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Dear Programmer, I have an idea

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Re: Dear Programmer, I have an idea

#81

Post by funkwyrm »

I have been through this a lot with a music/art interactive platform I've been working on for the past year and a half or so. My gut take on this is that programmers have the same problem musicians have; although they may be in demand, they overestimate their ability to evaluate potential enterprises. (great players have about as much trouble evaluating whether a band is worth joining as A&R people did picking winners)

I started not only with an innovative and fun product idea which is fairly contained technically, but also very significant technical ability of my own (working professionally as everything from an SEO guy back in the day and a UI/UX guy for 10 years), niche expertise/perspective and very hard to get connections, marketing experience, a fairly coherent business strategy with potential customers expressing interest, and although I don't have a ton of funding I have never asked anyone to work for free or "just equity" ... ever.

And I still can't hire objective C developers. What's wrong with this picture?

Did I mention I live in a major US city. And I'm friendly and (usually) easygoing?

One conclusion is that I have an unrealistic view of what I'm offering, or that I am terrible at looking for people (probably both true) but another factor may be unexamined assumptions on the part of developers when they evaluate a potential opportunity. Perhaps they already "know" what a cofounder looks and talks like, without realizing their preconception exists. Perhaps they have a picture in their head already of what a "good" or "successful" product will be ... or perhaps they really want to be working on a idea of their own but are having trouble getting started, which creates semi-conscious ambivalence about working on the ideas of others. I don't know that any of this is true, but having spent my life around talented creative people of widely varying levels of "success" that's what occurs to me.

Just an outside perspective.

Re: Dear Programmer, I have an idea

#82

Post by [deleted] »

cstejerean wrote: post #59
startupfounder wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am also always looking for a co-founder. When a geek approaches me (or I approach them) to be the suit for their project, I usually give them some simple soft skill to do - like go out and talk to potential customers and get feedback from say 500 in a day. Finally, before I even consider hustling customers and investors I want some paltry measure of ability. If you can hack something together in 24-48 hours or even…

Talking one-on-one to 500 customers in one day to get feedback doesn't seem possible. If you only spend 5 minutes talking to each customer, and you have them lined up back to back so you don't waste time in between, it would still take 40+ hours. I guess you could do 1 minute conversations and get it down to about 8 hours, although even assuming you can get 500 people to queue up for this, I'm curious what will come…

[deleted]

Re: Dear Programmer, I have an idea

#83

Post by mikle »

ayi wrote: post #13
mikle wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Don't dishearten him. I think this is more location based. As someone in Tel Aviv I get a lot of these. Friends in less "Startupy" regions in Israel don't. To be more general - these "founders" know they have a bigger chance to find a technical-co-founder (I'm using that very liberally) is in a place with lots of programmers.

actually i was refering to entrepreneurs, not programmers. some of them think "important thing is founding the idea, any programmer can code it".

With that I can agree. Ideas are worth nothing. Execution is what matters. And luck. Mostly luck.

Re: Dear Programmer, I have an idea

#84

Post by [deleted] »

[deleted] wrote: post #82
cstejerean wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Talking one-on-one to 500 customers in one day to get feedback doesn't seem possible. If you only spend 5 minutes talking to each customer, and you have them lined up back to back so you don't waste time in between, it would still take 40+ hours. I guess you could do 1 minute conversations and get it down to about 8 hours, although even assuming you can get 500 people to queue up for this, I'm curious what will come…

[deleted]

[deleted]

Re: Dear Programmer, I have an idea

#86

Post by drp4929 »

Regarding your 4 bullet points :

1) Why do you assume that he is asking you to code for free or equity and not for pay ? Did he say it explicitly in email or you just assumed ?

2) There is not enough info here to say anything.

3) On the flip side, do you have considerable leadership skills as a technical person to complement this non-technical person's considerable technical skill you expect him to have?

4) Do you have considerable communication skills to complement this person's considerable design skill you expect him to have?

[Note, I have been programming since last 20 years.]

Re: Dear Programmer, I have an idea

#88

Post by javajosh »

It's a little like having an idea for a book or a movie, and going to an author or director wanting to "collaborate" to make the idea a reality. The simple fact is that it's hard to render ideas into any form that is widely digestible. Just like directors and authors, programmers "prechew" ideas. There are some surprising rewards to learning how to do this, in that much like a sculptor or a painter one realizes that the medium is actually rather influential, and how pleasant it is to "go with the grain" for any given project. But still, it's hard to learn how to prechew software ideas into reality, it is often not a pleasant task, which is probably why emails like this one have such an unpleasant character.

Although, wanting to have a pet geek to do your bidding is entirely understandable. Heck, I've been guilty of wanting that myself! And, I guess if I had the dough (or the charisma) I could have one. But an idea is an insulting offer - like offering $20 for your house.

Re: Dear Programmer, I have an idea

#89

Post by Domenic_S »

TomGullen wrote: post #72
Domenic_S wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hence, > 2. It takes more than code to make a business. Like culture, marketing, market validation, generating press buzz, interviews, recruiting, and so forth. If the idea guy can't do a lot of those business-y things, you don't have a business so the 6-month question is premature.

I don't think it's premature, a lot of people will want a product (MVP) before they go ahead and formalise the entire thing. You're going to be the guy doing all the work in that department. Up until the MVP is developed there's really not much else to do. Pretty much everything you listed is most effectively after you actually have a product.

Wouldn't you want to see that the idea guy had done his legwork before even thinking about MVP? I sure would. The lines-of-code to hours-talking-to-people ratio in the early weeks would be something crazy like 1:400.

Re: Dear Programmer, I have an idea

#90

Post by jkbyc »

padobson wrote: post #66
saurik wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

(Note: I am a programmer.) Being "the suit" isn't just "I have an idea", and assuming the suit must be capable of doing something technical undermines the interesting complexity that that kind of knowledge entails. Instead, imagine someone who has found a "market opportunity" (not "an idea": everyone has ideas, and assuming programmers somehow don't have enough of their own to work on is part of what makes these kind…

I am with you all the way on this. The great businesses and fortunes of the last 200 years of industry did not come from engineering or technical expertise, but rather from those few, adept individuals who were able to navigate the mysterious world of relationships. If you do not make a dozen friends in every crowded room and instinctively form lucrative relationships on a daily basis, then knowing someone who does i…

That's a simplistic view. I did almost exactly what you suggested and failed because although my co-founder was good at building lucrative relationships and even had some technical knowledge, he thought that he always knew best what should be done, wasn't really open for discussion, and generally was full of BS thinking he's likely the next Steve Jobs.

Unfortunately I recognized this way too late. Also, he never really proved he can in fact build something really valuable (but there were some smaller successes so I was hopeful).

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