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You do need a technical co-founder [video]

ycombinator.com

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Re: You do need a technical co-founder [video]

#161

Post by GamerAlias »

threeseed wrote: post #70
VoodooJuJu wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm currently the technical guy and would love to learn how to also be the business guy - what do I need to do to develop those skills? Getting your hands dirty is the best way to learn anyhting, so with technical topics, especially programming, I would just dive into projects and start coding, building things, and that's how I learned. In terms of business skills, what projects can I realistically undertake on my ow…

Read and understand the Gitlab handbook: https://about.gitlab.com/handbook/

Are you serious? If so why? Could you elaborate about why one should read such a long text? Doesn't seem a clear answer to his Q

Re: You do need a technical co-founder [video]

#162

Post by distortionfield »

mplewis wrote: post #130
debacle wrote: post #105

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> There are many terrible products in this world that were successful only because of good sales and marketing. And vice versa. Name one.

Tesla cars

This doesn't track for me. I saw a Tesla dealership and supercharging station in my city before ever seeing an advert for Tesla. That's why Tesla was successful where others weren't.

Re: You do need a technical co-founder [video]

#164

Post by thelittlenag »

welfare wrote: post #134
opportune wrote: post #129

Even this article IMO subtly demonstrates the mindset that leads nontechnical founders to not think they need a technical cofounder, by phrasing the search for one as “recruiting” as if they were a subordinate or code monkey. It should be a partner relationship, not a subordinate relationship. This mindset that technical cofounders are essentially “coders” (a term I hate) is very prevalent among inexperienced nontech…

Completely agree, I'm waiting for the article on "Why you need a business-oriented co-founder and how technical founders can recruit one"...

+1 on that!

Re: You do need a technical co-founder [video]

#165

Post by debacle »

welfare wrote: post #134
opportune wrote: post #129

Even this article IMO subtly demonstrates the mindset that leads nontechnical founders to not think they need a technical cofounder, by phrasing the search for one as “recruiting” as if they were a subordinate or code monkey. It should be a partner relationship, not a subordinate relationship. This mindset that technical cofounders are essentially “coders” (a term I hate) is very prevalent among inexperienced nontech…

Completely agree, I'm waiting for the article on "Why you need a business-oriented co-founder and how technical founders can recruit one"...

The problem is that you don't. "Business" has been systematized in many ways, and more and more your "business" is just someone else's software.

Re: You do need a technical co-founder [video]

#166

Post by jdminhbg »

welfare wrote: post #134
opportune wrote: post #129

Even this article IMO subtly demonstrates the mindset that leads nontechnical founders to not think they need a technical cofounder, by phrasing the search for one as “recruiting” as if they were a subordinate or code monkey. It should be a partner relationship, not a subordinate relationship. This mindset that technical cofounders are essentially “coders” (a term I hate) is very prevalent among inexperienced nontech…

Completely agree, I'm waiting for the article on "Why you need a business-oriented co-founder and how technical founders can recruit one"...

> There are two reasons founders resist going out and recruiting users individually. One is a combination of shyness and laziness. They'd rather sit at home writing code than go out and talk to a bunch of strangers and probably be rejected by most of them. But for a startup to succeed, at least one founder (usually the CEO) will have to spend a lot of time on sales and marketing. [2]

http://paulgraham.com/ds.html

Re: You do need a technical co-founder [video]

#167

Post by no_wizard »

gedy wrote: post #108
jeremyjh wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I really wish I'd read this 25 years ago, but probably I wouldn't have believed any of it.

I don’t know, I’ve mostly followed this approach over my 20 year career, but it really depends on your surroundings, and honestly hasn’t led to great success. E.g. If you’re surrounded by yes men who will code whatever without question, product people greatly prefer that, and you end up sidelined. There’s also plenty of companies who don’t want engineers getting involved with decisions, and product and UX people work…

It has, because embracing agile as it was laid out in 12 principles put too much power in these "technical" people by giving them a stake at the table, to anyone who doesn't work in an ENG first / ENG focused company.

If you look at how "Agile" is implemented in most organizations - even in technology companies! - there's alot of barrier process put up to sideline / minimize engineering input by focusing on stakeholders where stakeholder is defined by everyone telling engineering what to do as opposed to engineering being seen as a valid and reasonable stakeholder too.

I think its because in part there is a linear pipeline that the non technical business side sees as how things go: you plan X, it gets designed by Y, and then "manufactured" by engineers, if you will.

Engineers - good ones, in my estimation - want more stake in each step, both in planning and design, because often its engineers that work on the system the closest (you'd be shocked how many designers don't use their own products on a daily basis, same goes for alot of business oriented folks) and this is not "the way the world works".

Thats my thesis anyway

Re: You do need a technical co-founder [video]

#168

Post by travisjungroth »

dijit wrote: post #159
FuckButtons wrote: post #154

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You know what computers couldn’t do 10 years ago? Understand and write coherent code. Why do you feel confident in your opinion that they won’t be able to do that in the next 10 years?

1) an understanding of what LLMs can actually do 2) a strong history of understanding the limits of functional automation (why are there still project managers? Asana exists!) 3) an understanding that progress will slow in this space considerably once we have made the big wins and the hype cycle dies down. (see also; every tech hype cycle)

I go the exact opposite way on number 3. It seems more likely to me this follows the growth trend of the internet, mobile phones and computer graphics than blockchain and VR. 10 more year of growth like the last would be pretty wild to experience.

Re: You do need a technical co-founder [video]

#169

Post by no_wizard »

Karrot_Kream wrote: post #121
gedy wrote: post #108

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don’t know, I’ve mostly followed this approach over my 20 year career, but it really depends on your surroundings, and honestly hasn’t led to great success. E.g. If you’re surrounded by yes men who will code whatever without question, product people greatly prefer that, and you end up sidelined. There’s also plenty of companies who don’t want engineers getting involved with decisions, and product and UX people work…

> E.g. If you’re surrounded by yes men who will code whatever without question, product people greatly prefer that, and you end up sidelined. I'm amazed at how non-obvious this seems to most engineers and how often this angst gets repeated in online tech communities. I mean, when I was in academia there was a tension between publishing impactful results or cozying up with the right professors into the right conferenc…

I can see this in academia, because you're working on reputation as much as anything, if not more so, sorta prone to being like this in a way.

Finance however, not once[0] have I either observed nor heard of someone working in finance being overruled by a product person. If finance says no go its no go, simple as that. People tend to listen to the money folks, even at a high-level.

[0]: I work both in fintech and have lots of professional colleagues that work at other financial firms from big banks to all manner of investment firms and much in-between, as well as several generations of family who have all worked in finance on various levels. Honestly, its high level finance people trying to pressure others into getting things done faster when they want something done, not the other way around.

Re: You do need a technical co-founder [video]

#170

Post by distortionfield »

kragen wrote: post #145
cmrdporcupine wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's interesting, how all this stuff is written for the biz-bros, too -- try doing a google search on how to find a non -technical cofounder. Like, say you're an eng, with a technical idea you think would make the foundation of a good startup, and you're looking for someone to "found" the PM/marketing/bizdev side of things. From what I can see, the content/advice doesn't exist, even via YCombinator.

why would you want a nontechnical cofounder to do the pm/marketing/bizdev side of things? a nontechnical person might be able to do those things, but technical ignorance or incompetence are not necessary for them, and aren't even assets; they're just less serious drawbacks there than elsewhere you might genuinely need some nontechnical people in your startup, but if you have some money you can always pay people to co…

Why would you want a nontechnical cofounder to do these 3 specialized full-time roles? Is this a serious question?

> but if you have some money

lol . Just… lol.

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