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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]

#61

Post by bob88jg »

gnicholas wrote: post #41

This is generally true. I had a technical cofounder for the first 4 years or so, but once our tools were built it was less clear what his ongoing role would be. This is because at that point, our focus turned to licensing our (patented) technology to businesses. We still have B2C customers who use the tools that he originally built (and which have been updated by contractors after he left), but now the vast majority…

What so the person who "provided a lot of value in getting us to where we are" got ditched in the end? Is that your story? Use people and then chuck them to the curb once everything u need has been extracted?

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

#62

Post by [deleted] »

michaelmior wrote: post #42
oooyay wrote: post #36

I like Michael's take that the real value in a founder is their ability to recruit the right team. What I don't think was said explicitly here is that typically technical people are progressively marginalized as the business grows. We get some harrowing stories where that doesn't happen, but I don't think that's the standard story. Like they allude to, it's a story of what the people who handle the money and investme…

I'm confused what is harrowing (acutely distressing or painful as Merriam-Webster says) about stories where technical people are not marginalized.

[deleted]

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

#64

Post by ChrisCinelli »

gnicholas wrote: post #41

This is generally true. I had a technical cofounder for the first 4 years or so, but once our tools were built it was less clear what his ongoing role would be. This is because at that point, our focus turned to licensing our (patented) technology to businesses. We still have B2C customers who use the tools that he originally built (and which have been updated by contractors after he left), but now the vast majority…

So you do not have need of innovation?

Usually a company with software need to develop new features, reengineering to reduce infrastructure costs and improving performance bottlenecks, maintenance, etc. Do not you have that in your company? And if you do, who is leading those initiatives?

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

#65

Post by VoodooJuJu »

DelaneyM wrote: post #47

Corollary: you do not need a non-technical co-founder. My advice to engineers is that it's nearly always easier to learn business/sales than to learn to like a co-founder, especially the type generally drawn to being a "business" founder. It is good to have a co-founder in general though, get one of those if you can. Just don't worry about finding complementary skills, bias entirely towards someone you can work with.

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 own that would help me develop those skills? Should I start a low-stakes business selling soap on Etsy or something? Is that adequate? Completely different ballgame from the corporate startup world - but would any of the skills from such a humble venture transfer to the larger stakes ones?

How might a technical guy become the business guy?

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

#66

Post by ryandrake »

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…

Honest question: Why can't this person be employee #(single digit), SVP of sales or something, hired during product development? Why the need to elevate to co-founder? Does an introverted technical founder really need an extraverted non-tech networking expert from day one?

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

#68

Post by willsmith72 »

DelaneyM wrote: post #47

Corollary: you do not need a non-technical co-founder. My advice to engineers is that it's nearly always easier to learn business/sales than to learn to like a co-founder, especially the type generally drawn to being a "business" founder. It is good to have a co-founder in general though, get one of those if you can. Just don't worry about finding complementary skills, bias entirely towards someone you can work with.

The first stages are just sales. You're just trying to find something people will buy and that means a lot of people time.

I've found it rare that engineers will find that natural, it takes a lot of time and discomfort to get good at

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

#69

Post by gnicholas »

m_a_g wrote: post #55
gnicholas wrote: post #41

This is generally true. I had a technical cofounder for the first 4 years or so, but once our tools were built it was less clear what his ongoing role would be. This is because at that point, our focus turned to licensing our (patented) technology to businesses. We still have B2C customers who use the tools that he originally built (and which have been updated by contractors after he left), but now the vast majority…

And your client's needs won't change ever? The product won't need anything done on it until vacuum decay? Finally, someone made a proper JS library.

The clients don't want us mucking around in their code, which is why they have their devs do the work. There are some cases where having a dev on our end could help unblock their devs, but these are pretty rare cases. In general, it's very easy for folks to use our tech, and I'm able (thanks to a couple years of CS back in the day) to help out with the vast majority of questions that come up.

In terms of changes, there aren't any material changes. We've had licensees up and running for 7 years without changing any code.

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

#70

Post by threeseed »

VoodooJuJu wrote: post #65
DelaneyM wrote: post #47

Corollary: you do not need a non-technical co-founder. My advice to engineers is that it's nearly always easier to learn business/sales than to learn to like a co-founder, especially the type generally drawn to being a "business" founder. It is good to have a co-founder in general though, get one of those if you can. Just don't worry about finding complementary skills, bias entirely towards someone you can work with.

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/

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