post by bigtoga »

michael_dorfman wrote: post #21

To state the obvious: Not every founder needs to be a "hacker", but every tech start-up needs one "hacker" co-founder. In other words: yes, the business major who loves the web and has a good idea can succeed-- if he has a "hacker" as a co-founder.

I don't know why this is obvious. I certainly don't agree. History has seen way more successful startups started by "business people" than those founded by hackers. Don't get so myopic that you when you think "startup" you only think about cool things on the internet...

Re: How technical does a start-up founder have to be?

#32

Post by bigtoga »

aristus wrote: post #4

This probably sounds fatuous, but hacking experience will make you a better business person in the same way that a daily column will make you a better writer. The reason is that while we are farting about with bits & bytes and star trek jokes, what we're really doing is translating human imagination into a system that is not capable of self-delusion. It does not believe, it does not miss details, it blows up at the s…

So then I would assume you would also argue that hackers need to know the business side of things for the same reason - yes? Either way, you're choosing a strategy of "Strengthen your weaknesses." There are other strategies like "Play to your strengths" that a lot of people will advocate very strongly. Personally I cannot think to advocate one and only one strategy; I think you have to fit with the dynamics at hand and go with the optimal strategy at the moment.

Re: How technical does a start-up founder have to be?

#33

Post by bigtoga »

To OP: If you and I were talking, I would turn the question back on you and ask you: What do you think? If you are the business major in your post, do you think you can? What would it take to make it work? What would make it fail?

I firmly believe the adage that "What you think about, you bring about." Another that comes to mind is "Whatever you believe, you can achieve." I think it's all in the prepwork...

Re: How technical does a start-up founder have to be?

#34

Post by michael_dorfman »

bigtoga wrote: post #31
michael_dorfman wrote: post #21

To state the obvious: Not every founder needs to be a "hacker", but every tech start-up needs one "hacker" co-founder. In other words: yes, the business major who loves the web and has a good idea can succeed-- if he has a "hacker" as a co-founder.

I don't know why this is obvious. I certainly don't agree. History has seen way more successful startups started by "business people" than those founded by hackers. Don't get so myopic that you when you think "startup" you only think about cool things on the internet...

Take a look again-- I said "tech startup". And I maintain that any startup that is focused on "tech" (internet or otherwise) needs somebody who is a true "hacker" on the appropriate "tech".

Re: How technical does a start-up founder have to be?

#35

Post by yan »

maxklein wrote: post #15

If you're no hacker, be good with photoshop so you can mockup what you have in mind. Then outsource the hell out of your product, and micromanage it to death. I've done this, and I have a nicely working website, and absolutely no idea how the code that runs it looks like.

This all sounds fabulous until you start putting out fires and possibly start to have troubles with scaling.

Not to downplay your development choice, but it's always nice to be intimate with what you rely on.

Re: How technical does a start-up founder have to be?

#36

Post by fallentimes »

tdavis wrote: post #24
kyro wrote: post #2

I had the same question about a year back, and I'm sure some of you will remember it. I saw myself as the 'business major [I don't have a major] who loved the web and had a good idea about a web based business.' And there's one thing I found out through posting on web bulletins, posting flyers around school, and trying to network - it's extremely difficult to find a hacker cofounder who is willing to jump on board. H…

"How could I, a non-hacker, possibly play an equal contributory role has my hacker cofounder?" As the hacker co-founder in a shop of two people, let me tell you, you can play an equal role. Okay, so my partner doesn't setup the servers or write the code or design the site; I do all of that. So what does he do? _Everything else_. Ask most any hacker and they'll give you a laundry list of things they hate doing when it…

Tom, thanks for the kind words. Our team has been fortunate in the fact that after Tom moved away in high school, he decided to become a programming genius. To add a little bit to what Tom said...

Because of the nature of our project, numerous parties and moving parts are involved. For better or for worse, there's lot of "business stuff" to do on a daily basis. Looking at some of the other YC projects, I could definitely understand the advantages of having two hackers or one hacker and one designer. However, for our project, our skills are extremely complimentary of each other and well aligned with the work that needs to be done.

One caveat, I have built a few simple websites from scratch before and taken a couple programming classes so it's not like I know nothing about programming although Tom would probably argue otherwise :).

Re: How technical does a start-up founder have to be?

#39

Post by edw519 »

1. "loves the web"

2. "has a good idea"

3. "cut throat, competition heavy web space"

4. "spend day in and day out coding"

5. "how to survive in the web start-up space"

Nowhere do you mention "building something people want".

Nowhere do you mention the "utter joy of manifesting something out of nothing".

These 2 things are so overwhelmingly important that they really do overshadow everything else, like the 5 details you do mention.

If I wasn't nice, I'd say, "You just don't get it."

But since I am nice, I'll simply say, "You just answered your own question."

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