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An Open Letter To Business People

dave.is

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Re: An Open Letter To Business People

#41

Post by davidbalbert »

malbiniak wrote: post #23
terra_t wrote: post #16

Why do we always hear about non-technical cofounders looking for technical co-founders, rather than the other way around? Is this like some singles bar where 80% of the people are male? I for one would like to find a hustler who really knows how to hustle.

At it's core, yes. You (and me) are in the wrong place. It's like going to the Apple store and hoping to hear great things about WP7. I don't want to be snarky, but I'm having a hard time resisting. Two technical co-founders have shuttered a business and moving on to work "hard on a new product which we're super excited about." It's great that you're super excited about it, but wouldn't it even be more exciting if yo…

I see how this might look a bit ironic ;). The reason we're shutting down HireHive and launching something new is precisely because of what we've learned in the past 8 months working in the hiring space. The only way to find out if there's market opportunity is to come up with a hypothesis and test it. So we've done that once, learned a bunch of stuff about hiring, and are pivoting to what we think is a bigger problem (still in hiring).

I doubt there's a business minded co-founder who could have told us the direction we should be going in without learning what we did about hiring first.

Re: An Open Letter To Business People

#42

Post by dquigley »

mattSchneider wrote: post #35
terra_t wrote: post #16

Why do we always hear about non-technical cofounders looking for technical co-founders, rather than the other way around? Is this like some singles bar where 80% of the people are male? I for one would like to find a hustler who really knows how to hustle.

I too am in the other camp. I've already developed a MVP over the past year over many iterations. Now I want to find a co-founder that wants to help me take it to the next level for an equity stake. The problem is location. The midwest is a horrible place to birth an internet startup.

It might be worthwhile to add some contact information to your profile or a link to your blog about your MVP. Otherwise those of us in the Midwest who might be interested can't ever find out more. :) I'm in Chicago and love to connect with other who are actually doing it.

Re: An Open Letter To Business People

#43

Post by malbiniak »

davidbalbert wrote: post #41
malbiniak wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

At it's core, yes. You (and me) are in the wrong place. It's like going to the Apple store and hoping to hear great things about WP7. I don't want to be snarky, but I'm having a hard time resisting. Two technical co-founders have shuttered a business and moving on to work "hard on a new product which we're super excited about." It's great that you're super excited about it, but wouldn't it even be more exciting if yo…

I see how this might look a bit ironic ;). The reason we're shutting down HireHive and launching something new is precisely because of what we've learned in the past 8 months working in the hiring space. The only way to find out if there's market opportunity is to come up with a hypothesis and test it. So we've done that once, learned a bunch of stuff about hiring, and are pivoting to what we think is a bigger proble…

I doubt there's a business minded co-founder who could have told us the direction we should be going in without learning what we did about hiring first.

You're absolutely right, and I agree with this statement. I'm left with the feeling that you don't think this could have been learnt without first writing code, testing the application, and learning the expensive way.

It's tough, awkward, and often frustrating, but you can connect with potential users ("prospects" or "strangers") and flesh your idea out without writing a line of code. People are willing to talk, but you have to approach them -- and go outside of your comfort zone to find them.

Re: An Open Letter To Business People

#44

Post by T_S_ »

Before embarking on new venture, everybody should watch the "Treasure of the Sierra Madre", a great movie, directed by John Huston, starring Humphrey Bogart. There you will see that the real problems begin once you have a whiff of success.

Oh forget it. Go see the "The Social Network" if you want to see that. Give a huge majority of shares to your technical cofounder and try to stay on his good side.

Re: An Open Letter To Business People

#45

Post by marionogueira »

sachinag wrote: post #37
marionogueira wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's the right attitude. Unfortunately, that's not the norm at all. Mostly, technical folks tend to behave as spoiled brats when dealing with non technical people as cofounders (which amazes me given that one of the best performing tech companies today is run by a non technical guy - Steve Jobs). Update: no need for the technical guy to actually work on non technical issues... given the current scenario, respecting…

Steve Jobs soldered with everyone else at Atari. Just because he didn't engineer at Apple doesn't mean he's non-technical.

Just soldering doesn't make anyone "technical". Woz's designs were the technical assets that made Apple a successful startup.

Furthermore, that experience certainly didn't mean a thing for his second tenure at Apple since 1997, during which the company became bigger than ever. I also doubt he had anything to do with the technical aspects of the operation during this time.

Re: An Open Letter To Business People

#46

Post by ABrandt »

DevX101 wrote: post #12
nicholasjbs wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I mostly agree, though I don't think "business plan" in this context is meant to read "a 100+ page analysis of the market and other bullshit." Rather, I took it to mean a sense of how you're going to get the product out to users and (maybe) how you'll eventually make money. Both of those things are required if you want your business to become sustainable.

smanek's point still stands. If your plan was incorrect and what you THOUGHT was going to make you money, doesn't do so, then you still don't have a business.

However it's much easier to get users if you do have a business plan, or as I prefer to think of it, a business model. If you throw something out there on the internet and start gaining users, you probably have more of a plan (model) than you think.

Having just a good business model can generate sales too though. Actually there's quite an argument for doing so before writing any code. Its a whole lot easier to change some words around on a word document than to completely rewrite an application.

Re: An Open Letter To Business People

#47

Post by asciitaxi »

Mistone wrote: post #6
smanek wrote: post #3

A startup without a business plan isn't a business. It's just some code. I disagree. Users make it a business - and users don't care if I have a business plan. They just care if the product (i.e., code) makes their lives better.

It might make more sense to say a startup without revenue or a monitization plan is just some code. While likely unintentional I think "business plan" trips people up. The idea should def cover how the startup will get users and make money.

I think a "code plan" is the equivalent of a "business plan". Neither have much value. A working product is execution of the code plan. A working business is the execution of the business plan.

When the technical person creates the working product, they have delivered on their side of the bargain. I think the problem is that many non-technical founders think they have made the equivalent contribution by having "a plan". They haven't. They will have made the equivalent contribution when the execute the plan and make money.

Re: An Open Letter To Business People

#48

Post by Devilboy »

alain94040 wrote: post #2

Pretty good explanation. A couple of tweaks: 50/50 is a bad split, because it will lead to paralysis, argument, flying chairs, and eventually bankruptcy. Second, the advice here is to not pitch the idea when you first meet potential technical co-founders. I disagree: I think sharing the same passion is key, so you definitely should tell me that you plan to revolutionize the music industry (a bad example, I know...).…

A 50/50 split can work fine as long as you have a roulette clause. With a roulette clause or similar it's always possible to easily part ways if the 2 parties reach a deadlock that cannot be resolved.

Re: An Open Letter To Business People

#49

Post by netcan »

rguzman wrote: post #11

I liked the piece a lot and it is roughly right. However, as a technical co-founder, I think a good measure of a business co-founder is whether he tries to solve the technical problems himself. e.g. by learning a bit of php and hacking something together. Not only does that show that he's resourceful and scrappy, but it also makes it more likely that he'll be able to talk about the product coherently i.e. understandi…

I think this is an instance of a general point. Resourcefulness is an important. A finance person learning a bit of php and hacking something. A coder reading 'Sales for Dummies' and trying to do a walk in sale. etc.

Also, 'business co-founder' (as can be derived from the fact that not similar pd exists at a large company) is a generalist role. Understanding how software gets made, if software making is a central part of the business is important.

Re: An Open Letter To Business People

#50

Post by chadp »

Maybe the title should read, business focused entrepreneurs with no money. If I am a entrepreneur and I have money, I will not be looking for a "technical co-founder". I will hire technical teams to build and iterate the product to my liking and specification, with their expert input of course (which I can choose to accept or not).
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