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Ask YC: Can a startup entrepreneur not be a coder?

9 points by deltapoint ↗ HN
I am very interested in startups and business and its components (sales, marketing, finance, legal aspects, innovation) but am not into coding and hacking and so forth. So I am wondering if there is room on start ups founding teams for business people?

20 comments

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eusman
yes, if you have connections and an idea that comes from your experience which could be crucial for success, but joining an existing team maybe it's harder if there is not even a product yet...
bootload
"... Can a startup entrepreneur not be a coder? ..."

Yes. Mitch Kapor was underestimated and you can use this to your advantage. He was seen as a novice non-tech in his Startup, recognised this & profited from it. Read about Mitch Kapor ~ http://www.kapor.com/bio/ and I've written more about this here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/bootload/2296168310/

SwellJoe
How is Kapor a non-coder? He was writing software throughout all of his early endeavors. He didn't outsource development of Visiplot and Visitrend.

I'm having a hard time imagining how Kapor could possibly be considered a non-technical/non-coding founder. He may not have gone to school for it...but most of us didn't learn to hack in school (if you didn't know how to hack until you got to school you obviously don't love computers enough to be a hacker).

So, sure Kapor hired additional developers, and his genius probably lies more in his dealings with other people than computers, but he was clearly a hacker from very early on, and one certainly can't hold him up as an example of an entrepreneur without any technical ability.

bootload
"... How is Kapor a non-coder? ..."

I'm not trying to say he has no technical ability. I'm saying that in this case an Entrepreneur succeeded in spite of what is considered by many to be the prime requirement of Entrepreneurship. The current mantra is, "if you are non-technical, give up". If anything, Kapors success came more from his insight into human psychology than the his technical ability to code ~ http://www.flickr.com/photos/bootload/2348902846/

gscott
Building product awareness is a full time task and so is programming.
dennykmiu
I think technical skills are highly over-rated, whether it is programming or mechanical design. The most important ingredient for a successful startup is an insight into a set of problems experienced by a large enough population of potential customers that are currently unsolved and that they are willing to pay money to relieve the pain, even if it means that they might risk their career buying from an unproven startup. If they have identify such an opportunity, you can find technical talents which are highly interchangeable.
SwellJoe
"you can find technical talents which are highly interchangeable"

Citation needed.

aswanson
How do you even accurately identify technical talent if you don't have any?
dennykmiu
I believe we all have technical talents. I might not know the latest web-based programming language but I bet my ability to solve partial differential equation with time-varying constraints is relevant when it comes to judging technical people. In startup situations, it all comes down to having a desire to win. If you have a strong enough desire, you will (eventually) win. So even if you have the best programming skills in the world, you might not do well in a startup if you don't want it bad enough.
symptic
I disagree. My toughest problem is finding people I am comfortable with in terms of their technical ability.
dennykmiu
This is exactly my point, that technical people are interchangeable. Your problem is not finding technical people but technical people whom you are comfortable with. In another words, the selection criteria here is not their technical ability (which there are plenty) but their compatibility with you. Again, none of these matters unless you have a good product idea.
SwellJoe
Yes. But you might have a hard time convincing technical people that there is room in their tech startup for a non-technical person.
dennykmiu
I believe things change quickly once you have a prototype and you need to start to sell (to customers) or start to create channel (with partners). I think it is also wrong to divide the world so neatly into one that is technical and one that is not. My experience is in a startup, everyone is technical. Some focus entirely on technology and some can cross over to non-technical activities (sales, marketing, business developmen, etc.) which are still quite technical but have a non-technical outcome. Startups that are consisted of only technical people who can't find room for a "non-technical" person is probably more focused on building "features" than "products".
cmm324
Lol. Very true. I am a coder, but on my startup I am not coding. It is because my partner's skills far surpass mine at programming and my skills at online marketing, sales and pr outweigh his. So I am focusing on branding and awareness while he focuses on the nit and gritty code. It is a great relationship. But we are also best friends and have worked on projects together in the passed.
SwellJoe
That's pretty similar to my startup. When we're both working solely on code, he outproduces me at least three to one. I've written plenty of code in my life, and I still write quite a bit of code, but my priorities are mainly support, packaging, documentation, marketing, website maintenance, etc. while he builds the products. Mostly those are still technical skills, however...and when we bring in a third person later this year (not really "founder" status, but plenty of equity and a salary), it will be another technical person to help off-load some of the support and handle some of the ongoing UI and design work. Though I may hire a part-time assistant to deal with the books and such before then, but no serious equity will be involved. The fourth real hire will be an enterprise sales person who will see mainly commission-based compensation with some equity so that the long-term health of the company has some sway on their decisions. Those hires will probably come pretty close together.

But every company is different. Companies building much smaller web apps that require a lot more marketing, sales, PR, and evangelism than ours does could probably make use of a non-technical person much earlier in the process.

izak30
Yes. Your startup doesn't _have_ to be in tech. We have two founders, me (tech, business, sales), and kasey (graphic designer (UX), marketer, sales, evangelism, business, etc) And that's just how it works us, and we're in tech.
a-priori
In my case, there was room because there's a significant non-technical component to the business. So, my co-founder is a business person. She handles that side of the business, and I do the technical.
tonyvt2005
If you've really got a handle on the business side of things and you're a great people person, I'd say yeah.

Even if you're not actually coding, you can provide ideas and feedback.