How can a non-hacker (with very basic C++ knowledge only) start a start-up successfully? - CYCY
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SwellJoe
Forget about C++. Learn a high level language that has the libraries you need
for building an application quickly. Someone suggested Ruby, and he's not
wrong. Python is another good choice, though it doesn't have an obvious
"guided path to success" the way RoR works for Ruby. PHP will allow you to
find a lot of potential co-founders, but it's probably not worth it...at this
stage you don't have the know-how to recognize a good PHP developer, and a bad
one will simply kill you (PHP is perhaps the best language for writing
horrible code--the majority of stuff out there written in PHP is really
frighteningly bad). That's not to say there aren't bad Ruby and Python
developers...but the barrier to entry seems high enough to keep out most of
the riff raff.

Find a co-founder who likes your ideas and trusts you'll get up to speed on
whatever bits of the equation he/she doesn't want to handle. In a startup past
the very earliest "get-to-prototype" stages there's a roughly even split
between the sucky non-tech stuff and the actual development...you could take
the non-tech stuff and leave the hacking to your co-founder. I'm quite
technical and have developed a lot of software in the past ten years, but I
found an even better developer and took on the sucky stuff while leaving him
to handle most of the development. It's working very well (though I often find
myself wanting to get back to real "work" when I'm doing the boring
accounting/marketing/taxes/funding/support/etc. stuff--I have to remind myself
that if we reach our goals I'll be able to hack anytime I want, in between
rides on my robotic dinosaur, of course).

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nostrademons
Learn to hack? ;-)

There're two possible questions in the title, and I'm not sure which one you
mean. Are you asking how a non-hacker can start a _tech startup_ ,
specifically one focusing on the web? Or are you asking how a non-hacker can
start _any_ startup, be it biotech, finance, auto-body, housepainting, or some
other industry entirely?

For the first question, you really either need to be a hacker yourself or
convince a top-notch hacker to work for you. You can't expect to start a
successful tech startup if you don't have good tech. I listed some ways that
entrepreneurs repel potential tech cofounders here -
<http://news.ycombinator.com/comments?id=13000> \- and also suggest some
things you might bring to the table that might convince a techie to work with
you.

If you're just looking to start _any_ startup and don't care about the field,
the rule is always "Concentrate on your strengths." Basically, you want to go
into business being more passionate about the particular project you're
working on than anyone else on earth (or in your location, if you have
geographic barriers to entry). That's what'll convince customers to buy from
you rather than a competitor.

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natrius
If you're not a hacker and you're trying to start a business that requires a
lot of hacking from the outset (such as anything computer-related), you're
going to have to let go of the idea that this is going to be "your" startup.
The beginning or a company's existence is the most risk-laden period, and it's
also the period where the value you can provide is far less than the value the
people actually writing the code will provide. You have to convince hackers to
come on as co-founders (not employees), and compensate them accordingly.

The other option, as others have suggested, is to learn to code yourself. I
doubt that you'd be able to do a good job of coding something up yourself
without anyone with formal computer science training backing you up, but
learning never hurts. If you know that starting a tech business is something
you want to do someday, I'd say you should start learning how to code now.
Personally, whenever a non-hacker tells me about something they want to start,
I can't really see what value they're bringing to the table. Most ideas aren't
that original (and don't necessarily have to be to be successful), so if they
can't actually make the product, what good does working under them do for me?
Business-types are definitely useful, but not until there's at least some sort
of prototype.

I've never actually done a startup myself, so this is really just my personal
intuition of the way things should work.

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rokhayakebe
One of the first American Billionaires once said he could answer any question
asked. He called in a meeting and ask each journalist to come armed with top
notch questions (of course industry related ), which they did. The day of the
meeting they were surprised to see 16 phones at the Great Entrepreneur 's
desk. For each question asked he pick up a phone and call someone who then,
somehow, provided the proper answer. If you cannot code, need to start a
startup and do not know the moral of this story, then you probably should go
sit back and think for a few weeks before jumping into the middle of the
ocean.

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nostrademons
It's a little different when searching for technical experts, however, because
it's often not possible to tell a technical expert from a technical nincompoop
without a solid background in the subject. There are a lot of folks out there
who can play buzzword bingo with the best of them, but can't actually sit down
and code something.

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jaggederest
Ask someone you do trust to recommend someone to...

Build a chain of trust to someone with technical knowledge, and use them to
assess possible technical people.

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bootload
Of course the problem is, not being technical you are always prone to the
_'Warren Harding'_ error. [0] You know, someone who dresses badly, uses a mac
notebook, talks real fast about _technical things_ that has all the attributes
of the hacker except they are crap at building product.

Some suggestions for finding a co-founder can be found reading, _Students
guide to Startups_. [1]

Reference

[0] Warren Harding was 29th President of the United States and had the
distinction of being pushed forward because he had the perceived _traits_ of a
leader and turned out not to be so good. I picked this up reading the Malcom
Gladwell book _'Blink'_ , 0-7139-9844-X.

[1] pg, 'A students guide to startups'

<http://paulgraham.com/mit.html>

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gyro_robo
Joe Kraus, founder and original president of Excite, was a political science
major. But he had 5 co-founders who were developers.

<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joe_Kraus>

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pg
Get a hacker cofounder.

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ced
Didn't you write something about it being quasi-impossible for a non-technical
person to recognize a great hacker?

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pg
Probably the best answer is to learn enough about hacking to recognize people
who are good at it, like Jobs did.

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rmason
Well back in 1984 four guys decided to start a software company called
Nantucket. The two developers first ever C project was writing a dBase
compiler. That compiler became a full fledged dBase dialect that even spawned
an active third party tools market. Not to bad for a first project.

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JohnN
i am working on a startup at the mo but am not technical, we got someone to
build a proportype (by paying) but realise if you wanna iterate and create a
decent app, you cant keep paying people. I wonder how kul and harjeet YC
Alumni managed (as they are not coders)

the solution to my problem is simple

a) im learning how to code from the ground up xhtml, css, php, mysql and then
prob move on to ruby (this will take many months if not longer)

b) im looking for a technical cofounder, problem is, they all have the 9-5
mentality.

I majored in Politics as well, maybe i need some Joe Kraus magic!

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cwilbur
As someone with a bit of technical skill: when the greatest motivation to work
on a project is the money you'll pay me, I have a 9-5 mentality, because
that's what you're paying for.

When the greatest motivation to work on a project is the insane coolness of
the project itself, things are different. Then, the money is just a bonus.

Can you figure out something about your idea that hackers will find _cool_?

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JohnN
yer, definitely, and thats how im sellin it, in fact ive sold it to one
technical person and he is willin to come onboard. prob is our site is php he
is a c# man. i think he will be able to pick it up though. its quite strange
really, i work for a technology company but there are no coders! lol

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pixcavator
I am in the same position as you. All suggestions here seem reasonable but my
advice is don't wait until you have a hacker cofounder. Use rentacoder and try
to create a prototype.

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andyjenn
I'm using eLance - this is just to get something started and then I'm hacking
the features I want myself as and when I learn...oh yeah, and then get a co-
founder with an unfeasibly large brain who can help you out!

~~~
cwilbur
Rentacoder and eLance are neat ideas, but they have the same problem that the
job market as a whole does: you want good code from good hackers, and if
you're not technically inclined yourself, you will have a very hard time
determining who is a good hacker and who just talks the talk.

If you want a technical startup, you need a technical cofounder. "I'll just
outsource the development" will doom you to failure. I know this because I am
an employee of a startup that thought that way, and learned the hard way that
execution matters; and spending umpty-million dollars in the first year on
outsourced projects that you wind up needing to pay umpty-thousand-dollars in
the first year of operation to replace -- well, let's just say that, even with
venture capitalists involved, burn rate matters, and money you spend stupidly
still counts as an expense.

~~~
pixcavator
When I have "umpty-million dollars", I'll start worrying about that.

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blader
a. Learn to hack.

or

b. Learn to find good hackers (this not easy), then: 1\. Pay them lots of
money, or - 2\. Learn from Steve Jobs and be a walking RDF.

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zaidf
Usually if you think you can you can; if you don't think you can it's only
harder.

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dawie
Learn another language, like Ruby

