Why the notion here that to be an entrepreneur, you have to be a hacker. • Hacker News Board

Re: Why the notion here that to be an entrepreneur, you have to be a hacker.

#21

Post by plinkplonk » Sat, Feb 28, 2009, 1:10 AM UTC

"I don't particularly enjoy programming - certainly not to the extent that I could have orgasms doing it"

How many people do you know who get orgasms from programming? This kind of subtle condescension ensures that no halfway decent hacker would want to work with you.

As someone asked earlier, if we can have ideas and execute, why do we need (someone like) you, who (with due respect) have no credentials (in terms of having built succesful businesses/ have non technical demonstrated skills) but do have "ideas"?

If you think non hackers (like you) can create a successful technical product company, by all means do show us - build such a company , and then tell us how you did it so we can all learn from your experience and benefit from it.

Re: Why the notion here that to be an entrepreneur, you have to be a hacker.

#22

Post by comatose_kid » Sat, Feb 28, 2009, 5:10 AM UTC

icey wrote: post #10

vintya wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Programmers or hackers don't build companies. Yes, they build a product or a service - the best ones can create magic. But it stops there. You need smart enterprising people who understand the bigger picture and the ecosystem, how different pieces of the puzzle fit together, how to make money out of all that stuff that's been built. You need the idea men, and the executioners. It's so wrong I believe to make programm…

"Programmers or hackers don't build companies." You should drop a line to Sergey Brin, Larry Page, Eric Schmidt, Jeff Bezos, Bill Joy, Dean Kamen, Ray Kurzweil, Jeff Hawkins, Larry Ellison and Bill Gates to let them know about that. I don't think they've gotten the memo. [For purposes of congruency in this thread, I had Woz in here as well as he was a founder at Apple, but removed him from my list.]

Don't forget John Walker, Autodesk.

Re: Why the notion here that to be an entrepreneur, you have to be a hacker.

#23

Post by comatose_kid » Sat, Feb 28, 2009, 5:13 AM UTC

vintya wrote: post #8

pg wrote: post #7

why this ridiculous idea that to be an Internet entrepreneur, you should love programming Empirical evidence.

Programmers or hackers don't build companies. Yes, they build a product or a service - the best ones can create magic. But it stops there. You need smart enterprising people who understand the bigger picture and the ecosystem, how different pieces of the puzzle fit together, how to make money out of all that stuff that's been built. You need the idea men, and the executioners. It's so wrong I believe to make programm…

What do you think should be the most important qualifying criteria?

Re: Why the notion here that to be an entrepreneur, you have to be a hacker.

#24

Post by jaspertheghost » Sat, Feb 28, 2009, 11:16 AM UTC

icey wrote: post #10

vintya wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Programmers or hackers don't build companies. Yes, they build a product or a service - the best ones can create magic. But it stops there. You need smart enterprising people who understand the bigger picture and the ecosystem, how different pieces of the puzzle fit together, how to make money out of all that stuff that's been built. You need the idea men, and the executioners. It's so wrong I believe to make programm…

"Programmers or hackers don't build companies." You should drop a line to Sergey Brin, Larry Page, Eric Schmidt, Jeff Bezos, Bill Joy, Dean Kamen, Ray Kurzweil, Jeff Hawkins, Larry Ellison and Bill Gates to let them know about that. I don't think they've gotten the memo. [For purposes of congruency in this thread, I had Woz in here as well as he was a founder at Apple, but removed him from my list.]

It's true that you need additional skills to grow a successful company, but without the product/technical skills, you can't start recruit or sustain a company. A technical company is primarily a function of its people and its products. As companies mature, more adults that aren't as product focused come in and think it's entirely about brand, marketing, sales, etc. It's true that those things that bring in the money, but once your focus shifts toward those areas, you'll inevitably turn into a EBay, Yahoo, or Apple (pre-Jobs). When Jobs came back, he said the only thing he did was shift the company's focus toward "product" not marketing or sales.

I've had many non-technical friends that have had a "great" idea and wanted to recruit programmers. It's never worked. It's best if you have the skills yourself.

A lot of people were surprised that Amazon not Google dominates cloud computing or that it branched out to the Kindle. Amazon has always had a technical culture focused on great user experiences. It's not a surprise at all when you take a look at it from that standpoint.