

Ask HN: Is a tech background necessary to found tech startup? - wallawe

The vast majority of tech startups that are successful are founded by tech savvy people. More than a few of them attended some of the top educational institutions.<p>My question is, is it possible ("likely" is a better word, anything's possible) for a non-tech oriented person to bring forth the next big thing?<p>I am extremely business oriented (studied international business, minored in spanish, concentration in entrepreneurship) and have what I believe to be a great idea that I am currently working on, but I feel my lack of tech knowledge leaves me at a huge disadvantage for several reasons.<p>I am outsourcing all of my design, programming, etc and handling the business with a partner. I want to bring a programmer on board at least part time to compensate for my lack of knowledge. I felt it would be beneficial to get this community's opinion on the situation.
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ryanb
It depends how serious you are about this venture.

I think it's pretty important to at least have a technical co-founder if you
want to start a startup. Otherwise, you're starting a business in a field
where you have no domain knowledge.

If technology won't be your competitive advantage, what will it be?

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wallawe
Thanks for your response.

This venture is my life until it fails which hopefully won't be the case.
However, I know the statistics of success are not on my side especially if I
don't launch with the right ingredients.

The idea is a tried one, but there is no one successful platform that has done
it right in my opinion. It is a "stuff to do" in a particular location type of
thing but with a niche market and a different slant taken on. It won't be
messy, and it will basically bring the characteristics and culture of certain
areas to virtual life. Listed businesses will pay.

I must update the site daily (having a CMS built for me to edit), but it will
be expanding to other areas at a rapid rate. This is the reason I feel the
need to bring on a programmer and give that person stock in the company. I
just don't know exactly what I am looking for in that person.

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auganov
If you're truly passionate I think you could devote say 2-3 weeks completely
to learning as much as you can about the technology that you'd potentially
use.

You do not have to be technical in the sense of writing code. But knowing what
those programmers are doing is invaluable.

Tons of great start up founders completely suck at coding, but they know what
their people are doing, they can tell them what to do, what to fix, how to fix
it. Think an army general. He might not be a good soldier, but he knows what
soldiers need to do.

The only other route is to have a technical co-founder that you ABSOLUTELY
trust. Otherwise you're in for a risky ride. Not very different from any
industry to be honest.

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wallawe
I have a great deal of admiration for the coders and designers I have already
worked with and many of the people on this site, simply because I don't get
exposure to that level of intelligence and passion on an everyday basis where
I live currently.

I would like to take your advice, and devote the next month to learning as
much as possible. Can you point me in a direction to get started? I have done
a good bit of sponge learning by reading HN daily, but I want to get into the
details. What resources do you recommend?

~~~
auganov
It's so hard to answer really. All people have such differing levels on
knowledge and most of the time it's a crazy mix.

If you know nothing about coding you might want to at least learn how to read
most basic code, just look up introductions to some programming languages,
you'll quickly figure out how it all works on an intuitive level.

Then you could actually go straight ahead and start thinking about your start-
up. Based on features you'll have identify technologies you'll need to use and
then try to find out how to achieve that functionality using those
technologies. You'll need to be really comfortable with Google. Always look
everything up. If getting through one tutorial requires you to open 20 others
- so be it.

Too many people are looking for complete introductory texts that will take you
through the whole process step by step. It just doesn't work that way. Books
are very tempting for that reason. You can just pick it up and read the whole
thing, but well, it feels easy for a reason.

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RocknRolla
I'm not sure how you expect anyone here to answer that question... We know
nothing about you or your idea but you want us to tell you how likely it is
you'll have the next big thing???

I will say that if you don't know anything about the technology behind your
product (providing technology is your main product and not in a supporting
role) you're at a HUGE disadvantage.

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dgunn
Hackers for hire are (generally) much more hit-or-miss as far as capability
(dedication really) goes. This is kind of a worse-case, but just think of all
the government websites out there that are nearly unusable. It's because the
coders have no stake and just put in their 8 hours. Stake in the outcome is
what makes a person create something great. For example, I'm typing this at my
day job instead of working on my projects, but over the weekend I worked like
a machine for about 12 hours without a break on my current venture. And that's
because I had other obligations and couldn't afford to put in more time.

I recommend bringing in a tech guy and giving him something to own.

~~~
wallawe
Very good point, thanks

