Ask HN: What does it take for a developer to be a successful founder? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: What does it take for a developer to be a successful founder?

3 pointscryptsync9 comments

As a web developer, I love learning new things from design patterns to new frameworks such as React and Angular. While I'm passionate about development, I'm equally passionate about startups and creating a successful one.

In the past, I've launched a couple of websites but in retrospect they were more side-projects than anything else. I have no problem building products but when it comes to things like validating the idea, acquiring users, and gaining traction, I get stuck.

What skills should I work on developing in order to put myself in a better position to build a product and most importantly launch it?

In terms of resources, I've read The Lean Startup, Running Lean, Innovator's Dilemma, PG's essays, some of Vinod Khosla's papers, and videos after videos of startup talks.

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It's easy to get stuck, and hard to get unstuck. It's often less about your skills and more about something like fear.

Get valuable feedback and incorporate it. That means build and use your network for helping shore up your weakness. Ask PMs and founders you currently or will soon know how they do the things you are having trouble with. Have them show you how to do it a little so you get the workflow. Look for meetups related to the issues your having (eg a growth hacking meetup or lean methodology meetup where people talk about what works and can help each other get further, stay on track, see things they missed). Also check out the War of Art, an interesting book about blocks and how to overcome them.

tl;dr

Do more, think less. Get help from real live people on ideas you're kicking around or actual prototypes and products. Don't let fear get the best of you- you can do it.

My 2 cents: Honestly, you don't have to solve for all your weaknesses. You can find a cofounder and advisors that help you fill in the gaps. It's of course smart to have a rudimentary understanding of go-to-market strategy, but I think one thing you should definitely develop is a diverse network. If you're surrounding yourself with smart people who excel in a variety of fields (not just web development) then you're probably more likely to be able to tap into their knowledge when you need it.

I think the language or plattaform is not the break point at the start.

Just think on what could be useful for people, even if the code is jut 10 lines, if it solves a problem, then it would a sucess.

Just take a look of many projects that solves a simple thing, they are not the super coders, they just solve a problem, the rest is part of the process

You sound like you are tooled up, why not just explore/create ideas until one sticks or you die trying? Isn't that the next step? You have all the tools to slay a dragon, now go find one (if you are lucky).

Following that analogy, I've tried slaying the dragon but fallen short after the first attack. In other words, the point at which the product is built and needs to be disseminated.

I would recommend reading 'Lean Startup' by Eric Ries. He gives couple of pretty interesting ideas I found useful when making business.

I've read his book as well as another book called Running Lean. Both books were very helpful, the book by Ries lays down the concepts and Running Lean shows how to apply them and make them actionable.

You're overthinking it.

Build a thing, sell a thing, see if it succeeds, try again.

Maybe learn along the way.

or you use lean methodology pre-sell a thing, then build a thing.

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