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Comment by spencerfry | Hacker News Reader

I wrote a comment for Hacker News back in August in response to a guy's question about what a non-programmer should do in a startup. My response received 164 up votes and is the tenth most popular comment of all time. In this article I add some depth to most of my previous twenty bullet points.

Here's the original thread: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=779378

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I messed up your 164 with an upvote :)

It was a little depressing to read that list b/c I have to do all that stuff and code, and I'm doing it part time. Very jealous of the people working full time.

Haha! That's rough. I was computer science for the first two years of college back in 2002 and 2003. I had a few small projects that I worked on where I had to do both the programming and the other stuff as well. I found out early on that I was a lot better at the other tasks than I was at programming so I looked for co-founders that were talented programmers. You may want to figure out what you do best and then pair up with another person.

Before Spencer joined Carbonmade, I was right there with you. As the coding half of what was our two person design firm (Carbonmade was a side business at the time), I also handled the finances, server administration, and the onslaught of miscellaneous tasks that come up. It was getting to the point of being overwhelming, and things begin to be neglected. The least of which was our support account.

While today, it's amazing to have Spencer taking care of these things, delegating my workload in the beginning was a bit painful. We had stacks of paperwork to exchange and coordinate with our lawyers and accounting company. With OCD, was also difficult not to nit-pick ever single detail in the beginning. But as it began evident that he knew his shit (having ran several companies before joining us as an equal partner), these tendencies quickly subsided and our productivity skyrocketed.

Carbonmade is a triumvirate: one designer, one programmer, and one business guy. I think this is the Holy Grail for a three person startup. I think PG would agree with me?

For a three person web-startup. I guess you have different tasks and roles in an oil-exploration business. Though I guess having a business guy and a technical guy can't hurt.

Great mix of more general advice (like the previous set of bullet points), combined with specific context around your experience. It's a nice change of pace from the "your startup has to do this" blend of articles because it acknowledges your biases with the appropriate context.

Thanks for sharing!

Spencer,

As a very technical, yet non programming, individual who is interested in start-ups and entrepreneurship, I really appreciate this list. As I work on my MBA and dream of one day starting my own company, I often wonder if I should relearn programming or focus on other skills. The more I think about it, the more I realize that my time would be better spent actually running a company and letting others program. Your list is a fantastic resource for the things I need to be thinking about and learning in order to be better prepared!

Thank you! I actually applied to business schools right before I started working on Carbonmade. I pulled my apps as Carbonmade began to grow. I think people lose sight at the fact that building a product -- design and code -- is just one piece of the puzzle. It's a very important part (arguably the most important), but the things I listed make up a sizable amount of work that must be done well. Companies cannot survive, or at least cannot grow to hundred million dollar companies, without excellent CEOs, sales people, marketing people, support staff, project managers, etc.

Yes. Though it might still pay off to set aside an hour a week to do some programming. Just so that you do not lose touch with your programmers. (I don't know, if you can find the time in a startup, but in a bigger company it may be worth it.)

Thanks!

  2. Doing all the business related tasks.
  3. Doing all the customer service.
  4. Handling all incoming e-mail.
  5. Doing all of the social networking stuff (facebook, twitter).
  8. Tracking all of our expenses, etc., into Excel and getting everything ready for accountant (see 7).
  13. Handling payroll. I do that.
  14. Dealing with the bank accounts. I deal directly with the small business rep at our bank.
  16. Handling all incoming advertising requests, setting up their campaigns, etc.
  17. Dealing directly with all our merchants (credit cards + PayPal). Dealing with the very few chargebacks we receive.
  18. Paying all of our bills (server expenses, software licenses, domains, advertising, etc.) and monitoring our cash flow.
  20. Anything that requires a phone call. Incoming or outgoing.

Frankly, this sounds like work for an administrative assistant more than an equal equity partner.

  1. Writing the copy for the website. Mainly keeping the support documents up-to-date.
  6. Doing all of our marketing. Handling Google AdWords, banner advertising, text advertising, etc.
  7. Dealing exclusively with our accountant
  9. Handling all legal work with our lawyer.
  11. We all come up with ideas for product development.
  10. Doing all of our networking. I'm the guy that goes to all of our relevant events.
  12. Blogging. I do all the blogging.
  15. Market research. I find out as much as I can about our competitors, what they do, etc. I also learn about our market as a whole.
  19. Pitching. I handle all of that.

There is no reason a technical founder wouldn't be able to do these things and continue to work on the product.

I'm a technical founder and 1) I certainly don't WANT to all of the above listed things and 2) I know I certainly wouldn't do these task as well as someone who specializes in them. A lot of these jobs are very important and should be done right. They shouldn't be done by a programmer who sees them as an inconvenience.

If the scope of business and the size of the startup justifies it a business minded founder can certainly be a good thing.

Hm, I think it's all a matter of cost/benefit. What value would hiring an administrative assistant bring compared to just having an equity founder with more of an incentive? At least the founder can abstract everything business related away, so all you need to do is code. And, to me, that's hard enough as it is.

More incentives and the communication barrier may be lower.

Plus I would never outsource copywriting. Good way to end up with a FAIL.

Thanks for your comment. I guess you should look into outsourcing / hiring / automating some of the more mundane tasks. Though for the second group of tasks you outlined, having a founder specialize in them, so that the other founders can focuse on the technical side, sounds like a good thing.

And it allows the business guy to grow. Eventually you will want to have a business guy anyway, so it's a sound approach to train him from day 0.

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