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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]

#241

Post by 23B1 »

kragen wrote: post #136
23B1 wrote: post #91

This is dated. There's no rules to founding your own company. As a non-technical founder I can A) Get a technical cofounder which takes me weeks to find, dilutes my ownership, and with whom I have no recourse if their work is sub-par (or we end up just not liking/trusting/vibing with each other) or B) Build an MVP with any number of offshoring partners in a matter of weeks and for far cheaper (money, time, opportunit…

to get from zero to one, which i think is what you're referring to with your 'once you've got to 1' line at the end, you need to first find a market that's at zero; a product/service that doesn't exist. but that isn't enough; then you have to take it to one, a product that does exist. there are three piles here: 1. product categories that are technically feasible and profitable and where products already exist; 2. pr…

> you need a technical cofounder to be able to distinguish between pile 2, which is very small, and pile 3, which is enormous

Huh? A technical cofounder doesn't have any sort of monopoly on feasibility, and there's dozens of ways to understand opportunity space, PMF, and all the many other key considerations early-on.

As a nontechnical cofounder, what I bring to the table is enough wisdom and experience to get to a stage where I do need a CTO and technical team.

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

#242

Post by threeseed »

GamerAlias wrote: post #161
threeseed wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

Very serious. It's an exceptional source of information about how to run a real-world, successful tech business.

And if you think that it is too much information to learn then don't be a CEO. Because you are going to be expected to know all of it.

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

#243

Post by danenania »

syrusakbary wrote: post #197

I'm a technical founder working in a deep-tech startup. If I am completely honest, I think the recommendation of having a technical cofounder while useful for startups in the past might not be as useful for the startups of the future. Why? I strongly believe AI will cause a paradigm shift, and I'll adventure stating that AI will make non-technical people be able to do more and more with less. Which will make the requ…

In my experience, usually the problem with a non-technical person isn't that they can't implement their ideas. It's that even if they could, their ideas are unworkable for a hundred reasons that they can't begin to understand. So why would the outcome be any different with AI? Even if the AI is a super-intelligent system designer and tells them all the flaws with their thinking, they'll tell the AI to shut up and get to work just as they'd do with a software engineer.

I actually think that for the foreseeable future, the opposite is more likely. A technical person will be required to get good technical results out of AI, whereas a lot of the key growth-related grunt-work that a good non-technical founder takes on will become easier and easier for a skilled engineer to automate.

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

#244

Post by injeolmi_love »

mtizim wrote: post #224
csa wrote: post #196

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> This mindset that technical cofounders are essentially “coders” (a term I hate) is very prevalent among inexperienced nontechnical founders. I know I’m preaching to the choir here but a lot of technical people have deep industry/business/product knowledge and have social skills. It is very frustrating when some Ivy League 25 year old PM/management consultant tries to pitch you on their vision while treating you lik…

Could you name some (not commonly known ways to get fuck you money)? As a young tech guy doing stuff in startup spaces, I'm genuinely interested. Of course, "no silver bullet", especially to make big money, but I'm curious, from the perspective of someone who'd place around 1.3 on the spectrum you described.

The easiest way to get fuck you money is to reduce your consumption.

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

#245

Post by sva_ »

jensneuse wrote: post #17

The inverse is also true. As a technical founder, and maybe even an introvert like me, you should definitely look for a non-technical co-founder who can help you with networking, etc... I found my dream co-founder through YC Co-founder match and what can I say, it's going great. We're focusing on enterprise GraphQL/API solutions ( https://wundergraph.com ) and I benefit from the networking and communication abilities…

I think this trope of 'technical people = awkward introvertive nerd' is becoming less and less true. The normies have learned our craft, and they're not necessarily worse at it.

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

#246

Post by syrusakbary »

danenania wrote: post #243
syrusakbary wrote: post #197

I'm a technical founder working in a deep-tech startup. If I am completely honest, I think the recommendation of having a technical cofounder while useful for startups in the past might not be as useful for the startups of the future. Why? I strongly believe AI will cause a paradigm shift, and I'll adventure stating that AI will make non-technical people be able to do more and more with less. Which will make the requ…

In my experience, usually the problem with a non-technical person isn't that they can't implement their ideas. It's that even if they could, their ideas are unworkable for a hundred reasons that they can't begin to understand. So why would the outcome be any different with AI? Even if the AI is a super-intelligent system designer and tells them all the flaws with their thinking, they'll tell the AI to shut up and get…

Interesting. If I put it in other words, the argumentation is that AI will just propel the already existing qualities of the people. And because people are different (and the distribution of intellectual qualities remains constant as we grow), the AI will not make any difference on that point.

I'd agree on that.

However, let's imagine the scenario of two people have the similar qualities, with one main difference between them: one have worked longer on those than the other (but their "base" is the same). Do you think AI will propel them at the same speed? (or said in other way: where will be the biggest delta on speed between their pre-AI and post-AI versions?)

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

#247

Post by HaZeust »

jofla_net wrote: post #171
atoav wrote: post #4

This is what I constantly tell my students: The hard part about doing a tech product for the most part isn't the what beginners think makes tech hard — the hard part is wrangling systemic complexity in a good, sustainable and reliable way. Many non-tech people e.g. look at programmers and think the hard part is knowing what this garble of weird text means. But this is the easy part. And if you are a person who would…

An idiot admires complexity, a genius admires simplicity. --TAD

He was so great at compsci, that wasn't even his hardest question in programming!

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

#248

Post by ofirg »

lnsru wrote: post #57
ofirg wrote: post #27

"but based on the thousands of companies YC has funded over the years, companies lacking a technical co-founder underperform" which could mean soon-to-be-underperforming companies fail to attract technical co-founders

I am developer who spend 2 decades developing things. First decade it was hardware and now I moved to software. I can always guess which idea from “idea person” will work and which is not technically feasible. In my limited experience the “idea persons” are not really listening why stuff does not work. Sometimes simple laws of physics are ignored.

to dream is to be mad. so that tracks.

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

#249

Post by csa »

puniaviision wrote: post #215
csa wrote: post #196

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> This mindset that technical cofounders are essentially “coders” (a term I hate) is very prevalent among inexperienced nontechnical founders. I know I’m preaching to the choir here but a lot of technical people have deep industry/business/product knowledge and have social skills. It is very frustrating when some Ivy League 25 year old PM/management consultant tries to pitch you on their vision while treating you lik…

Do you work in private equity or something where you buy out businesses and run them? I'm technically a type 3, but an idiot one that wasted a lot of time chasing sexy ideas with no connection real-world problems. Trying to get better now.

> Do you work in private equity or something where you buy out businesses and run them?

Yes.

I’m basically like Andrew Wilkinson and Tiny Corp, but not as far along the curve as he is (tiny is valued at ~$500m+ USD currently).

https://www.tiny.com/about

I have some cash cows. I buy tech businesses and streamline the business side.

> but an idiot one that wasted a lot of time chasing sexy ideas with no connection real-world problems

I hope you aren’t beating yourself up for this — that’s the kool-aid that is being served, and your path is very common.

The cool thing is that you probably developed some useful knowledge and skills along the way.

For full disclosure, I “wasted” a lot of time in my former career as a research professor. I’m glad I did it. It helped me grow as a person. It gave me opportunities to learn important things that I did not know. It was where I needed to be for that part of my life.

That said, although it’s time I won’t get back, I’m very happy about the path I’m on, and I’m not sure a younger me could have navigated this path as successfully.

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

#250

Post by arjun_krishna1 »

debacle wrote: post #105
threeseed wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

History has shown them to be right. There are many terrible products in this world that were successful only because of good sales and marketing. And vice versa.

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

salesforce, many fintech software that haven't been updated since the 90's, adtech
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