Comment by zeynalov | Hacker News Reader

Comment by zeynalov | Hacker News Reader

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Thanks for reply. I've already read The Lean Startup. The reason why I say 99% I'm sure that it'll be successful, is I talk to 23 of my potential costumers and 22 of them said Yes I would definitely buy your product, I like it and I need it. One of them said, mmm I must see the software now I can't tell anything. It's related to medicine, and because me too have this kind of problem and all other my doctor friends, I think it will work.

Some time ago I've tried to learn Ruby on Rails but in my first week I saw that it's not that easy. I've learned how to make a website, blog etc., but making complex softwares are too hard for me. I need some time, which I don't have. Every workday I must be at the clinic and I have too many patients, I come home very tired, even though I work on my startup.

One thing I don't understand, why should one learn to code, if he has enough money to hire someone to code? I always see everywhere that founders must learn to code. Why? I understand that it will save money and you can do whatever you want, you'll have freedom by coding. But is it worth it? To be able to code as an average hacker you should spend at least 3 month to learn to code.

You're welcome! :) Ah I see, then you're in much better shape than I thought. But still, one can never be that sure about a startup, you have to be really careful with that. Put some fake screenshots together and tell your potential customers your product is ready and ask them to buy it. If they reply "ok send me your bank account" you're good. I say this because I've experienced it firsthand: you may find out that your assumptions are not that well-validated. But that's just a quick tip, now back to the topic.

I don't think learning how to code is a must if you have a technical co-founder, someone that you can trust and will handle all the coding while you handle other business related issues. That usually works well.

That's what I would do in your place, since you're finding it too hard to code it yourself. In my opinion, why is it bad to "just hire" some programmers (instead of giving them/him equity and thus having a co-founder):

- Since you don't know how to code, you can't really tell if they're giving you what you paid for (is this shitty code or not?);

- Your runway will be a lot shorter since you have to spend money paying them. Also, if you're willing to invest your money in your startup, think about the fact that, for example, with $1000/month you can only hire a lesser programmer but you could pay for a badass server with huge bandwidth, etc;

- Startups are also about passion. Hired programmers wouldn't come close to the dedication needed at the early stages of a startup. Unless you were willing to spend a serious amount of cash and hire some seriously good hackers with +- $100k/year;

- And theoretically, there's nothing to stop them from "stealing" your idea;

There you go, my thoughts on the subject.

Your last point is my biggest problem. The reason why I can't decide if I should hire someone to code, that he can easily take it to himself, it consist of codes and it's just a software and actually he did everything. Why should he not steal the idea and the code?! This also applies to tech-cofounders which are strangers that I know from HN willing to start the startup with me.

Your first point about showing screenshot to the potential costumers, seeing if they would buy it, remembers me Bill Gates selling his software when he even didn't start to build it :). I'll try to do it, good idea.

Yea, finding a co-founder can be really hard! The team itself is a very important part of the startup (if not the most important). For instance, there are questions in the YC application form about that and they give it a lot of attention.

So I think it's crucial that your co-founder be someone you know fairly well or at least someone that you may become friends with. Try asking your friends if they have friends who are programmers!

thanks for your advices, really appreciate

I'm not sure how it works in Germany, and it won't stop them if they really want to screw you, but you can stipulate on your work contract that all the code produced belongs to you - that should give you some leverage if it comes to that.

Also, many coders aren't that motivated to start their own companies (else the world would be 100% startups :) )

In general, I think people are often too worried about this. In any industry where you already have the relationships with the customers, you are already ahead of the competition. It takes hard work to foster relationships and sell well. Any dev who thinks ripping off an idea is easy money is sorely mistaken. Without marketing and potentially funding (depending on the kind of idea), it is just code sitting on a server somewhere that nobody will ever find.

Also, as a developer who does occasional contracts to help people build out their MVPs, it would be career-suicide to steal an idea - the last thing I would want is bad word of mouth. Entrepreneurs do sometimes cluster, attend meetups, bump into each other when pitching etc.....word gets around fast in that kind of circle.

And lastly, as someone who works closely with other developers on occasion, for any given idea, half of the devs I chat to don't think the idea has legs, the other half have no inclination/time to build it themselves.

In the end, if you are hiring someone to build it for you, chat to some developers, get a feel for them, ask for a reference or two if you don't know them well (in other words, do you due diligence) and go from there.

You might want to reconsider the viability of your idea if it can be stolen out right without your domain knowledge and connections and still be successful.

As a technical cofounder, this would be a major red flag for me if you were so secretive while building a relationship. It doesn't sound like you actually bring anything to the table. You should have connections, skills, and domain knowledge which would make it extremely difficult for someone to compete. If you don't have that, why would I want to work with you?

You will find out sooner or later that having an understanding of coding and technology, is indispensable when it comes to: a) briefing tech people a) creating functional specs a) creating technical specs b) managing tech projects c) testing results d) resolving issues

It can be done by trial and error but that is a very expensive way to learn.

Best advice get a tech co-founder who understands and believes in your project and vision, and work with them to get it done.

Do not under estimate how difficult it is to do what appears to be the most simple tasks.

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