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Traits of successful non-technical solo founders

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Re: Traits of successful non-technical solo founders

#11

Post by itsprofitbaron »

jonnathanson wrote: post #10

This is a good article, but one thing just kind of bugs me: "Non-technical solo founders need to be extremely product focused. They're not purely business-y or marketing types" Marketing gets short shrift in the tech world, probably because tech is one of the major industries in which the marketing function and the product development function are separated to a large degree. But true marketing, as a discipline, is v…

FWIW there are actually 7 P's in marketing: Product, Price, Promoton, Place, Packaging, Positioning & People.

However, I do agree with you that people often consider promotion = marketing when promotion ≠ marketing; its just one aspect of it and embracing all aspects of the marketing mix is beneficial to any company.

Re: Traits of successful non-technical solo founders

#12

Post by AlexBlom »

itsprofitbaron wrote: post #11
jonnathanson wrote: post #10

This is a good article, but one thing just kind of bugs me: "Non-technical solo founders need to be extremely product focused. They're not purely business-y or marketing types" Marketing gets short shrift in the tech world, probably because tech is one of the major industries in which the marketing function and the product development function are separated to a large degree. But true marketing, as a discipline, is v…

FWIW there are actually 7 P's in marketing: Product, Price, Promoton, Place, Packaging, Positioning & People. However, I do agree with you that people often consider promotion = marketing when promotion ≠ marketing; its just one aspect of it and embracing all aspects of the marketing mix is beneficial to any company.

The 4 and 7 has been an ongoing debate among marketing academics, it seems. I recall the "right" answer alternating course by course through school, pending the professors interest.

If I recall, the 4 P's are the standard marketing mix, with the 7 P's being called the extended marketing mix. FWIW, the 4 was definitely more central at my school.

Re: Traits of successful non-technical solo founders

#13

Post by Caligula »

mirsadm wrote: post #2

Is anybody else tired of reading x traits/qualities required to perform y and z? Seems like every other post is highlighting what you need to have to achieve everything you can ever want. It's like a bad collection of extracts from self-help books.

More like it is blog spam to drive traffic to the bloggers startup/blog/etc..

Re: Traits of successful non-technical solo founders

#14

Post by zachalexander »

What does "non-technical" mean, really?

I always wonder what someone means by it, because I may well (once done with my current project) decide to start a startup as a solo founder. And I'm "aspiringly-technical," let's say. I studied math in college, but only started programming more recently.

This article was reassuring, in a sense, because at the very least I qualify as a "technically-literate non-technical person." But I'd like to be more than just technically literate.

Re: Traits of successful non-technical solo founders

#15

Post by rayiner »

jonnathanson wrote: post #10

This is a good article, but one thing just kind of bugs me: "Non-technical solo founders need to be extremely product focused. They're not purely business-y or marketing types" Marketing gets short shrift in the tech world, probably because tech is one of the major industries in which the marketing function and the product development function are separated to a large degree. But true marketing, as a discipline, is v…

> Marketing gets short shrift in the tech world, probably because tech is one of the major industries in which the marketing function and the product development function are separated to a large degree.

Which is ironic, because every web startup these days seems to be in the advertising industry.

Re: Traits of successful non-technical solo founders

#16

Post by snowwrestler »

zachalexander wrote: post #14

What does "non-technical" mean, really? I always wonder what someone means by it, because I may well (once done with my current project) decide to start a startup as a solo founder. And I'm "aspiringly-technical," let's say. I studied math in college, but only started programming more recently. This article was reassuring, in a sense, because at the very least I qualify as a "technically-literate non-technical person…

If you build the product yourself (write the code yourself), you are a technical founder.

If you don't write the code yourself, you will need to partner with or hire someone who can. That would make you a nontechnical founder.

To use a famous example, Woz was the technical founder, while Steve Jobs and Ronald Wayne were nontechnical founders.

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