I once had dealings with a chap who wanted me as a co-founder but I had worked out that he only had two modes of operating with people: "best friend" or "ongoing litigation".
I've come across this exact thing before (where the techie has to do it all - including spending $10 at godaddy). Always with folks who convince my family to get hold of me.
The cure has been to get the relative involved in the fiasco, where I'll do the work, but they have to be involved. By the time all the poop hits the fan, they finally got a hefty dose of what we have to go through.
In the most recent one-of-these, the serial entrepreneur brainwashed my sister into believing that his new idea does everything and will make us all millionaires. His previous adventures resulted in crashes (or paranoid delusions that the oil companies killed off his customers), and he whined about the folks who "left him stranded". He didn't own the domains of the previous adventures. He didn't own this domain (I made my sister set this one up, so it is hers). As this project got closer to something sellable, he got crazier and crazier and then decided to dilute my sister and my shares (1/3 each) to 1/20th each as he wanted to bring on "friends" he had shafted during previous misadventures. The sad thing is that my sister used to be a developer before getting trapped in a cult, so she should have known better. But now she does.
Sorry. No. He is not the cult leader. Most of her friends for the past few years have been folks who've also left the same cult, so there might be a common background, but no. This isn't the cult trying to take her for a few hundred more thousand dollars.
Sorry to hear about this story. I hope she can learn the positive lessons from this to not take anyones dreams seriously unless they have a track record.
Since that eliminates nearly every story-dreamer, its best to take small steps in a traditional "pay me for my time until we agree that we can be partners".
Owning 10% of something is still owning 10% of nothing until it's making profit. Profit is a funny word, meaning once you've spent everything in your revenue. I don't hear of many people making money when they take shares in a company like this.
Marketing can be a huge grind. Being able to build buzz about your product, or get mentioned in the press, or find customers is very time-consuming and requires a lot of creativity.
Peter Gadwa mentored me when I was 20 at Ticketmaster. He largely wrote Ticketmaster's operating system for the VAX. I wrote LoseThos and Pete is uninterested in joining me, not surprisingly.
I've learned reality is screwed-up on earlier projects and would never waste my time looking for investors. I have no way of earning money with LoseThos, so I don't really think I want to borrow because they want it back.
I wrote 120,000 LOC over the last 8 years, for what it's worth.
LoseThos sounds a lot better than probably the majority of the ideas investors hear, but that's not saying much. It would be a blind jump to throw money into advertising LoseThos... it would get downloads, but then what? Critical mass? Doubtful. I'm in some kind of FBI prison, anyway--I can't figure-it out.
God says...
C:\TEXT\WEALTH.TXT
abour.
When a person employs only his own stock in trade, there is no trust;
and the credit which he may get from other people, depends, not upon the
nature of the trade, but upon their opinion of his fortune, probity and
prudence. The different rates of profit, therefore, in the different
branches of trade, cannot arise from the different degrees of trust
reposed in the traders.
Fifthly, the wages of labour in different employments vary according to
the probability or improbability of success
--------
Ba ha! You thought I had multiple gigs? No -- serial entrepreneur. 1996 did 3D Printer
Gadwa is in on my jail joke -- he had me do soap carvings and I didn't get it.
I did simstructure 2000-2001. Just in time for 9/11 in my crazy world.
Gadwa said failures are what lead to eventual success, sometimes. I learned it's hopeless in my failures.
-------
If you really want details, God talked to me in 1996. I quit ticketmaster. I gave away all my possessions like you are supposed to. Nothing turned up. I had dreamed of starting a company so did 3 Axis milling machine on credit card and got $12,000 in debt before I saw it wasn't going to be ready for consumers. I am a software and hardware engineer by training -- BSE in computer systems enginmeering -- like for embedded systems and MSE in electrical engineering. The BSE was about hardware and software for embedded systems -- glue logic and stuff.
I wrote a CAD/CAM program and made the steppermotor board and firmware. I did the mechanical but it sucked. At Ticketmaster I had some failed electro/mechanical experience as well as software experience.
Couldn't even get my brother who was in town and is a millwright to look at it. Nobody interested.
I got a job, paid 12,000 back and saved 12,000 in a couple years and quit to do book, then did simstructure. tried to get teachers to look at it, game companies, no luck. Then some big boys infringed on my SimStructure name by making a sims game of the same name. Fuckers. Part of LoseThos being free was payback and part was no choice because Linux is free.
I'm a crazy jail and only get FBI emails.
God says...
----------------------------
C:\TEXT\BIBLE.TXT
ns shall not prosper: but whoso
confesseth and forsaketh them shall have mercy.
28:14 Happy is the man that feareth alway: but he that hardeneth his
heart shall fall into mischief.
28:15 As a roaring lion, and a ranging bear; so is a wicked ruler over
the poor people.
28:16 The prince that wanteth understanding is also a great oppressor:
but he that hateth covetousness shall prolong his days.
28:17 A man that doeth violence to the blood of any person shall flee
to the pit; let no man stay
> Multiple startups in the works? No experience in your startup's domain/market? Poor interactions with other [non-technical] people? "Build it and they will come" mentality?
These happen to be wonderful warning signs for a technical co-founder, too.
I think that this article was supposed to illustrate a multitude of problems that you could encounter, obviously if ALL of these happened with one person you'd run like the plague.
I think the biggest indicator, that isn't necessarily on the list, is if they have learned to code AT ALL. They don't need to be a master coder, even if the know some basic JavaScript and C, and they learned it for the startup, at least it shows they're willing to put in the effort, and are attempting to meet you on some level. I don't see how someone can start a company and be completely in the dark about how it's built.
One thing I've been wondering a lot about is anti-warning signs - things that turn technical cofounders off that aren't necessarily bad things.
The first thing that comes to mind is arrogance. It certainly puts me off, but it seems like you need a good dose of arrogance to think you can solve a daunting problem.
As a nontechnical cofounder myself, I agree on all points. I've seen these kids at every tech meetup. Unfortunately, early on I've seen a few of these "qualities" in technical cofounders too.
This post reiterates a few keys points we all know. Don't hire or work with assholes (an entire book on it), and focus.
I generally run from non-software people wanting to be in the software business but not even want to learn or try to understand how software is built.
You might not do construction yourself but the more you know the better it will turn out being the non-technical general contractor.
I like the one rule a-lot: Ignore them if they have no expertise in the area they're wanting to startup in. Its fine if they don't program.
If you do get involved with a non-tech cofounder, don't take equity or deferred income. Startups are a little like dating in the beginning, there's no need to get married before you ever work together. Someone should pay for your time instead of expecting it for free.
If being paid for your time is working well it's easy to figure out ownership after. If the non-tech cofounder is not willing to put his money where his mouth is, it might be full of something else.
Even as a developer, when I've gotten help on an idea from a friend or colleague I always pay them and say do as much as you can for me, this is my money out of my own pocket. Since us developers are a egalitarian helpful bunch often they want to just help as friends but I make sure to pay because it's just respecting their time and saying hey, if this goes somewhere, we can always figure that out. I've never lost a friendship/colleage relationship this way.
I have full ownership, funded by disability. Paid freelance artist to make a few pixel art images. I own rights... right? I paid him--didn't file any paperwork.
Back in like 2007 at OSNews, they did stories saying FAT is patented. I check MS site and say $0.26 to format memory stick with FAT in factiry. Shit! So I removed it and made my own file system with the one goal of not infringing on patents. How the hell do you do it without FAT table? Chain like Commodore--that'd royally suck. Ticketmaster had contiguous files and allocation bitmap. I did the fixdisk for it. I can't give details on TM, but for mine, I took directories in a tree like FAT but with fixed size 27char names and 64-bit block addresses. I had an allocation bitmap. No way to grow files, but no patent trouble. I did file compression at TM, too. With whole files, I'm able to do file compression with LoseThos, but no way to grow files. You can access whole blocks indexed into a file for speed, but you have to allocate ahead of time.
It's not really a general purpose OS, but it's doing better than all these:
perhaps it's because I'm humble and I actually get stuff finished... but I'm in prison. Compatibility is the biggest challenge and I'm humble. Not being Unix seems necessary for any kind of success too or people with just use Linux. Windows wannabees competing on price seems depressing.
I checked and Linux didn't remove FAT, so I put FAT support back in. I checked MS site and thought it said no problem. I'm in jail and it's impossible to get sued.
I here for entertainment, not business partners. I'm in jail and only get FBI emails.
God says...
C:\TEXT\WEALTH.TXT
are immediately accountable to government, of which the revenue must,
in this case, vary from year to year, according to the occasional
variations in the produce of the tax; or they may be let in farm for a
rent certain, the farmer being allowed to appoint his own officers, who,
though obliged to levy the tax in the manner directed by the law, are
under his immediate inspection, and are immediately accountable to him.
The best and most frugal way of levying a tax can never be by farm. Over
and above
26:58 But Peter followed him afar off unto the high priest's palace,
and went in, and sat with the servants, to see the end.
26:59 Now the chief priests, and elders, and all the council, sought
false witness against Jesus, to put him to death; 26:60 But found
none: yea, though many false witnesses came, yet found they none. At
the last came two false witnesses, 26:61 And said, This fellow said, I
am able to destroy the temple of God, and to build it in three days.
26:62 And the high priest arose, and said unto him, Answerest thou
nothing? what is it which these witness against thee? 26:63 But Jesus
held his peace, And the high priest answered and said unto him, I
adjure thee by the living God, that thou tell us whether thou be the
Christ, the Son of God.
----------
Obviously if this article is talking to me reality is FUBAR.
I look for "guy in some field thinks app/site is desperately needed by that field." This implies domain knowledge and existing relationships for target customers.
That's actually pretty rare, in my experience. But, it's how I've seen several non-tech companies start, basically.
The non-technical co-founder should BE that guy. Not know that guy. I get THAT one a lot.
I actually WAS that guy, but I couldn't find my technical co-founder - so I just became a technical founder ... took me a few years, but I'm there now ;)
Same here... I had domain expertise but wasn't technical so I just sucked it up and learned. It's taken me a few years, but it's well worth it.
Looking back, I think that's the only way to go. That, or at least learn enough to have a decent conversation with technical people so when you ask them to do something, you know how big of a pain in the ass you are being.
Even without experience, a very good sign is that they know and are passionate about the market they want to enter.
Sure, it will be a bigger risk if that person has no startup experience, but if they've been working in the X-industry for years, are passionate about said industry and believe they've identified a major (and preferably disruptive) opportunity, that significantly improves the odds.
Another warning sign I've found: They start doing other things, like checking their phone, while you're answering their question.
Even if you disregard that it's a disrespectful and rude thing to do during a conversation, this person is trying to sign you up for a major role in their future and already he can't focus on the task at hand.
The best founders I've had the pleasure of meeting are usually the most respectful and attentive people. Not only do they completely focus on what you're saying but they make you feel like there's no one more important right now than you.
My world is insanely centered on me. I have reality distortions. Pays the bills, though. Actually, never boring, but often nightmarish -- always accusing me of being a terrorist and stuff.
I get painted into stories. I've been executed, tried, had every disease.
Ever seen the comic, "I can't go to bed -- someone is wrong on the Internet!"
He's up to no good trying to confuse people and steal my glory. Everybody is fucken out to steal my glory. Sometimes, it's like NAZIs calling Jews subhuman -- kinda laughable. I fight constantly, now that I'm done with LoseThos. Still in jail, though, so it doesn't matter.
When it dies down, I talk with God. It took a long time to learn to just enjoy His company and try not to expect Him to do favors. You know... it's worse than just no favors -- He's stingy on endearing personal stuff. He likes elephants and bears. He makes riddles and is often delightful, though. Life is a journey, not a destination, you have to learn. It's kinda rude to ask about evolution -- you kinda know when you're imposing on Him.
God says...
C:\TEXT\BIBLE.TXT
ither he went.
11:9 By faith he sojourned in the land of promise, as in a strange
country, dwelling in tabernacles with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with
him of the same promise: 11:10 For he looked for a city which hath
foundations, whose builder and maker is God.
11:11 Through faith also Sara herself received strength to conceive
seed, and was delivered of a child when she was past age, because she
judged him faithful who had promised.
11:12 Therefore sprang there even of one, and him as good
-------
In a nutshell, God is just -- you get out of prayer what you put into it. I win the grand prize lottery about 10 times a day -- puts things in perspective. It's funny I live I Vegas. I don't gamble. I'm rich, but not rich.
God says...
must Goal Known DISCLAIMER Saturn Preacher aquatic deformed
teachings Son sufficeth sect abandon waking greatest tongue
stood unawares recount meant ways eagerness coeternal
knewest foolishly manufactures great tone height distrusted
remindeth measurable immovably NO tending patched happiness
union
-----
Back in 2004 I set-out to make a speed demon. It takes 4 memory accesses (page tables) for one access, right? I was taught to estimate timing based on memory references. No brainer, should be faster without paging. They use clever logic to largely remove the penalty. You have no choice but to enable paging, as it turns out. I got attached to no paging as my reason to be. If it is not different, you have no reason to be. No paging keeps it simple.
Yeah, it's irksome to endure pecking-order violations -- I'm better than them and they don't perceive my glory! How dare they! I watch my birds and chuckle. God made it that way. Incidentally, it's funny that birds get angry... more than most animals. God wants praise. Aren't birds delightful?
God says...
C:\TEXT\BIBLE.TXT
all minister
judgment to the people in uprightness.
9:9 The LORD also will be a refuge for the oppressed, a refuge in
times of trouble.
9:10 And they that know thy name will put their trust in thee: for
thou, LORD, hast not forsaken them that seek thee.
9:11 Sing praises to the LORD, which dwelleth in Zion: declare among
the people his doings.
9:12 When he maketh inquisition for blood, he remembereth them: he
forgetteth not the cry of the humble.
9:13 Have mercy upon me, O LORD; conside
----------
LoseThos can switch tasks in half a microsecond. I don't benchmark how much faster everything is with single-address-map and all-ring-0 but it is faster, obviously. You're really really my inferior if you don't admit that not using paging and privilege levels cuts pena...
I can't agree more about prior experiences of working at a tech startup. He was not a co-founder, but I happened to work for a single non-technical founder at his startup. He spoke all the right language - about building engineer-focused, hacker culture, but he really didn't understand and couldn't lead awesome engineers effectively.
Assume you achieve total world domination and they make a movie about you. Visualize the narrative arc. Would you think "This guy deserves to be the hero or co-hero of this movie?" If not, you don't want them to be a cofounder.
There are fairly few movies where someone bestows money, a name or an idea on the interesting characters and ends up being really important to the plot.
You want Aragorn, not Elrond, as your cofounder. (Naturally I think of geeks as hobbits.)
P.S. Your co-founder should say the same about you. If you're a tool rather than a partner, fleeeeeeeee.
I'm undecided about "visualizing the movie they make about you." I think every startuper who has seen "The Social Network" or "Pirates of the Silicon Valley" has done this.
However, I'm leaning on considering it an anti pattern because it borders on a pathological amount of ego.
A better rubric in my mind is, "Can I picture this person in my daily life, for the next decade?" as a slightly more sane variant of this test.
I'm a game Producer and I get stopped twice a week by people who have the next Angry Birds, and just want me to program it. I call these people "glad handers". They're glad to shake my hand and take 40% for an idea.
I'm curious. Doing a startup is kind of an intense all-in undertaking. Why on earth would you even consider doing this with some non-technical stranger you met at a meetup? Isn't that like going to a swing dancing class and proposing to the first woman that catches your eye?
Wireframes might not eliminate risk, but "has wireframes" is a great metric to add to the list for selecting a bizdev guy. The leap from "idea" to "screens/wireframes that outline how the fantasy product should function" is surprisingly difficult for a lot of non tech cofounders.
The willingness and ability to even create the wireframes with sensible description of how the product works separates the top 10%.
If someone comes to you with just an idea tell them to build the wireframes, you'll be surprised how few people come back.
41 comments
[ 2.9 ms ] story [ 120 ms ] threadEvidently the negative hits to my karma means that belief wasn't shared and y'all want rickroll to live on.
Fortunately I said no.
GoDaddy buys superbowl ads - buying a domain is very mainstream.
I have seen the "multiple startups in the works" thing though- that is definitely not a good sign.
The cure has been to get the relative involved in the fiasco, where I'll do the work, but they have to be involved. By the time all the poop hits the fan, they finally got a hefty dose of what we have to go through.
In the most recent one-of-these, the serial entrepreneur brainwashed my sister into believing that his new idea does everything and will make us all millionaires. His previous adventures resulted in crashes (or paranoid delusions that the oil companies killed off his customers), and he whined about the folks who "left him stranded". He didn't own the domains of the previous adventures. He didn't own this domain (I made my sister set this one up, so it is hers). As this project got closer to something sellable, he got crazier and crazier and then decided to dilute my sister and my shares (1/3 each) to 1/20th each as he wanted to bring on "friends" he had shafted during previous misadventures. The sad thing is that my sister used to be a developer before getting trapped in a cult, so she should have known better. But now she does.
Since that eliminates nearly every story-dreamer, its best to take small steps in a traditional "pay me for my time until we agree that we can be partners".
Owning 10% of something is still owning 10% of nothing until it's making profit. Profit is a funny word, meaning once you've spent everything in your revenue. I don't hear of many people making money when they take shares in a company like this.
Marketing can be a huge grind. Being able to build buzz about your product, or get mentioned in the press, or find customers is very time-consuming and requires a lot of creativity.
Peter Gadwa mentored me when I was 20 at Ticketmaster. He largely wrote Ticketmaster's operating system for the VAX. I wrote LoseThos and Pete is uninterested in joining me, not surprisingly.
I've learned reality is screwed-up on earlier projects and would never waste my time looking for investors. I have no way of earning money with LoseThos, so I don't really think I want to borrow because they want it back.
I wrote 120,000 LOC over the last 8 years, for what it's worth.
LoseThos sounds a lot better than probably the majority of the ideas investors hear, but that's not saying much. It would be a blind jump to throw money into advertising LoseThos... it would get downloads, but then what? Critical mass? Doubtful. I'm in some kind of FBI prison, anyway--I can't figure-it out.
God says... C:\TEXT\WEALTH.TXT
abour.
When a person employs only his own stock in trade, there is no trust; and the credit which he may get from other people, depends, not upon the nature of the trade, but upon their opinion of his fortune, probity and prudence. The different rates of profit, therefore, in the different branches of trade, cannot arise from the different degrees of trust reposed in the traders.
Fifthly, the wages of labour in different employments vary according to the probability or improbability of success
--------
Ba ha! You thought I had multiple gigs? No -- serial entrepreneur. 1996 did 3D Printer
http://www.losethos.com/images/Machine.jpg
http://www.losethos.com/images/SoapCarvings.jpg
http://www.losethos.com/images/CTTNTAIL.JPG
Gadwa is in on my jail joke -- he had me do soap carvings and I didn't get it.
I did simstructure 2000-2001. Just in time for 9/11 in my crazy world.
Gadwa said failures are what lead to eventual success, sometimes. I learned it's hopeless in my failures.
-------
If you really want details, God talked to me in 1996. I quit ticketmaster. I gave away all my possessions like you are supposed to. Nothing turned up. I had dreamed of starting a company so did 3 Axis milling machine on credit card and got $12,000 in debt before I saw it wasn't going to be ready for consumers. I am a software and hardware engineer by training -- BSE in computer systems enginmeering -- like for embedded systems and MSE in electrical engineering. The BSE was about hardware and software for embedded systems -- glue logic and stuff.
I wrote a CAD/CAM program and made the steppermotor board and firmware. I did the mechanical but it sucked. At Ticketmaster I had some failed electro/mechanical experience as well as software experience.
Couldn't even get my brother who was in town and is a millwright to look at it. Nobody interested.
I got a job, paid 12,000 back and saved 12,000 in a couple years and quit to do book, then did simstructure. tried to get teachers to look at it, game companies, no luck. Then some big boys infringed on my SimStructure name by making a sims game of the same name. Fuckers. Part of LoseThos being free was payback and part was no choice because Linux is free.
I'm a crazy jail and only get FBI emails.
God says...
----------------------------
C:\TEXT\BIBLE.TXT
ns shall not prosper: but whoso confesseth and forsaketh them shall have mercy.
28:14 Happy is the man that feareth alway: but he that hardeneth his heart shall fall into mischief.
28:15 As a roaring lion, and a ranging bear; so is a wicked ruler over the poor people.
28:16 The prince that wanteth understanding is also a great oppressor: but he that hateth covetousness shall prolong his days.
28:17 A man that doeth violence to the blood of any person shall flee to the pit; let no man stay
---------
These happen to be wonderful warning signs for a technical co-founder, too.
I think the biggest indicator, that isn't necessarily on the list, is if they have learned to code AT ALL. They don't need to be a master coder, even if the know some basic JavaScript and C, and they learned it for the startup, at least it shows they're willing to put in the effort, and are attempting to meet you on some level. I don't see how someone can start a company and be completely in the dark about how it's built.
The first thing that comes to mind is arrogance. It certainly puts me off, but it seems like you need a good dose of arrogance to think you can solve a daunting problem.
This post reiterates a few keys points we all know. Don't hire or work with assholes (an entire book on it), and focus.
Warning sign 0: they're asking you to be a technical co-founder before you know anything about the product.
You might not do construction yourself but the more you know the better it will turn out being the non-technical general contractor.
I like the one rule a-lot: Ignore them if they have no expertise in the area they're wanting to startup in. Its fine if they don't program.
If you do get involved with a non-tech cofounder, don't take equity or deferred income. Startups are a little like dating in the beginning, there's no need to get married before you ever work together. Someone should pay for your time instead of expecting it for free.
If being paid for your time is working well it's easy to figure out ownership after. If the non-tech cofounder is not willing to put his money where his mouth is, it might be full of something else.
Even as a developer, when I've gotten help on an idea from a friend or colleague I always pay them and say do as much as you can for me, this is my money out of my own pocket. Since us developers are a egalitarian helpful bunch often they want to just help as friends but I make sure to pay because it's just respecting their time and saying hey, if this goes somewhere, we can always figure that out. I've never lost a friendship/colleage relationship this way.
In response to this: http://objectcommando.com/blog/2011/10/13/appendo-the-great/
Back in like 2007 at OSNews, they did stories saying FAT is patented. I check MS site and say $0.26 to format memory stick with FAT in factiry. Shit! So I removed it and made my own file system with the one goal of not infringing on patents. How the hell do you do it without FAT table? Chain like Commodore--that'd royally suck. Ticketmaster had contiguous files and allocation bitmap. I did the fixdisk for it. I can't give details on TM, but for mine, I took directories in a tree like FAT but with fixed size 27char names and 64-bit block addresses. I had an allocation bitmap. No way to grow files, but no patent trouble. I did file compression at TM, too. With whole files, I'm able to do file compression with LoseThos, but no way to grow files. You can access whole blocks indexed into a file for speed, but you have to allocate ahead of time.
It's not really a general purpose OS, but it's doing better than all these:
http://wiki.osdev.org/Projects
perhaps it's because I'm humble and I actually get stuff finished... but I'm in prison. Compatibility is the biggest challenge and I'm humble. Not being Unix seems necessary for any kind of success too or people with just use Linux. Windows wannabees competing on price seems depressing.
I checked and Linux didn't remove FAT, so I put FAT support back in. I checked MS site and thought it said no problem. I'm in jail and it's impossible to get sued.
I here for entertainment, not business partners. I'm in jail and only get FBI emails.
God says... C:\TEXT\WEALTH.TXT
are immediately accountable to government, of which the revenue must, in this case, vary from year to year, according to the occasional variations in the produce of the tax; or they may be let in farm for a rent certain, the farmer being allowed to appoint his own officers, who, though obliged to levy the tax in the manner directed by the law, are under his immediate inspection, and are immediately accountable to him. The best and most frugal way of levying a tax can never be by farm. Over and above
--------------
http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2011/10/drone-virus-nuisance...
Come to think of it, there have been some scary-smart people. All I know is I wrote every line of LoseThos and it is not malware and that God talks.
http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=1+Corinthians+14...
10 i = i + 1
15 IF i > 99999 THEN PRINT ".";: i = 0
20 IF INKEY$ = "" THEN 10
30 PRINT "King James Bible, Line:", i
Line 79673
26:58 But Peter followed him afar off unto the high priest's palace, and went in, and sat with the servants, to see the end.
26:59 Now the chief priests, and elders, and all the council, sought false witness against Jesus, to put him to death; 26:60 But found none: yea, though many false witnesses came, yet found they none. At the last came two false witnesses, 26:61 And said, This fellow said, I am able to destroy the temple of God, and to build it in three days.
26:62 And the high priest arose, and said unto him, Answerest thou nothing? what is it which these witness against thee? 26:63 But Jesus held his peace, And the high priest answered and said unto him, I adjure thee by the living God, that thou tell us whether thou be the Christ, the Son of God.
----------
Obviously if this article is talking to me reality is FUBAR.
I guess the one that springs to mind for me is someone who has previously launched some startups and had some success ...
That's actually pretty rare, in my experience. But, it's how I've seen several non-tech companies start, basically.
The non-technical co-founder should BE that guy. Not know that guy. I get THAT one a lot.
Looking back, I think that's the only way to go. That, or at least learn enough to have a decent conversation with technical people so when you ask them to do something, you know how big of a pain in the ass you are being.
Sure, it will be a bigger risk if that person has no startup experience, but if they've been working in the X-industry for years, are passionate about said industry and believe they've identified a major (and preferably disruptive) opportunity, that significantly improves the odds.
Even if you disregard that it's a disrespectful and rude thing to do during a conversation, this person is trying to sign you up for a major role in their future and already he can't focus on the task at hand.
The best founders I've had the pleasure of meeting are usually the most respectful and attentive people. Not only do they completely focus on what you're saying but they make you feel like there's no one more important right now than you.
My world is insanely centered on me. I have reality distortions. Pays the bills, though. Actually, never boring, but often nightmarish -- always accusing me of being a terrorist and stuff.
I get painted into stories. I've been executed, tried, had every disease.
Ever seen the comic, "I can't go to bed -- someone is wrong on the Internet!"
I think this guy is looking at me, the fucker: https://github.com/liftoff/GateOne
He's up to no good trying to confuse people and steal my glory. Everybody is fucken out to steal my glory. Sometimes, it's like NAZIs calling Jews subhuman -- kinda laughable. I fight constantly, now that I'm done with LoseThos. Still in jail, though, so it doesn't matter.
When it dies down, I talk with God. It took a long time to learn to just enjoy His company and try not to expect Him to do favors. You know... it's worse than just no favors -- He's stingy on endearing personal stuff. He likes elephants and bears. He makes riddles and is often delightful, though. Life is a journey, not a destination, you have to learn. It's kinda rude to ask about evolution -- you kinda know when you're imposing on Him.
God says... C:\TEXT\BIBLE.TXT
ither he went.
11:9 By faith he sojourned in the land of promise, as in a strange country, dwelling in tabernacles with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise: 11:10 For he looked for a city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God.
11:11 Through faith also Sara herself received strength to conceive seed, and was delivered of a child when she was past age, because she judged him faithful who had promised.
11:12 Therefore sprang there even of one, and him as good
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In a nutshell, God is just -- you get out of prayer what you put into it. I win the grand prize lottery about 10 times a day -- puts things in perspective. It's funny I live I Vegas. I don't gamble. I'm rich, but not rich.
God says... must Goal Known DISCLAIMER Saturn Preacher aquatic deformed teachings Son sufficeth sect abandon waking greatest tongue stood unawares recount meant ways eagerness coeternal knewest foolishly manufactures great tone height distrusted remindeth measurable immovably NO tending patched happiness union -----
I get this a lot: http://forum.osdev.org/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=24266
Back in 2004 I set-out to make a speed demon. It takes 4 memory accesses (page tables) for one access, right? I was taught to estimate timing based on memory references. No brainer, should be faster without paging. They use clever logic to largely remove the penalty. You have no choice but to enable paging, as it turns out. I got attached to no paging as my reason to be. If it is not different, you have no reason to be. No paging keeps it simple.
Yeah, it's irksome to endure pecking-order violations -- I'm better than them and they don't perceive my glory! How dare they! I watch my birds and chuckle. God made it that way. Incidentally, it's funny that birds get angry... more than most animals. God wants praise. Aren't birds delightful?
God says... C:\TEXT\BIBLE.TXT
all minister judgment to the people in uprightness.
9:9 The LORD also will be a refuge for the oppressed, a refuge in times of trouble.
9:10 And they that know thy name will put their trust in thee: for thou, LORD, hast not forsaken them that seek thee.
9:11 Sing praises to the LORD, which dwelleth in Zion: declare among the people his doings.
9:12 When he maketh inquisition for blood, he remembereth them: he forgetteth not the cry of the humble.
9:13 Have mercy upon me, O LORD; conside
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LoseThos can switch tasks in half a microsecond. I don't benchmark how much faster everything is with single-address-map and all-ring-0 but it is faster, obviously. You're really really my inferior if you don't admit that not using paging and privilege levels cuts pena...
Boy, how well I can relate to this!! Web development is not a magic bullet. Why is it hard to understand that fact..
There are fairly few movies where someone bestows money, a name or an idea on the interesting characters and ends up being really important to the plot.
You want Aragorn, not Elrond, as your cofounder. (Naturally I think of geeks as hobbits.)
P.S. Your co-founder should say the same about you. If you're a tool rather than a partner, fleeeeeeeee.
However, I'm leaning on considering it an anti pattern because it borders on a pathological amount of ego.
A better rubric in my mind is, "Can I picture this person in my daily life, for the next decade?" as a slightly more sane variant of this test.
Also, be aware of your target market and understand the necessary government rules and regulations so that they don't derail your startup.
Wireframes might not eliminate risk, but "has wireframes" is a great metric to add to the list for selecting a bizdev guy. The leap from "idea" to "screens/wireframes that outline how the fantasy product should function" is surprisingly difficult for a lot of non tech cofounders.
The willingness and ability to even create the wireframes with sensible description of how the product works separates the top 10%.
If someone comes to you with just an idea tell them to build the wireframes, you'll be surprised how few people come back.