Business co-founders in tech startups are less valuable than they think
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Re: Business co-founders in tech startups are less valuable than they think
#2And even less than that
Re: Business co-founders in tech startups are less valuable than they think
#3Cofounders are not great anyways of either type. If you are a business person, learn the tech stuff you need. It's easier today than ever. If you are a tech founder, it's even easier to pick up business stuff than tech stuff.
Investors always encourage it because it reduces their risk... One of you can be fired and they still have the backup. But when it is all on you there is no passing the buck.
Source: solo bootstrapped founder of a company earning $1,200,000 a month for the last sixteen years.
Re: Business co-founders in tech startups are less valuable than they think
#4Having started businesses with the explicit lack of biz-co-founders I beck to differ. That is of course unless your da Vinci-like super modal capabilities allows you to feel unlimited joy when doing business plans, taxes & marketing alongside your (hopefully) core competency of product development.
Re: Business co-founders in tech startups are less valuable than they think
#5Cofounders are not great anyways of either type. If you are a business person, learn the tech stuff you need. It's easier today than ever. If you are a tech founder, it's even easier to pick up business stuff than tech stuff. Investors always encourage it because it reduces their risk... One of you can be fired and they still have the backup. But when it is all on you there is no passing the buck. Source: solo bootst…
What's your product? :)
Re: Business co-founders in tech startups are less valuable than they think
#6Your solution to bad business co-founders is for them to become sales people?
The traits and failures you are describing could be attributed to anyone including an engineer.
A good business person moves mountains while keeping builders free to build.
Re: Business co-founders in tech startups are less valuable than they think
#7See also https://www.breakneck.dev/blog/no-tech-cofounder and related HN discussion https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39902372
Re: Business co-founders in tech startups are less valuable than they think
#8I recently walked away from a potential startup because my non-technical partner (MBA ideas guy) wanted an 80/20 equity split in his favor. I was the first to broach the discussion and proposed 50/50. It was a severe misalignment in expectations, and this was after 3 months of meeting regularly to refine the idea and build out prototypes (read: I was building the prototypes).
My advice is to have this conversation with a potential business co-founder as early as possible to avoid wasted time. I could have saved myself months.
Look out for business guys who severely discount your value as a technical founder. Not saying they're all like this, but a really skewed equity split is typically a red flag.
Re: Business co-founders in tech startups are less valuable than they think
#9Having started businesses with the explicit lack of biz-co-founders I beck to differ. That is of course unless your da Vinci-like super modal capabilities allows you to feel unlimited joy when doing business plans, taxes & marketing alongside your (hopefully) core competency of product development.
I also agree based on several failed startups I've been a part of and a few successful startups.
The business side is the difference between side project and successful venture.
Re: Business co-founders in tech startups are less valuable than they think
#10Cofounders are not great anyways of either type. If you are a business person, learn the tech stuff you need. It's easier today than ever. If you are a tech founder, it's even easier to pick up business stuff than tech stuff. Investors always encourage it because it reduces their risk... One of you can be fired and they still have the backup. But when it is all on you there is no passing the buck. Source: solo bootst…
> Investors always encourage it because it reduces their risk... One of you can be fired and they still have the backup. But when it is all on you there is no passing the buck.
The reason is reduces their risk isn’t firing 1 cofounder, it’s that “When you want to go fast, go alone, when you go far, go together”. Building a business is tough. Most early stage startups fail because the founders simply burn out and give up. Having a buddy you can lean on helps. It also makes it easier to realize when you’re digging down the wrong hole and need to change strategy.