Hacker News Reader

Comment by hiddencost | Hacker News Reader

I'd argue the other side of the this: you don't need a non technical cofounder.

Disagree, and I say this as a technical founder with no cofounder. Once things start to take off, a majority of the things you deal with are non-technical. There’s so much that goes into building a company, and you really need someone who understands how businesses work and can run G2M.

Sure, you can hire for it… but you’ll almost never find someone as invested in it as the founder, and it’s just as important as the product.

you need a cofounder but there's no benefit in them being nontechnical

Do you really think there’s no skills or archetypes that are valuable on a founding team that doesn’t involve writing code?

i have never said anything that even vaguely suggests i think that

your attempt to attribute absurd opinions to me is deplorable and repellent

I disagree.

I'm the technical co-founder and my co-founder non-technical; he's brought in so many soft skills around process, finance, sales, recruiting, etc.. that I would have (and would still) struggle at to replace.

He's also a domain expert in our field so for me it was definitely the right choice to make.

he doesn't sound nontechnical if he's a domain expert in your field, but presumably he would be even better if he also had whatever technical skills you're saying he lacks, not worse

You’re presuming technical problem people have superset of skills of nontechnical people, or you that a company only needs technical skills.

There are very little businesses where the latter is true. For the former, no one can be good at everything.

what i was saying wasn't either of those, but it's closer to the former: some technical people have a proper superset of the skills of some nontechnical people, because that's kind of the definition of “technical people”

while it is true that nobody is both as good at soccer as lionel messi and as good at programming as jeff dean, you can definitely be good enough at everything to start a company. and lots of people are bad at everything. everyone starts out bad at everything

being bad at programming or biology or whatever the relevant technical field is doesn't make someone good at management or bizdev

so don't look for nontechnical cofounders

just look for cofounders who don't have to be technical

Agreed, I think it depends on the technical complexity of the product & model.

Declaring it an absolute requirement feels a bit like an exclusive club without real merit or consideration. I say this as a former exec at a YC company founded by a pair of eng degrees that couldn't build a thing (not even a prototype).

Depends what you're doing.

It's relatively rare nowadays to see tech solopreneurs. (At least, for something more than a lifestyle business.)

Often you need someone with experience/connections/insight into the industry: medicine, construction, ecommerce, finance, logistics, whatever.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com