Build Product, Not PowerPoint (Even If You're Non-Technical) | Hacker News Reader

Build Product, Not PowerPoint (Even If You're Non-Technical)

chrisyeh.blogspot.com

13 pointssachinag12 comments

"And if you can't code, and you can't get brilliant coders to like and respect you, you probably shouldn't be an entrepreneur."

As a non-technical person, this advice is harsh, but it's true. Yeah, your life is much easier if you have friends from high school who became coders while you went off into banking. And, yeah, it's all-but-impossible to find great coders except by happenstance, but it doesn't make this advice any less true.

Of course, someone (maybe not necessarily VCs and angels) could make a killing if they would match up interested business guys with experience and understanding of large markets with brilliant technical people, but I suppose that hasn't happened to date for some reason. It's beyond my meager understanding, but there must be a reason.

I think the markets are fairly efficient. In the US, brilliant coders get snapped up eventually and are paid fair prices.

I was a psych major in college, but took Real Analysis, Discrete Math, Information Theory, Number Theory, and Abstract Algebra so I could get smart CS people I want to build businesses with to respect me. Everyone in #startups thinks I'm a loser because I code in PHP, so I'm moving to Rails. Yee-haw

But you built hiphopgoblin; you're a winner.

"And if you can't code, and you can't get brilliant coders to like and respect you, you probably shouldn't be an entrepreneur."

What if I'm starting a company that isn't a software company? I know Silicon Valley people sometimes forget, but there are other business models around than variations of theme write a cool piece of code and then try to charge money for it.

Well this is a "hacker" forum, whom's origins are in software. Secondly, is it that hard to mentally substitute in your field of choice? e.g. "And if you can't work in the lab, and you can't get brilliant researchers to like and respect you, you probably shouldn't be an entreprenur"

Either way the quote is stupid. Had he said "...shouldn't start a software company" I'd be in full agreement. Despite what some people seem to implicitly assume the word "entrepreneur" isn't intrinsically tied to the software field. Saying if you suck at X you shouldn't be an entrepreneur doesn't make sense unless X is "being an entrepreneur".

I just love it when tech people / tech VCs talk like there is no alternate reality where products get built except for their tech world. There are a lot of other startups that will ex-post have contributed a lot to the future of humanity and will not have come from the internet world.

I consider it fairly ignorant to say "if you can't code (...) you probably shouldn't be an entrepreneur".

Most consumer web sites don't require brilliant coders to be honest, just someone competent enough to quickly get the first version of the site out, with pleasant UI and a decent set of features.

I am not a regular here, and not a coder nor business person, but isn't the whole point of Y-Combinator to find a place between $250k and $0? I.e. to let 20-somethings build their prototype on a shoestring? I mean the "if you can't code, bad luck" still applies, but I imagine there are tons of Y-Combinator projects which wouldn't have got "traction" without the breathing space that the small amount of money and tutoring provides.

Basically what I am saying is this guy is saying absolutely nothing of value from his blogspot pulpit.

You can outsource it, and you can make something even if you don't code.

I looked up this Daniel Clemens guy. Holy shit. Rhodes scholar. Wow.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com