Does a Business Guy have a Place in Software Startups?

Here's an alternative to the "business guy" vs "hacker" debate which sometimes happens on here. I started out as a business guy 15 years ago and employed people to write software. My main focus was, and is, starting and running businesses and this was what I felt natural doing. What I did though, which made the difference, is that I learned to program. Cold Fusion at first, then Perl, a bit of PHP and now Python. I'll be the first to admit... "I'm not very good - and damned slow"... but what this experiene has done is given me a greater level of understanding for what is required, what is possible and has given me empathy with anyone I work with who is coding. We have the same issues with "Designer" Vs "Hacker" and we solve it (or attempt to) by educating people.

For the hacker, one thing to remember is that often the business guys (or gals) strength might actually be in "doing business" allowing you to concentrate on what you love. For the business guy you need to remember that you are employing people for a skill that you don't have and that there's no place for arrogance or posturing within the business - work together and compete against the competition

Where would Apple be without Woz, where without Steve Jobs?

I have one friend who is a "business guy" but I wouldn't start a business without him. His value is priceless. Admittedly he won't be building the product with you but the contacts he makes, the meetings he manages to arrange and the time spent getting other people excited about the product make it a lot more enjoyable to work on since you know there are others out there just as excited as you.

The real "business guys" are the ones who shield you from the outside world so you can focus on the technology and can find and make the connections with others that you're too busy hacking to do. Unfortunately these people are often grouped in with the "idea guys" you all to often see online saying "I have a great idea, build it for me and we'll split the profits 50/50" but then don't actually contribute anything to the process besides the original idea.

Business guys good, Idea guys pointless.

In any company, startups included, you need a fellow who understands the market, does sales, and can keep the books. It helps to have a fellow who can organize things and keep folks directed. These are considered business skills rather than technology skills, though, they're not beyond most hackers to pick up. I'd suggest that the best position is where the hackers are the business guys, or visa-versa. If you're smart enough to get an MBA, you should be able to learn at least a little comp sci, and if you know comp sci, a book on marketing and finance shouldn't be beyond you.

Good to see a balanced perspective; the role of actually selling the product seems to be often overlooked.

To give an example "closer to home" for most readers, one of the Reddit cofounders was non-technical, and was responsible for a big part of reddit's success and eventual acquisition by Conde Nast.

While this certainly sounds great, it's really about the lack of a business model that fuels the lack of a need for a business guy.

If you have no business model, then you don't need somebody to execute on that.

And for those who would say "all you need is users and the business model makes it self" think about your daily activities that go above and beyond necessities and ask yourself if the product your consuming had an original business model.

Maybe not absolutely necessary for a "web 2.0" company that is about eyeballs and users, but for a lot of companies , including software companies, it's not about the "business guy" but the business model.

As a business/idea guy I hope I'm needed. I have a a stack of programming books on my desk, I actually look at code to try to get my mind around what is going on. But I don't program. What I do bring to the table is experience, an understanding of why an application needs to exist and why current solutions don't exist. I just saw that Angie's List just received a good chunk of funding. That site's founder is not a hacker, but obviously has been instrumental in its success.

I think it's absolutely necessary to have someone in the group with some business/marketing/networking abilities. As developers, I would think that most of us could have easily built Facebook, but it doesn't mean that we'd all be able to make it what it is today.

Being able to program the idea is key, but it goes hand in hand with pushing it out the door as well.

You know that old meme (a very popular one around here) that goes:

1. statement x

2. statement y

3. ????

4. Profit

Well, number 3 is where your business guy comes in.

Without a business guy on the team, be it you, or someone else, it's just a hobby.

In all these conversations, I still don't see any of the "business" folks saying:

"I'm a business guy, so while my hacker partner is spending 18-hours a day in the basement, I'm doing this:

* X

* Y

* Z"

Technology is making the "business guy" less important (not unimportant, but less important). Why? Because it unchains the hacker with a little people skills from his terminal.

With modern languages, frameworks, automated testing, debugging, and IDE's, some hackers can produce much more per unit time. Or produce the same amount in less time. And then go out and talk about it with the time saved.

Sure, business guys often bring something to the table, but so can unchained hackers. Just like women threw away their aprons to join the workforce, hackers can now set aside their keyboards to sell.

Don't forget, a lot of hackers are "business guys", too. Now, it's a little easier to see the forest when you can cut down trees faster.