Starting your first company
cdixon.posterous.com
cdixon.posterous.com
Completely agree. I dislike reading articles that insist if you have an idea you can just pick up programming, design or development and build it yourself. That may be true in the strict sense of having something simple to explain your idea, but it pales in comparison to the work that can be created by someone who has talent and years of experience. Also, its going to be throw away work. If your idea has is worthwhile and gains traction then you're going to need to have someone rebuild everything you've done anyway. Why waste that time? Partner with someone who can execute the product from day one.
Developers have their pick of non-technical co-founders. It's a lot harder to approach someone with just "an idea." What are you offering in return? How do you contribute to a startup in those initial months? Sure, I've read plenty of posts on what non-technical co-founders can do in a startup - lots! But, it pales in comparison to the bread and butter of a startup: building a product.
If you're looking to build the next Google or Wolfram Mathematica, find an expert or 2.
The guys at SeatGeek built their initial product - a crude prototype but decent enough to promote at TechCrunch. Now, they're funded and growing. They were not programmers, but they needed something and they didn't have the resources to find someone to build it. Coding is a bottleneck for a lot of non-technical folks. Do what you got to do to get through it, scotch tape and all.
Learning to program well takes a long time but the concept of 15 years experience in your 20s is foreign to most people.
You still need to know how to manipulate some of the front end and back end code to show the user your A/B tests. On page SEO at least requires some knowledge of HTML. You're right about marketing such as adwords and LTV not requiring any code though.
Should this really cost $5K+ or more to get standardized docs? It should be possible to get high quality legal documentation necessary for starting your company for a fair amount less, but maybe I'm wrong. Do others here have experience on this?
Some things can only be done with many people. Connections help. But that's quite a different thing from "I am ALL about connections". Wouldn't it be better to be ALL about your customers, or your real passion?
If you want to save money, you should hack the system and use a start-up lawyer as well. By start up lawyer, I do not mean one that specializes in start-ups but one that is a startup him/her self. I.e. one that has his/her own practice.*
You have to understand that those top law firms have a strict up or out policy so they routinely get rid of most of their associates. Basically, if you cannot make partner, you are usually out eventually. And almost no-one makes partner. So there are many capable lawyers with top training that leave these firms every year. If you are a bit savvy you can get a lawyer that is the same caliber as the usual top law firm lawyer but will charge you less and might even do better work because he/she is not working 16 hour days.
*After I wrote this I realized that a law practice would not qualify as a start up under the pg definition because it is not scalable, but you get my point.
Of course, to get such a deal you probably need an introduction. Catch 22!
That said, not enough CEOs/product people have an understanding of programming and what it means for business.
For example, last night I had a choice between a networking event and some critical work on my software. The work won, as it should.
I look forward to the time when I won't have to make so many tough decisions about how to spend my time. Until that time comes, work on the product comes first.
That's where you need discipline. As I wrote a year ago, if you never go to events, set your goal to two events a month. If you go to two per month, set your goal to once a week. That should be enough. You can read the long version at http://blog.fairsoftware.net/2009/07/09/good-programmers-don..., in the "Four Step Recovery Program" section.
No Blogging, Twittering, reading Tech Blogs or all that crap. Just focus on your product and give value to your customers.
At what point should you start thinking about benefits plan for your team?
This blog post reads more like a list of instructions on how to be the prettiest girl at the startup scene dance. These ideas are fine if the people writing the blogs and mingling at networking meetings are your potential customers, but I think most of us would be better served by getting away from all of that to talk to the people outside of the echo chamber. You know, the ones with wallets that MBAs like this guy only come in contact with when they're poring over a spreadsheet.
There are so many posts here and experiences (my own) where someone is looking to create an idea but they do not have the friends or the ooomph to convince others to join him/her to build their idea or start-up. If you fall into such category go out and learn html, css & photoshop and hire a developer. It will take you longer but you'll gain a skill, have better control of your vision and most important your idea will become a reality.