Why is there such an emphasis on having a coding founder?
Chances are low if you're applying as a single founder.
Chances are low if you're applying as a non-coding founder.
I happen to fall into the worst part of that hypothetical Venn diagram. The catch is that the app that I'm working on was selected as a Staff Pick in the Android Market back in January. I'm not saying it's perfect (there's still a ton of work to be done) but it shows that it's possible to have success as a noncoding, single founder.
So, why is there such an emphasis on having a coding founder? Since I'm not a coder, I hired a great offshore team to develop the code based on my UI designs, process flows and logic, wireframes, an excel spreadsheet of the algorithms, and database requirements. It's worth noting that I didn't throw piles of money at my team, in fact the first version, the one that was selected as a staff pick, cost me $300 to develop the code. So why is this approach looked down upon by incubators?
I implement SAP for a living, and this style of work is done quite often. For example, much of the technical team is offshore while the functional team works onsite. So why are startups penalized for taking this same approach when applying to incubators? I'd argue that the ability to quickly scale your team based on current project scope is a very potent tool, which outweighs the argument that because of the time constraints of an incubator you have to have a code friendly cofounder to churn out code.
Just something I've been thinking about, I'm curious to hear what everyone else has to say. Thanks for your time.
Just to give reference, the app I built is called Amazing Grocery List, and it's available in the Android Market.
6 comments
[ 4.3 ms ] story [ 20.0 ms ] threadWhere did you find your offshore coders? Did you have any problems in translating specs into product?
Is your app free or not? What is the revenue model?
Do you think a coder would have added much value to the process so far?
When I got into the startup scene, I started asking other companies and investors what their experiences were like with offshoring. Very, very few of the stories were good. The critical issues were always poor communication, limited agility, and mediocre code quality.
If incubator founders and interviewers are hearing the same stories I am, they're probably leery that your current success is sustainable. You may have nailed communication with your team, but until you've attempted to iterate your product a few times, neither you or the folks at the incubator know if you'll have the agility to move forward.
Having a technical co-founder guarantees two things, even if you offshore your work. First, you'll have someone who can properly write specifications around not only what you need today, but what you might need tomorrow. You'll also have someone there to make short-term hacks, fixes, and cleanups that might be difficult to coordinate with an offshore team.
For example, your grocery store app may be a gateway to offer daily deals or market to your app users in some other way, or you may crunch the data and sell it to supermarkets.
These are the kinds of ideas that get bounced around when you have more than one founder, and the tech team is in-house (I know because at the startup where I work, we have these conversations all day long). We go from "hey have you heard of this technology?" in the morning to "I've implemented a proof of concept" by lunch to "it's running in production" by day's end. That's something that you can't easily outsource, and something that I think a technical cofounder brings to the table.
If it will take 6+ months to complete a project, then you'd need that amount of money to pay an offshore team. On the otherhand, if you or your co-founder can code then that capital can stay in house.
Additionally, there's less overhead (in costs of time) for transferring information to outsiders.
---
That said, I am in fact surprised that your app only cost $300 to develop.
It's not just a to-do list. It apparently uses predictive modeling to make sure you don't forget to put items on the list.
Predictive modeling can be really simple (Bayes), but I am in fact impressed (albeit surprised) that you could sketch that into a process flow for someone to implement, whilst not being able to code it yourself.
perhaps you're not a coder, but you are technically competent... no?
Also as others have mentioned, it is tough to be agile with a continent and language barrier between you and the tech side of your company.