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Moving from programmer to entrepreneur

ianlandsman.com

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Re: Moving from programmer to entrepreneur

#31

Post by tdr »

nhebb wrote: post #26
ricardobeat wrote: post #8

I have to disagree with the first points: 1. Code is 5% of your business: no, it isn't. If you have a watchmaking company, is making watches 5% of the business? Marketing, sales, and operations are only important as long as you have a quality product. 2. Design is everything: it can used to great advantage, but let's keep it real. There are plenty examples of successful "gray boxes" applications, don't confuse aesthe…

You have to keep in mind that he wrote this after a few years in business. After creating the product, programming takes up less of your time in day to day operations. HelpSpot is business software, and Ian was running it as a one man shop for a while. When you have to do the marketing, customer support, accounting, and, well, everything by yourself, it just plain takes up a lot of your day.

No pun intended but finding out how to "do the business" after I already created it doesn't really bring much value. The article itself is called "10 Tips for Moving From Programmer to Entrepreneur" (i.e. how to do it, not what to do after)

Several points are hit here (some I said in a previous comment): - get to know the customer (build MVP ...), see what they want, make a product not a Software Design masterpiece - prioritize correctly (and oftentimes - especially after you built the product - the biz is more valuable)

Anyway, my experience is that even if one knows this theoretically, he will get it after the practical experience. Good luck building!

Re: Moving from programmer to entrepreneur

#33

Post by noelwelsh »

This article seemed to miss what to me has been the biggest change: redefining yourself. If you're like me a lot of your self image is tied up in being a programmer and being very good at it. Being an entrepreneur means giving that up. It means not knowing what the cutting edge is any more, not knowing your way around every library, etc. Worse, it's not like you become a good entrepreneur overnight. So you go from being excellent at one thing to mediocre at many things. That's hard for a lot of people to accept.

Re: Moving from programmer to entrepreneur

#34

Post by rmATinnovafy »

nodemaker wrote: post #3

As a single founder I am sort of confused about these things too.Here is what my plan is -> Basically become a code monkey for a first four-five months and do minimal promotion marketing.Once MVP is ready then do full time marketing pitching and fix bugs once in a while.If you get funded hire more people and more coding. Anyone see a problem with that approach?

I do.

You are wasting your time by building the product first. You have to do the inverse. Become a marketing money for the first four to five months and do minimal coding (that is why its called an MVP). Once you have people buying your product, then you focus on improving it (or refactoring to rails, for example). If you do get funding, then use the money to grow the business and software at the same time/ratio.

Reason why this may seem a bit alien to you is because it requires you to go into marketing mode from day #1. Something you may not be comfortable doing.

Plus, marketing a product is just not about adwords, blog posts, and link on hacker news. It requires you to actually talk to other people directly. This is where a lot of introvert hackers ( like me ) quit.

Re: Moving from programmer to entrepreneur

#35

Post by john_flintstone »

noelwelsh wrote: post #33

This article seemed to miss what to me has been the biggest change: redefining yourself. If you're like me a lot of your self image is tied up in being a programmer and being very good at it. Being an entrepreneur means giving that up. It means not knowing what the cutting edge is any more, not knowing your way around every library, etc. Worse, it's not like you become a good entrepreneur overnight. So you go from be…

The biggest problem I had - one I'm battling with right now - is that when you move successfully from being just a programmer to being an entrepreneur who sells software, after a while the software part becomes less important. You start thinking: If I can do this with software, I can do it with OTHER STUFF. And then you drift away from code and software entirely, as you realise your new entrepreneurial skills can be put to better use in other areas.

It's a huge thing to stop being a programmer, when you started out thinking it was the only path open to you career wise, and that you would be in the software business in one form or another for your entire career. But cutting that cord - as difficult as it is - can be liberating. Cause face it - if you can sell software that you wrote yourself, you can sell anything online.

Re: Moving from programmer to entrepreneur

#37

Post by T-hawk »

ricardobeat wrote: post #8

I have to disagree with the first points: 1. Code is 5% of your business: no, it isn't. If you have a watchmaking company, is making watches 5% of the business? Marketing, sales, and operations are only important as long as you have a quality product. 2. Design is everything: it can used to great advantage, but let's keep it real. There are plenty examples of successful "gray boxes" applications, don't confuse aesthe…

Code can be 5% of a business, while the entire software part is a much higher proportion. The software concern of a business encompasses way more than just coding: testing, environment building and maintenance, source control, backups, security, and much more. Realizing that the actual executable code is such a small part of delivering a software product is a really important step in maturing from a code-monkey programmer to a capable software engineer.

Your watchmaker analogy is actually a pretty close parallel to software. The mechanical functioning guts (executable code) of the watch, the gears and ratchets and springs and all, probably are about 5% of the business. But the entire watchmaking concern, from supply of materials to fashioning the face and wristband to final assembly and inspection, encompasses much more.

Re: Moving from programmer to entrepreneur

#38

Post by dkb »

I agree that code is not the only thing that should be worked on. Loving customers, treating them with respect and listening to them is also essential to me. I am currently working on an idea and have a lot of questions on different aspects and don't even know where to look for answers. Is there some online resources related to the different aspects of an online business? (understanding a service that you pay for and use online, such as BaseCamp from 37signals). For example, should you start to give a service for free at the beginning and then monetize it when you have a lot of users, if you do so, is there some legal issues following this way? Another example, the disclaimer: how do you manage this, does it really protect the entrepreneur? I feel like there is a lot to considered out of the code itself and the marketing.

Re: Moving from programmer to entrepreneur

#39

Post by [deleted] »

rmATinnovafy wrote: post #34
nodemaker wrote: post #3

As a single founder I am sort of confused about these things too.Here is what my plan is -> Basically become a code monkey for a first four-five months and do minimal promotion marketing.Once MVP is ready then do full time marketing pitching and fix bugs once in a while.If you get funded hire more people and more coding. Anyone see a problem with that approach?

I do. You are wasting your time by building the product first. You have to do the inverse. Become a marketing money for the first four to five months and do minimal coding (that is why its called an MVP). Once you have people buying your product, then you focus on improving it (or refactoring to rails, for example). If you do get funding, then use the money to grow the business and software at the same time/ratio. Re…

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