

A Simple Filter to Weed Out Non-technical Co-founders - waxman
http://blog.waxman.me/a-simple-filter-for-weeding-out-non-technical

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michaeldhopkins
Great idea. I actually weed out potential co-founders by asking if they side
with the Imperial base commander or the Ewoks. If that doesn't work, I ask
them if they're more of a Thelma or a Louise.

Edit: let's not forget Alien vs. Predator. I don't want a guy who takes
forever stalking an idea. Execution is everything, and nothing executes like a
chestbursting alien.

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raghava
> Alien vs. Predator.

Few might prefer predator over alien for making efficient use of tools and
gadgets than resorting to sheer brute strength.

Confirmation bias at work?

Am wondering how it works the other way. Non-technical founders looking out
for technical co-founders asking similar questions. Or, maybe the banksters
asking apprentice traders on what they felt about Gordon Gekko?

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jbooth
Hang on, there are people who watched that movie and sympathized with the
Winkelvii? They were a cartoon character playing up every negative stereotype
of old money that exists.

That's like someone sympathizing with the villain from Die Hard or something.

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anamax
> That's like someone sympathizing with the villain from Die Hard or
> something.

Hey - I sympathize with the villain from Die Hard.

He had style, a good plan, including contingencies, and was doing a reasonable
job executing it. He even did an okay job adapting to the unexpected.

He was just overmatched. There's no shame in that.

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kirpekar
You want to qualify your relationship with a founder based solely on the
answer to a single question about a popular Hollywood flick?

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waxman
For these types of decisions (picking co-founders, hiring, etc.) you want no
false positives, which means that any legitimate red flag should be a deal-
breaker.

The cost of passing on the right person is far less than the cost of saying
yes to the wrong one (e.g. passing over a good biz dev guy who goes on to
succeed at another start-up vs. hiring a jerk who ruins your business then
sues you)

~~~
kirpekar
I think we're going to have to agree to disagree on this one.

"passing on the right person" = is often the difference between success and
failure.

"the cost of saying yes to the wrong one" = A few weeks wasted, and start
over.

Whatever you do, please don't write people off with one question. Engage with
them, build relationships and draw out their best. Has worked for me. Zuck or
Winkle, really does not matter.

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russorat
Thanks! I'm going to use this as a way to determine if the person I'm
interviewing with is an uppity douchebag.

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tomkarlo
I think he undercuts his own argument.

If the idea only takes four hours to build, and the result is a commercially
value product, then how can he argue the idea isn't the uniquely valuable
component, and his labor is really the commodity? Does he really believe that
_nobody_else_ can build it in 4 hours or so?

Obviously, execution is important. But if someone has an idea that's great and
doesn't require a lot of execution, then the majority of the value of the end
product should probably be assigned to the idea.

~~~
waxman
Most consumer web apps require many and frequent iterations before striking a
chord with users. Therefore, the ultimate great "idea" is usually arrived at
through a process of engineering and design tinkering, and not through a
singular, initial spark of genius.

The main differentiators in consumer web startups tend to be: the speed and
creativity with which the team can iterate, the quality of the user experience
and design, and, if all goes well, the ability of the architecture to scale.
The capacity to do these 3 things well is relatively rare. Finding a person or
a team with these skills is exceedingly difficult (especially in this talent
market).

So yeah, I do stand by my assertion that the starting-point idea _is_ the
commodity, and the ability to build and design a decently scalable web-app in
4 hours (and then get user feedback and push another version later that same
day) is a rare skill---especially on the open market, since most such
individuals are either well-employed at companies or working on their own.

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dwrowe
It seems like another indicator would be requiring anyone you want to share
the idea with to sign an NDA. Unless you're sharing an already developed
algorithm, or something as special sauce, the NDA just comes across as "My
idea the important part here".

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michaelpinto
I think a better question would be based on having watched Pirates of Silicon
Valley (but then again I'm old school)

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sskates
Who's the equivalent of the Winklevoss brothers in Pirates of Silicon Valley?
I thought everyone looked fairly good there.

~~~
michaelpinto
The point of the Winklevoss twins is that they aren't techies which may be why
I liked that silly made for TV movie so damn much!

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delineal
Based on the movie, Zuckerberg didn't have the decency to inform the people he
was working with that he'd moved on. The moment he stopped communicating with
them, a red flag should have gone up and they should have parted ways and
hired someone else. Both sides contributed to the end result. The Winkelvii
should have been more closely involved with the execution of the project. They
should have also formalized the relationship legally before allowing him to
work on it.

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krisrak
Here are somethings to watch out to weed out non-technical people in my
experience:

\- he says I just need someone to finish the coding part and thinks 90% is
done without it

\- he wants you to sign NDA before telling anything about the product
(remember if someone can steal your idea by just talking about it then its
probably not a good idea, tell him that)

\- he does not know enough about common stuff that a startup guy should be
aware of, like sxsw, techmeme, hacker news, names of top influencers/bloggers
in the industries (scoble, arrington, mg, laporte, dhh.... throw these names
out and watch his reaction)

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goombastic
This line of thinking is immature. If you walk in with mentalities like that
or dumb filters like the one described, all you will get is strife. We already
have enough of these silly dip-stick questions floating around in companies,
and HR teams trying these tricks.

My advice, take time, talk, and don't work with programmers or people who make
their judgements based on a movie plot. It only shows they might be emotional
and very difficult to work with.

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ramy_d
Do you honestly feel that your idea is far more valuable than my ability to
build it (which I could do in about 4 hours)?

is the shortcut you are talking about?

also, as a lot of people are talking about here, a pop culture question
(ultimatum?) isn't really appropriate for filtering out anything (except maybe
pop culture).

E: comma and spelling, geez

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jhuckestein
Let's not forget that the twins made at least 60 million dollars from NOTHING
but an idea and very little effort. That seems like an incredible business
model.

/s

~~~
bigiain
Hmmm, I wonder if there's already people out there working this angle? Maybe I
should get a team of shuckster-nontech-cofounder-wannabes together, create a
big list of relatively obvious ideas, propose the ideas to every up and coming
programmer/founder I can swindle a meeting with (and very carefully document
the meeting), then just sit back and wait for one of them to get wildly
successful with their variation on one of the obvious ideas and point some no-
win-no-fee lawyer at them...

