What's it like to be non-technical and own a company? | Hacker News Reader

What's it like to be non-technical and own a company?

9 pointsx0ner11 comments

I met with a family member over the weekend to discuss his latest endeavor for his company. Him being more of a business person and I more of a technical guy, he wanted me to take a look at what he had going on. The idea itself solved a good problem, was a web application, but was written pretty poorly. The application ran him around 10K (custom developed from some shop) and I think I could have did it in 2 weeks max.

The entire time we spoke he kept jumping out of the technical areas and back into business land. At some point I got annoyed and just asked him to clearly define how he was going to go from investment to potential profit. He didn't have an answer or any clue of how to finish off the application as he was not technical and couldn't finish it himself. When I looked at the code, it was workable, but in my opinion needed a good cleaning (not a total rewrite, but almost) to get to where he wanted.

When I have these sort of ideas I tend to knock them out rather quickly, by myself and then think of what I can do with it. Creating all this stuff never costs me money unless I really feel like it is worth my while. I couldn't imagine being in a situation where I had a decent idea and actually had to pay for it to get created.

So with all that said, how do non-technical people do it? I get the whole risk/reward model, but at what point do you feel out of your element and how do you actually produce?

Well you have two primary types of non-technical people. Those who understand tech but can't write code and those who don't understand any of it at all but have ideas. It's the ones with just ideas that rarely (although it does happen) succeed. Your relative seems to be the kind that doesn't understand.

But I think there is a bigger problem here. Even if he doesn't understand the technical stuff, he SHOULD be able to understand what it should do, how it should solve the problem, and ways he can make money. You don't need to know a lick of code or any technical stuff to know what you want out of your product. I think the problem is a bit different than just feeling out of element.

As long as he genuinely wants to solve a problem and is actually innovative and passionate about doing it, money or not as a primary motivator is not the issue. The issue is whether or not he can figure out all the things he need to figure out as the business guy.

He can read through the code, but he can not articulate it well. There were many times when I stopped to correct him so he knew. I think his biggest issue is that he doesn't understand the level of effort in writing a full scale application like this.

He sees the idea is almost there and has already moved on to thinking of other ideas. I suppose this is why they rarely succeed. The lack of technical understand blinds them as to what really needs to be done.

I have a good technical understanding, but am no developer. That said, I am jumping into the start-up world and here's how I'm working at it:

Step 1: find a cofounder who is as excited about your ideas as you are with his, and whom you enjoy working with and vice-versa. I am still new to the startup world, but am working well with my co-founder. Hiring someone to code every time your product has a problem is not the correct way to go about it. You have to be able to constantly work and change to keep pushing something forward.

Step 2: immerse yourself in technology Really, I don't feel out of my element because I have surrounded myself in my life with technical people and technical things (went to MIT, have taken tech classes, worked at [stereotypical corporation] doing design and working closely with developers, and am learning how to dev in the process).

Step 3: learn your product and learn it well (including the technical parts) You have to understand your product in and out in order to make sure you are able to speak to those who need the product. If someone asks about security: know it. If they ask about a specific API you don't want to have to "get back to them."

Step 4: find a good balance between what you're doing, what everyone else is doing, and what needs to be done. I think the hacker/hustler combo is really valuable At some point the devs will be way too hosed in the development of the [product/site/whatever you're doing] to go out and find funding/sell the product. You need people who are confident to talk about what you're doing and will have fun doing it.

and Step 5: have fun. Getting into the start-up world is hard. You really have to enjoy taking risks, moving around, getting out there, and meeting people.

I'm sure I'm missing steps in all of this, but the steps above really help.

I'm solving the "I have no technical co-founder" problem by becoming the technical co-founder.

Let's hope it works out. I am very familiar with tech and computers, but not in the programming sense.

Sounds like me.

http://railstutorial.org/ to start with.

How about a company that offers a technical co-founder as a service.

You could take your idea to them and they would decided weather or not that wanted to work with you.

If both sides agree they took you on as a client for a 20% cut.

For the programmers it would give them a chance to work on multiple startups per year and for the client they would get the expertise or help they needed.

Great idea! It's just what my partner and I need for our start up!I wonder if there is a company out there like this?? .

Never worked with them but I believe SproutBox out of Bloomington, IN does just this.

Thanks!

Its the concept for my ycombinator application for this funding round. Let them know

This is pretty much what we do at SproutBox. Though we offer a whole team: designers, coders, accounting and HR support, etc. It's pretty rad.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com