31–40 of 42 posts
I imagine this his how non-devs feel when reading a lot of articles here. I have absolutely no idea what non-developers do at startups, and if I were having a dream where I was suddenly hired on in this position, it would feel like your average "showed up to class with no pants for final you didn't study for" nightmare.
The site _is_ called "Hacker News," not "Biz Guy News"... ...hmm, actually.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I agree with a couple of your points but I think you might be overreacting. When the OP said to hang out at HN or learn all about the culture, that's really helpful for those who are completely unfamiliar with the whole industry. A lot of smart kids have never entered this world and it's a good primer. Just because they are new to startups doesn't make them hopeless -- I arrived a couple years ago and spent a few mon…
I agree with a couple of your points but I think you might be overreacting. You're probably right and if so, I apologize. I guess it's just my way of venting my frustration with so many people talking when they should be listening. To me, OP's post just seems like feeding fuel to that fire. I would never want to discourage anyone from becoming part of our community. It's just that some ways are much better than other…
This is the key to real networking. Agendas often spoil the opportunity.
If you're not a developer, you should still learn how to code. At least showing that you're willing to learn goes a long way so you can help with even the little things, such as fixing pixels or checking in small bugs. Think of it another way: would you join a renewable energy startup if you didn't know some engineering (materials, chemistry, mechanical, electrical, et al) fundamentals? How do you think you would do…
Should developers learn how to do customer service? Sales? Biz Dev? Design? HR?
Learning about these domains allows you to talk to people in them. That allows you to educate people outside of the development group on the specifics of the product and get valuable feedback from them. This allows you to make a better product and at the same time gives you a foundation for doing Biz Dev.
Design is a bit different, but yes - learn the basics of that too and treat designers and design work as development unless your business plan is cranking out logos and t-shirts.
I get a sense of a little non-developer hate going on below... so fair disclosure, I am not a developer. I am an aspiring entrepreneur, and yes, I am working on a web-based company. I also work on Wall Street, so I apparently chose the other option Eric to which alludes. The value add of a non-developer to a startup is pretty simple--they bring a different perspective than a developer does. Diversity is a good thing.…
I get a sense of a little non-developer hate going on below... so fair disclosure, I am not a developer. I am an aspiring entrepreneur, and yes, I am working on a web-based company. I also work on Wall Street, so I apparently chose the other option Eric to which alludes. The value add of a non-developer to a startup is pretty simple--they bring a different perspective than a developer does. Diversity is a good thing.…
In startups, perspective, ideas, point of view all pale in importance to execution.
Depending on what you're developing, a business side perspective could be invaluable. The financial services industry is full of inefficiency, as an example to illustrate my point. I worked in equity research for a while and we published reports that were simply pdfs of excel files (there are some publishing tools out there like bluematrix). There are huge opportunities here for a better publishing platform that is easy to use for someone who is not technologically savvy (like research analysts). Having someone with the insight into the industry could be very useful and would help a developer identify and focus on developing and designing functions that would be useful to the client. I'm sure more than one developer has wasted time developing something only to get FEEDBACK (also know as perspective) from the client (often business related when not a developer end-product) that the functionality doesn't match what they need or expect.
I just cannot agree with your point of view here. In my opinion, ideas and perspective are important, but then again, I am new to this. Can someone explain to me why execution should be held above all else?
-> Being able to build the product / service.
-> Being able to sell.
-> Being able to market creatively (on a low budget).
-> Being able to take care of operations, legal, accounting, hiring.
Want to work for a start up in a non-technical role? No problem! Show em' that you can do do one or more of the other essentials better than the incumbents, who are probably too busy taking care of the technical bits anyway.
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In startups, perspective, ideas, point of view all pale in importance to execution.
Obviously execution is critical; however, I cannot agree with you that everything else pales in comparison to execution. You can execute "successfully", but if what you build isn't something the client wants, then you're wasting your time. Depending on what you're developing, a business side perspective could be invaluable. The financial services industry is full of inefficiency, as an example to illustrate my point.…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Should developers learn how to do customer service? Sales? Biz Dev? Design? HR?
Sure they should. A developer casually reading a few books/blogs could learn pretty much all those domains. The same can't be said of business guys doing the opposite.
Startups often need to fill some non-developer, technical roles, like QA team members and sysadmins.