A Simple Filter to Weed Out Non-technical Co-founders
blog.waxman.me
blog.waxman.me
Edit: let's not forget Alien vs. Predator. I don't want a guy who takes forever stalking an idea. Execution is everything, and nothing executes like a chestbursting alien.
Few might prefer predator over alien for making efficient use of tools and gadgets than resorting to sheer brute strength.
Confirmation bias at work?
Am wondering how it works the other way. Non-technical founders looking out for technical co-founders asking similar questions. Or, maybe the banksters asking apprentice traders on what they felt about Gordon Gekko?
That's like someone sympathizing with the villain from Die Hard or something.
Hey - I sympathize with the villain from Die Hard.
He had style, a good plan, including contingencies, and was doing a reasonable job executing it. He even did an okay job adapting to the unexpected.
He was just overmatched. There's no shame in that.
The cost of passing on the right person is far less than the cost of saying yes to the wrong one (e.g. passing over a good biz dev guy who goes on to succeed at another start-up vs. hiring a jerk who ruins your business then sues you)
"passing on the right person" = is often the difference between success and failure.
"the cost of saying yes to the wrong one" = A few weeks wasted, and start over.
Whatever you do, please don't write people off with one question. Engage with them, build relationships and draw out their best. Has worked for me. Zuck or Winkle, really does not matter.
ZuckWink = subjective
If the idea only takes four hours to build, and the result is a commercially value product, then how can he argue the idea isn't the uniquely valuable component, and his labor is really the commodity? Does he really believe that _nobody_else_ can build it in 4 hours or so?
Obviously, execution is important. But if someone has an idea that's great and doesn't require a lot of execution, then the majority of the value of the end product should probably be assigned to the idea.
Or maybe hes just 21.
The main differentiators in consumer web startups tend to be: the speed and creativity with which the team can iterate, the quality of the user experience and design, and, if all goes well, the ability of the architecture to scale. The capacity to do these 3 things well is relatively rare. Finding a person or a team with these skills is exceedingly difficult (especially in this talent market).
So yeah, I do stand by my assertion that the starting-point idea is the commodity, and the ability to build and design a decently scalable web-app in 4 hours (and then get user feedback and push another version later that same day) is a rare skill---especially on the open market, since most such individuals are either well-employed at companies or working on their own.
- he says I just need someone to finish the coding part and thinks 90% is done without it
- he wants you to sign NDA before telling anything about the product (remember if someone can steal your idea by just talking about it then its probably not a good idea, tell him that)
- he does not know enough about common stuff that a startup guy should be aware of, like sxsw, techmeme, hacker news, names of top influencers/bloggers in the industries (scoble, arrington, mg, laporte, dhh.... throw these names out and watch his reaction)
My advice, take time, talk, and don't work with programmers or people who make their judgements based on a movie plot. It only shows they might be emotional and very difficult to work with.
is the shortcut you are talking about?
also, as a lot of people are talking about here, a pop culture question (ultimatum?) isn't really appropriate for filtering out anything (except maybe pop culture).
E: comma and spelling, geez
/s