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I think non-technical founders have a harder time building a profit-based company (like 37signals or Plenty of Fish, his examples) because how do you get a programmer on board to build the thing if you can't pay them?

Imagine the job ad: "Wanted: Engineering Bitch."

http://www.metamorphblog.com/2010/02/startup-lessons-for-the...

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In my harsh experience in trying to recruit programmers for companies or units run by a non-technical types, the pay is a trivial detail. Most of the really good people just don't want that scene, most especially if he's their direct report.

There also tends to be a really big issue with finding the first techie for the company, in most cases in my experience it was done through networking or the good type of nepotism (e.g. a brilliant younger brother who was just graduating from EECS at MIT and who turned down a good offer (IE when it was the very best browser, something he'd worked on in summer internships) to work for the startup).

That's a good post for a technical founder. If you cant do all of the stuff in the post, you need a partner who can. And just like a non-technical founder picking a technical founder, picking a non-technical founder is difficult. A salesman once told me that even a lousy salesman can sell himself to an engineer.

That's a good post, and I agree with you. However, I never said anything about not paying them. Pre-seed funding for non-technical founders should go towards that in order to get an alpha built.

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