An Open Letter To Business People
1–10 of 61 posts
Re: An Open Letter To Business People
#2Pretty good explanation. A couple of tweaks: 50/50 is a bad split, because it will lead to paralysis, argument, flying chairs, and eventually bankruptcy.
Second, the advice here is to not pitch the idea when you first meet potential technical co-founders. I disagree: I think sharing the same passion is key, so you definitely should tell me that you plan to revolutionize the music industry (a bad example, I know...). Small talk won't get me, the developer, interested.
Re: An Open Letter To Business People
#3A startup without a business plan isn't a business. It's just some code.
I disagree. Users make it a business - and users don't care if I have a business plan. They just care if the product (i.e., code) makes their lives better.
Re: An Open Letter To Business People
#4Pretty good explanation. A couple of tweaks: 50/50 is a bad split, because it will lead to paralysis, argument, flying chairs, and eventually bankruptcy. Second, the advice here is to not pitch the idea when you first meet potential technical co-founders. I disagree: I think sharing the same passion is key, so you definitely should tell me that you plan to revolutionize the music industry (a bad example, I know...).…
whats your suggested equity split?
Re: An Open Letter To Business People
#5A startup without a business plan isn't a business. It's just some code. I disagree. Users make it a business - and users don't care if I have a business plan. They just care if the product (i.e., code) makes their lives better.
I mostly agree, though I don't think "business plan" in this context is meant to read "a 100+ page analysis of the market and other bullshit." Rather, I took it to mean a sense of how you're going to get the product out to users and (maybe) how you'll eventually make money. Both of those things are required if you want your business to become sustainable.
Re: An Open Letter To Business People
#6A startup without a business plan isn't a business. It's just some code. I disagree. Users make it a business - and users don't care if I have a business plan. They just care if the product (i.e., code) makes their lives better.
It might make more sense to say a startup without revenue or a monitization plan is just some code. While likely unintentional I think "business plan" trips people up. The idea should def cover how the startup will get users and make money.
Re: An Open Letter To Business People
#7A startup without a business plan isn't a business. It's just some code. I disagree. Users make it a business - and users don't care if I have a business plan. They just care if the product (i.e., code) makes their lives better.
Maybe this is off-putting because the term business plan has a lot of baggage. However, the point remains valid and correct: you need to have a realistic and executable plan for how to get users. "Build it and they will come" fails way too often.
Re: An Open Letter To Business People
#8A startup without a business plan isn't a business. It's just some code. I disagree. Users make it a business - and users don't care if I have a business plan. They just care if the product (i.e., code) makes their lives better.
I think business plan may have not been the right words to use there. Feel free to replace it with "user acquisition strategy" or something like that.
At the end of the day if you're making something that people want, you aught to be able to make money out of it, but it's not as simple as just making something good. Unless you're super lucky/awesome (read: Rapportive http://blog.rapportive.com/the-accidental-launch), you're probably going to have to use significant elbow grease to get users on board.
Re: An Open Letter To Business People
#9Pretty good explanation. A couple of tweaks: 50/50 is a bad split, because it will lead to paralysis, argument, flying chairs, and eventually bankruptcy. Second, the advice here is to not pitch the idea when you first meet potential technical co-founders. I disagree: I think sharing the same passion is key, so you definitely should tell me that you plan to revolutionize the music industry (a bad example, I know...).…
whats your suggested equity split?
I think it really depends on how far along the idea/business guy has taken the project. If he has talked to tons of angels/VC's, or lots of potential customers, especially if those customers have indicated or even signed things saying they are ready to pay money to use the product, the split might favor the idea/business guy more than if he has just been "noodling" over something and has some "sketches" of what it might be.
Re: An Open Letter To Business People
#10The problem is you don't need a technical cofounder, you need a good technical founder. Just because someone is at a meetup or on Github doesn't mean they're a good technical cofounder.
Finding a technical cofounder isn't too difficult. If you can't sell your idea to one developer you probably can't sell it to customers. Finding a good technical cofounder is very hard.