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Dear Programmer, I have an idea

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Re: Dear Programmer, I have an idea

#61

Post by danielweber »

claudeshannon wrote: post #53
padobson wrote: post #30

I'm always looking for a co-founder, whether I'm the geek or the suit. When a suit approaches me to be the geek for their idea, I usually give them some simple technical task to do - like setup a Tumblr or a Twitter account for the idea. Then I'll often ask for something businessy - form a C-corp for the idea or file a provisional patent. Finally, before I even consider opening my laptop to code their idea, I want so…

Any early stage startup where there's so much polarization between geeks and suits at the outset is in trouble. Basically geeks need to learn to sell and suits need to learn to code. I could elaborate on this in a longer post. But I have to go back to working on some new channel capacity ideas. Stay tuned.

Honestly the suits don't need to code, but they do need to be comfortable discussing software and the limits/possibilities of technology.

Similarly, the geeks don't need to know all the aspects of selling, but they do need to know how to tell a customer that their product is awesome and all the advantages it has and why it's silly to not have use it.

Re: Dear Programmer, I have an idea

#62

Post by jiggy2011 »

TomGullen wrote: post #24
jiggy2011 wrote: post #22

To be honest I might consider some sort of profit/equity split with somebody who had a really good idea (and had done the research to prove it). Sometimes between reading stuff like HN and working on code all day I feel like I'm a bit too close to everything to really evaluate ideas rationally. Every time I've had I can usually think of 100 reasons to shoot it down and make it seem like more effort than it's worth. T…

> To be honest I might consider some sort of profit/equity split with somebody who had a really good idea (and had done the research to prove it). Why wouldn't you just take the idea and execute it yourself with 100% equity? The guy with the idea needs to bring something else to the table, whether it's a particular skill set or something crucial to the deployment of said idea such as a patent.

To an extent though couldn't that also be an argument against an investor buying equity in a startup rather than picking up a bunch of contract programmers and building the idea themselves?

Re: Dear Programmer, I have an idea

#63

Post by TillE »

its_so_on wrote: post #41

there's another route. break down what you want to do and you can basically get it done for free. For example: -------------- Requirements. 1. requisition an Amazon EC2 instance for me. No other steps. -------------- then a tech guy on IRC will do it for $5. Next, you want to get someone to do the following. I need a programmer to put a plain rails installation on my amazon ec2 instance. -------------- Requirements.…

That seems like a clever idea, but really each step you're describing would take about five minutes for someone who knows what they're doing.

If you can enumerate your requirements so precisely, I'm sure you can find someone decent for less than $60/hour to execute them.

Re: Dear Programmer, I have an idea

#64

Post by acomar »

VSerge wrote: post #58

I'm a non-tech founder (second startup) and I've had a hard time finding a tech co-founder. So I worked with programmers who are partners on the project, ie they get paid much less than they would in a normal gig, but they get their price cut "risk" paid several times down the road if it works. And since it's always a big if, I think this is the most genuine form of risk and revenue sharing short of being real co-fou…

I think the point is that everyone wants a non-technical co-founder to be more like yourself. But the emails from the "idea" people fail in a more fundamental way -- imagine writing a cover letter to an employer that basically told the employer only what you got out of employment. Suddenly that sounds like begging for charity, not a potential business relationship, and so the email gets ignored. Ignore enough of those emails and you get posts like the OP.

Re: Dear Programmer, I have an idea

#66

Post by padobson »

saurik wrote: post #56
padobson wrote: post #30

I'm always looking for a co-founder, whether I'm the geek or the suit. When a suit approaches me to be the geek for their idea, I usually give them some simple technical task to do - like setup a Tumblr or a Twitter account for the idea. Then I'll often ask for something businessy - form a C-corp for the idea or file a provisional patent. Finally, before I even consider opening my laptop to code their idea, I want so…

(Note: I am a programmer.) Being "the suit" isn't just "I have an idea", and assuming the suit must be capable of doing something technical undermines the interesting complexity that that kind of knowledge entails. Instead, imagine someone who has found a "market opportunity" (not "an idea": everyone has ideas, and assuming programmers somehow don't have enough of their own to work on is part of what makes these kind…

I am with you all the way on this. The great businesses and fortunes of the last 200 years of industry did not come from engineering or technical expertise, but rather from those few, adept individuals who were able to navigate the mysterious world of relationships. If you do not make a dozen friends in every crowded room and instinctively form lucrative relationships on a daily basis, then knowing someone who does is the most valuable asset to your professional goals.

Re: Dear Programmer, I have an idea

#68

Post by irishcoffee »

Evbn wrote: post #54
Swizec wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Isn't 5000 emails a bit steep to ask for in a day or even a week? A conversion rate of 5% is pretty respectable, that means the landing page needs to be seen by 100k people to collect 5000 emails. That's quite a bit for having nothing more than a landing page to offer, I can see that happening for a MVP, but not for just a landing page.

A post on Reddit, HN, etc, can get plenty of views for an interesting idea.

I'm kind of curious what the 'etc' are to which you refer?

Re: Dear Programmer, I have an idea

#69

Post by carbocation »

cstejerean wrote: post #59
startupfounder wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am also always looking for a co-founder. When a geek approaches me (or I approach them) to be the suit for their project, I usually give them some simple soft skill to do - like go out and talk to potential customers and get feedback from say 500 in a day. Finally, before I even consider hustling customers and investors I want some paltry measure of ability. If you can hack something together in 24-48 hours or even…

Talking one-on-one to 500 customers in one day to get feedback doesn't seem possible. If you only spend 5 minutes talking to each customer, and you have them lined up back to back so you don't waste time in between, it would still take 40+ hours. I guess you could do 1 minute conversations and get it down to about 8 hours, although even assuming you can get 500 people to queue up for this, I'm curious what will come…

The entire post was a satirical response to the GP comment. It was meant to show how, depending on your point of view, the same logic can be applied to either the tech or the business side and maybe even "look good" but seem unreasonable to those on the other side of the table.

Not saying I am in full agreement, but it's pretty clearly the purpose of the parent comment.

Re: Dear Programmer, I have an idea

#70

Post by TomGullen »

jiggy2011 wrote: post #62
TomGullen wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> To be honest I might consider some sort of profit/equity split with somebody who had a really good idea (and had done the research to prove it). Why wouldn't you just take the idea and execute it yourself with 100% equity? The guy with the idea needs to bring something else to the table, whether it's a particular skill set or something crucial to the deployment of said idea such as a patent.

To an extent though couldn't that also be an argument against an investor buying equity in a startup rather than picking up a bunch of contract programmers and building the idea themselves?

Yes it is, which is why being skilled at what you do, establishing a brand, getting traction are all key ingredients in raising the barrier to entry for investors.
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