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Ask HN: What is the most crucial knowledge a non-technical founder should have?

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Re: Ask HN: What is the most crucial knowledge a non-technical founder should have?

#11

Post by lukiebriner »

The first question is what are you bringing to the party? Just because you have a good idea, you might be better off hiring in and not taking salary etc. It is too easy to treat the product as your baby even if you don't add any value, which means you will make it too slow or too fast to make it viable.

If you want to bring sales skills into the mix then you need to know your target market segment. Selling cars to the public is not the same as selling robots to the corporate world.

Startups also should have multi-tasking founders. Ideally, all of you can do several things. It can be a mistake to think that person A is a sales person, person B is technical, person C is design etc. because you then need 6 or more people just to cover all the jobs.

Also, you will possibly come up against problems with investment if a Founder is seen as dead-weight rather than adding value.

Just my tuppence worth!

Re: Ask HN: What is the most crucial knowledge a non-technical founder should have?

#14

Post by ericabiz »

BerislavLopac wrote: post #10
ericabiz wrote: post #8

A couple people here have said "Sales", but in my opinion (technical founder who usually takes non-technical roles), the most important is hiring . I often talk to non-technical people who want to start a tech company, and I ask them really baseline questions about the tech people they want to hire: "What language do you want someone to be able to code in?" Usually, I get glazed-over eyes followed by a defensive resp…

Actually, you're wrong. Many languages (and other technologies) are versatile and can do different things, so they're not as important here. What is needed are people who know how to design and build the product/prototype, and leave them to decide which technology to use.

I am not talking from a "Hacker News" perspective here, where we can debate the details of functional programming or talk about which language makes the most sense. I am speaking of conversations (that I've actually had, on a regular basis) that go like this:

Me: So do you plan on building that as a web app, or a mobile app?

Non-technical founder: Um. I don't know. Both?

Me: Okay, do you understand that you will probably need at least 2 different developers (and possibly 3 or more, depending on which mobile app platforms you use) to help you build that out?

NTF: It's a great idea! I just need a developer! Don't you know some developers you can introduce me to?

Me: ...

The conversation is on an entirely different level from most of the ones we'd have here.

Re: Ask HN: What is the most crucial knowledge a non-technical founder should have?

#15

Post by stcredzero »

ska wrote: post #12
hamiltonians wrote: post #2

Ability to be wrong Ability to take criticism

That's really not specific to a non-technical founder. Or to a founder.

But it is a non-negotiable with me and should be for everyone.

Re: Ask HN: What is the most crucial knowledge a non-technical founder should have?

#16

Post by falcolas »

Willingness to learn and pick up skills. Not the technical ones - your co-founder has that in order. I'm talking about:

Sales

Marketing

Fundraising

How to talk to a lawyer

Figuring out what business licenses you need and how to maintain them

Accounting

Interpreting from Geek to English

Hiring to fill the gaps in your knowledge (and firing those who don't)

Contract negotiation

Identifying niches for business opportunities

Basically, anything involved in creating a business which doesn't involve technology; there's quite a few of these, and in many ways they are as or more important to the success of the business than technical knowledge. Even if you create the perfect product, you still need someone to market and sell it to the masses.

Re: Ask HN: What is the most crucial knowledge a non-technical founder should have?

#17

Post by dataker »

If you're not technical, I'd assume your must already be good with sales or have the background for it(social skills).

So, I'd ask technical co-founders and build a network around engineers: it will be the best way to really understand your product and iterate on ideas.

Re: Ask HN: What is the most crucial knowledge a non-technical founder should have?

#19

Post by MalcolmDiggs »

IMHO: They should know how the VC/Angel world works, they should be well adept at networking, and they should be "good in a room" (sales wise). If I'm the technical guy building the product I expect the non-technical person to be out raising money and closing deals/pre-orders every moment that they have free.

Re: Ask HN: What is the most crucial knowledge a non-technical founder should have?

#20

Post by fataliss »

The most crucial knowledge is the one you need to get shit done and this is different every day. There is no such thing as that one key to everything. The only important thing is: learn. If you don't know something, either way hire someone who knows or learn about it yourself. That's the key. Technical or not, it doesn't matter.
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