31–40 of 78 posts
Good post, but I would change the title. It's not about technical co-founders being overrated. It's about how it's a good idea to make yourself technical enough if you are a business person who wants to start a company based on a web application.
I think the reason people crap on business ops co-founders, is because most of the time they don't want to be co-founders. Unlike the author of the articles, you see a lot of mba types who don't respect what coders do. So in the end, they don't want to give their 'technical co-founder' equity or sometimes even a fair wage. That's assuming we're even beyond the business dood's idea being making a 'facebook killer'
I think the article is best summarized as "Don't let the lack of a co-founder hold you back". No matter what your expertise, the farther you get with your idea on your own the more likely someone will join you. I do think the idea of "learning to code" to start something is pretty silly, just like the idea of "learning to sell" is pretty silly. Yes, you can learn them while starting a company but the process will be…
Good post, but I would change the title. It's not about technical co-founders being overrated. It's about how it's a good idea to make yourself technical enough if you are a business person who wants to start a company based on a web application.
Diego - I admit the title was a bit inflammatory. The theme, as you note, is that business people don't need a technical person to get proof of life. Also, don't treat technical people like shite. -Will
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Apologies. I have been known to go hog-wild on the italics. It's an addiction I am trying to break. Some people have their exclamation marks. Others have their emoticons. I have my trigger-happy asterisks.
Er... I didn't mean to make it sound like I was making fun of you. I wasn't, sorry. I'm truly serious: emphasis on "do whatever it takes to succeed" results in people doing illegal and immoral things to succeed, such as what Airbnb did.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Er... I didn't mean to make it sound like I was making fun of you. I wasn't, sorry. I'm truly serious: emphasis on "do whatever it takes to succeed" results in people doing illegal and immoral things to succeed, such as what Airbnb did.
Nothing AirBNB did was illegal or immoral. The most you can say about what they did was that it was mildly annoying.
It was illegal because it violated the CAN-SPAM act: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CAN-SPAM_Act_of_2003#The_mechan... .... CAN-SPAM defines a "commercial electronic mail message" as "any electronic mail message the primary purpose of which is the commercial advertisement or promotion of a commercial product or service, including content on an Internet website operated for a commercial purpose."
(The fact that they weren't punished for their crimes illustrates the hypocrisy of our legal system, but does not change the fact that they violated the law for personal gain.)
It was immoral because it violated Craigslist TOS, and because they portrayed themselves as females in order to make other females feel safe using their service.
(Context: I'm a journeyman-level technologist, trying to figure out where the point of diminishing returns for becoming a better one is.)
I think the reason people crap on business ops co-founders, is because most of the time they don't want to be co-founders. Unlike the author of the articles, you see a lot of mba types who don't respect what coders do. So in the end, they don't want to give their 'technical co-founder' equity or sometimes even a fair wage. That's assuming we're even beyond the business dood's idea being making a 'facebook killer'
Its too bad this divide between technical and business folks exists. That's mainly what bugged me about the process and why I wrote about it. In the end I think it comes down to the personality or more importantly how personable the business or technical person are. -Will
Anyway, great blog post. Loved it!
[1] My assumption!
The video for his startup is awesome: http://flexmint.com/ Although, I wonder if Mint might have some issues with the domain/name.