http://whartoniteseekscodemonkey.tumblr.com/ <---this is how the engineering community sees you.
A few high-level points to keep in mind….
#1 Everyone is looking for a technical co-founder/CTO these days
#2 Most people don’t find a CTO, thus cannot build anything and thus #FAIL
#3 How the hell are you any different than the rest of the non-technical people out there?
#4 Do you have the faintest clue about how software engineering actually works?
#5 How are you not a douchebag?
Look, early on, I made every mistake in the book––spamming grad students, pitching to investors with no product and no team, partnering with the wrong people, etc.––so don’t sweat it if you fuck up and/or are a complete noob. It ain’t easy. Just be humble, read as much as you can, talk to as many people as you can, hustle and learn.
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Look if you are the BD person on the team and you can’t sell someone on your idea then how does that reflect on your ability to get investors or customers?
That being said, I’ve met too many coders who think they can code something to success. It flows both ways. The individuals who realize this make great teams. After all its a type of marriage we are talking about here.
I think its all about faith and incentive – find a dev that has faith in your idea, and give them the incentive to join your team.
I had an idea and believed in it, took my own money; hired some Ruby Developers offshore, hired a designer locally and built a MVP. Currently working with test clients but need someone on board to be responsible for the tech and own it. I have learnt a lot and I appreciate the capabilities of a good hacker. Rather then spend time learning to code (which I still am) I worked with the developers to really understand the basics and run the company on my own. I can push and pull with Git, do little bit of DB management, Heroku is AMAZING! and I love EC2. But to grow more I need a guy who can own the code and really believe in the product.
This is my approach for hiring a good Technical CO-Founder!
I went through the same exact process. I’m super technical. I’ve been an engineer and web architect for 12 years. But I’m not a programmer. I don’t think you can handle the business end of a company AND maintain/develop quality code; thta is a full time job.
I’m not looking for a codemonkey either. I’m looking for a PARTNER. Someone that is as passionate about the problem being solved as I am. That is the only thing that drives you to put the sweat and tears necessary into the work ti make it succesful….
Well said Matt.
I have a technical background but came at web products with no hands on web dev experience. Scaling up my practical skills for a couple of years while keeping my eyes open.
I’m willing to bet that for every “non-technical” founder out there who seeks a code monkey, there are a handful of code monkeys who think that if they just code it, a fucking business will emerge around it. give me a break…
What about the reverse? An engineer who is passionate about building something their own but doesn’t have the business savvy, sales skills, book keeping or connections?
Where do I find the folks that rate highly on questions #3-#5?
Hmm. Good question. Not sure.
Look for the people that get shit done. If you’re in college, these people are usually well-known (in my experience), and if you don’t know of them already, you can ask around. This could be someone who runs a successful organization, or takes 10 classes a semester and publishes research, or wrote a book in their free time. It might also be known if they’re a douchebag or not, so you can prefilter for #5. Then you can go and meet them and get to know them. And check for #3-5 again.
Outside of college I would imagine it’s a little harder.
if you build a great product you dont need marketing, people will use and spread the word, tech boggers will write without any PR advise.
If true, this only applies to consumer products, not B2B. Also, I don’t think this is true.
Ya, I’m talking about consumer products, startups like @Instagram did not have to do any marketing, it was a great product, people tweeted about it and millions started adopting it, on the other hand look at @Path, they had great marketing and PR, but people did not adopt it since the product was not all that feature complete.
I think you will find Instagram did some PR, they might have not done so with a firm but they were already Bourbn and had the ear of the tech community, plus they already had heavy hitters involved who helped push them. Build it and they will come rarely works well.
If true, this only applies to consumer products, not B2B. Also, I don’t think this is true.