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Ask HN: What does a non-programmer bring to a 2-3 person startup team?

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Re: Ask HN: What does a non-programmer bring to a 2-3 person startup team?

#61

Post by rocamboleh »

swalkergibson wrote: post #47
rocamboleh wrote: post #40

I am in my early twenties and am seriously considering a career in entrepreneurship. I have a partner and we are in the midst of entering our business idea into numerous entrepreneurship contests. The only problem is that neither of us know any code. One of our business coaches, a successful entrepreneur himself, suggested that the programming can be done with little problems -that there is still much utility in two…

As someone who was in your position about 2 years ago, I have the following advice for you. First, you should look at some tutorials before you find this individual so you understand the very basics of whatever language you are looking to grok. If you are looking for PHP, www.w3schools.com is a decent place to start for the super basics. Once you have a very basic understanding of the language, the best thing to do i…

Thanks for the input! I assume you found a similar individual? I'm eager to learn and absolutely concur on bringing someone in who is both knowledgeable and recognizes the importance of everyone knowing the ins and outs of their product.

Re: Ask HN: What does a non-programmer bring to a 2-3 person startup team?

#62

Post by encinar »

Here's am answer to a very similar question in Quora, a list of things that a non-technical co-founder should be focus on while the site still being developed: http://b.qr.ae/eBYCk2

If after a 8-10 hours programming day you still can do any of these things (and do them well enough), you might not need a marketing&sales&business partner ;)

Re: Ask HN: What does a non-programmer bring to a 2-3 person startup team?

#63

Post by mikeocool »

As a technical co-founder, it took me a little while to really see the full value in having an awesome biz dev co-founder. I finally arrived at when she told the team she was going to secure us a number of key partnerships in a matter of weeks, that would be a huge boon to our user acquisition strategy. I said ok, but totally did not believe that she would be able to deliver.

Over the next few weeks I didn't have to think about any of the work that went into the partnerships: responding to emails, making decks, prepping for meetings and building relationships. I was free to continue work on the product without distraction. And in the end she delivered in a huge way.

I love thinking about and building product, but building sales and distribution partnerships is well outside of my wheelhouse; having someone on our team who I trust to execute on that half of our business is invaluable.

Re: Ask HN: What does a non-programmer bring to a 2-3 person startup team?

#64

Post by mikealle233 »

nkohari wrote: post #57
mikealle233 wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My attitude puzzles you because you're assuming that 90% of the risk comes before the MVP. Absolutely, most startups fail because they build something that people don't want. That doesn't mean things like scalability and maintainability don't matter. It means you're putting the cart before the horse if you're worrying about those things before you even have a product that people want. All you're really bringing to th…

I'm not suggesting that you worry about scalability and maintainability first . I'm saying that only a fully-invested and skilled engineer can solve those problems for you, and they are probably not interested in working for you if you aren't also working just as hard. Aren't your same gripes just as valid against venture capitalists? Arguably. But, good venture capitalists give you not only huge sums of money that y…

Arguably. But, good venture capitalists give you not only huge sums of money that you wouldn't otherwise be able to pool, but also advice and access to their professional network.

I just find it peculiar how this entire HN community seems in love with the idea of giving away equity in exchange for money and advice, to hopefully increase the odds that your programming work will eventually turn into a big payday...but you seem completely standoffish about the idea of receiving equity in exchange for working on a product that already has proven traction, which would sky rocket the odds of your programming work eventually turning into a big payday.

In other words, you'd get the same increased odds of success that venture capital brings, but you'd be receiving equity instead of giving it away.

In one case, you're bitter about the prospect the person who increases your odds not putting in as many hours as you; in the other case, you gladly accept the prospect of a person increasing your odds but not putting in as many hours as you.

My question is why you're so fixated on hours of work, and instead aren't just look at it in terms of business opportunity where you can make a ton of money? Hours of work seems to be a bad, arbitrary metric to obsess over.

Re: Ask HN: What does a non-programmer bring to a 2-3 person startup team?

#65

Post by crasshopper »

Anyone who is into your project can be a boon to you. The challenge is up to you to figure out what s/he can offer. Even if it's just beta-testing, even if it's just someone to bounce ideas off of, even if it's just talking the business up to their friends, everybody has something to offer.

Secondly, imagine you're talking about someone who is willing to learn programming, with your help. Even someone to just do HTML wireframes. If you spend 20 hours teaching them and over the course of several months they then independently do work that would have taken you 35 hours - that's still a net gain for you.

Part of being a boss is figuring out what other people's skills are and how you can fit them into your team. If they're enthusiastic about what you're doing, you're far, far ahead of Cubicle Corp which has to bribe people into working for them.

Re: Ask HN: What does a non-programmer bring to a 2-3 person startup team?

#66

Post by mkramlich »

The quick answer should be: anything/everything that's helpful but does not involve programming. Also, contributing cash is always helpful. Even with a lean strategy, open source software, etc., there are always going to be dollar costs and opportunities to spend cash to gain some advantage.

Re: Ask HN: What does a non-programmer bring to a 2-3 person startup team?

#67

Post by chrisbennet »

beagle3 wrote: post #24

I'm on a 2+1+1 team: 2 hard core techs, 1 manager (but with a serious tech background), 1 sales/marketing/bizdev/business intelligence person. The sales/marketing person has made connection with all the right people in the industry, has generated a huge interest in our product, has gotten some RFQs running, and has mapped the competitive landscape better than any of us techs could do. (Especially since we are busy co…

How does a "manager" contribute when there are only 2 coders?

Re: Ask HN: What does a non-programmer bring to a 2-3 person startup team?

#68

Post by beagle3 »

chrisbennet wrote: post #67
beagle3 wrote: post #24

I'm on a 2+1+1 team: 2 hard core techs, 1 manager (but with a serious tech background), 1 sales/marketing/bizdev/business intelligence person. The sales/marketing person has made connection with all the right people in the industry, has generated a huge interest in our product, has gotten some RFQs running, and has mapped the competitive landscape better than any of us techs could do. (Especially since we are busy co…

How does a "manager" contribute when there are only 2 coders?

So far, he's been putting the team together (we didn't all know each other before we started), working on funding, some strategic alliances, budget plans, g&a stuff, door openers.

And he also does some technical stuff when he has the time.

He is not a "manager" in the sense of making a plan for others to follow. Maybe at this point "organizer" and "facilitator" is a better description. But the usual title for this is manager / CEO. Regardless, even at this stage (for our kind of market) it is almost a full time job on its own.

Re: Ask HN: What does a non-programmer bring to a 2-3 person startup team?

#69

Post by westiseast »

I'm a junior programmer who's just started my own business (selling tea, www.minrivertea.com). We have physical products, but sales are 100% online.

I'd say the biggest challenges have not been technical. Understanding business law, import/export, promotion and marketing, getting photography, sales, dealing with accounts. That side of things has taken up 50% of my time, but it's been 90% of my stress.

Re: Ask HN: What does a non-programmer bring to a 2-3 person startup team?

#70

Post by becomevocal »

You don't need one if you have all the knowledge and time in the world, with the network to take advantage of it. So, yes, in most cases you need one.

Now, if you can build a prototype or get traction using your existing team, do it first. You'll get better candidates that way, and be at a place where you have a better ability to choose between them.

I agree with other comments here that state their value add should be obvious.

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