
If only I had ____ I would succeed - nreece
http://garry.posterous.com/build-it-9
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christonog
I used to be one of these folks. "Hey now, I have a great idea! But dang, I
can't program. Let me find a co-founder that does." Needless to say, none of
my ideas got anywhere. You need to be able to sell your idea, and I think the
best way to sell to a more technical person than you is to actually build a
prototype yourself.

I don't have a CS degree, but spending some time working in a software company
teaches so much about software development. Roadmaps, iterations, hotfixes,
and source control, to name a few. Necessary things I never would have thought
about working on my next great idea for a website. All of this for non-
technical customers who could care less about web services and frameworks. It
was a very interesting dynamic explaining that a bug that was affecting them
couldn't be fixed NOW and had to wait for the next site release. I now have a
deeper understanding of how software development works in application. Not to
mention the interesting dynamic of customer communication.

Moral of my story is that if you are not technically minded, spend some time
doing some work that is somewhat related to software development. Bug
reporting, tech support, etc. It doesn't matter what the job is, just ask a
lot of questions in engineering and think about what's going on around you.
Not to mention work on your own code after work.

~~~
unalone
That's a position I've been in a lot too: I've had an idea, but can't code it
to see how cool it would be.

I took the lazy route out—I found a cofounder who codes—and as a result the
site I started working on two years ago still hasn't come out yet.

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dolinsky
I'm sorry, but this article is completely disingenuous, and will only set
these 'non-techie' entrepreneurs up for more disappointment and frustration. I
love the idea of 'walking a mile in our shoes' to better understand what it
means to be a developer, but to suggest that a non-techie should learn to
program, and that it could take 2 or 10 years, is the best way to guaruntee
that not only is that dream never realized, but the whole world has passed
them by in those 10 years and they've lost multiple opportunities that they
could have capitalized on because they were so focused on learning how to
program.

Instead, build your network, and that goes for us developers as well. If you
can't pick up the phone and call a mentor or at least email one, find one. If
you don't have friends who are designers or are JS / CSS wizards (or backend
if you are the frontend wiz), work on finding them. Contact people who's sites
you admire, go to Meetups, etc.

~~~
rantfoil
Disagree. I wrote this article because I kept meeting people who were non-
technical but they were _afraid_ of technology.

If they learn to code, even if they don't do it well, they will be able to
talk the same language and get people on their team to build what they want.

I never said don't build your network. Just get some common ground first.

~~~
dolinsky
I'm aware you didn't say don't build your network (you didn't specifically
point to doing so, but it's not my intention to call you out for not doing
so). I also like the idea of a non-technical person getting their feet wet as
to shake the _fear_ of technology. However, there is quite a difference
between getting your feet wet and living in the ocean.

I also couldn't disagree more about them learning to code equates to talking
the same language. That's what I call "smart enough to be dangerous". It gives
them a false sense of security and can lead to them making decisions up the
business chain without consulting the development team because they now "speak
our language".

A non-technical person who doesn't have a true desire to become a developer
shouldn't be dictating directly to a development team. That's why you have
TPMs and Business Analysts (in larger companies) and in smaller teams
hopefully you're using some sort of Agile process whereby business desires
(stories) are translated into tasks for the dev team.

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pxlpshr
I think this post is pretty biased. I've spoken with a lot of
"entrepreneurial" developers and many of them just don't have what it takes,
particularly on the consumer side, to complete the loop and take a product to
market successfully. That's not to say they aren't amazing developers.

I'm a big advocate of teams, ~3 seems to be a good mix to move quickly and
thoroughly at the start. Developer, UX/Designer, Business/Marketer. The 3rd
you can do without if the first two are competent enough, business and
marketing isn't that difficult (especially with a great product) unless your
revenue is reliant on software sales/licensing. Then having a deal-guy is
pretty good if he has a big rolodex, reputation, legal understanding to
protect the company, and of course – is a closer.

The reason I feel designers are pretty important now is that the web has
matured and consumers generally have an elevated expectation compared to the
early 00's. Most matured web apps are pretty damn impressive and I think it
would be a mistake to assume a developer can handle both the backend and
frontend.

~~~
rantfoil
Who am I being biased towards? I'm confused.

See reply earlier -- never said you could do it alone. But if you get closer
to being able to do it alone, you will find cofounders with greater ease.
Nobody wants to join a team that will fail without them.

This goes for cofounders and investors alike.

~~~
pxlpshr
_But if you get closer to being able to do it alone, you will find cofounders
with greater ease. Nobody wants to join a team that will fail without them._

I absolutely agree.

I think the perception of bias is because I'm not a developer but I do feel
I'm technically competent to know when a developer is full of shit, and when
they are really special that I want them on the team. I use to program back in
the day before switching to pixels, sometimes it's a regret. :)

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skmurphy
Maybe it's a tautology but my answer to "If I only had _____ I would succeed"
is "customers." This puts the onus on the "non-technical" founder to start
selling a very lightweight version of the product, what Eric Ries calls a
"minimum viable product" instead of dreaming about how good it's going to be
when a full team delivers the ultimate product.

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iterationx
tony robbins always says the only thing you have to give up to achieve your
dreams is your excuses.

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tibbon
While most people who say this are simply setting themselves up for failure,
sometimes you do need just a small amount of something (often cash) thats
outside your reach to make this happen.

(Really this is on topic and not spam, we're not getting anything out of
this). This is why we started the Awesome Foundation. When I say 'We' I mean
people from Dorkbot, the founder of ROFLCon, the guy that runs Microsoft
Startup Labs in Boston, the founder of DIY BIO, and Alexis of Reddit among
others.

The Awesome Foundation gives away $1,000 grants each month to people who want
to do something 'awesome'. It doesn't have to be a business. It doesn't have
to be tech based. It doesn't have to be open source. It can be anything that's
awesome. We take zero ownership or credit for it. We simply give away $1,000
to someone each month that needs a boost to make something truly awesome
happen.

So far we've funded a giant hammock for 30 people in the Boston Common and a
Visualization contest. If you'd like to apply check out
<http://awesomefoundation.org> or @awesomefound on Twitter.

Please excuse this if you think its spam, but like I said- we get nothing from
this and do it as a service to the community and it seems on-topic.

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fjabre
What would people consider Steve Jobs?

I'm pretty sure he doesn't have a CS degree.

What did/would Steve do? Isn't that what this should be about? =)

~~~
alanthonyc
Don't fool yourself. Steve Jobs has forgotten more about building computers
then you are likely to ever know.

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michaelcampbell
Huge bags of cash certainly wouldn't hurt...

~~~
dhbradshaw
Having something to lose can make you more risk averse.

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sachinag
I think the sign that I've earned some technical person's respect is when they
ask me "why don't you just learn how to code?"

Look, you have to be wired a certain way to be good at code. I'm pretty smart,
but I could study and take classes and do whatever and I'd never be anything
more than some Indian code monkey. (Hell, I struggle with basic/intermediate
SQL SELECT statements.) I think writing code is much more like learning to hit
a curveball than it is, say, learning Excel. At the end of the day, there's a
certain innate aptitude for the task that goes into it.

Does it suck for someone like me who has the entrepreneurial bug and can't
code? Hell yeah, it really sucks. But I'm really good at all the other stuff,
and next time around, I know I'll be able to find a great technical co-
founder. (Or she'll find me to do the icky business stuff.)

~~~
gdee
Indian code monkey ?!?! {...} certain innate aptitude (that presumably they
don't have in your opinion){...}

wow

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rpcutts
Tits.

