

Ask HN: Yes, I can program, no I don't want to join your startup? - hippo33

My co-founder and I are working on our own startup (Launchbit), but despite this, we get approached all the time by non-technical aspiring entrepreneurs looking for developers.  Does this happen to you?<p>Just for fun, we were talking today about what it would take for a non-technical aspiring entrepreneur to poach us for their startup.  At first, I thought that nothing would, but in contemplating it more, it was interesting to think about what criteria was most important.  Would love your thoughts in this survey (and comments below) -- will compile the results and post them  on HN when we've collected and analyzed them.  Thanks!<p>http://bit.ly/hOoexC
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bdclimber14
All the time. I typically respond with "What's going to stop me from taking
your idea, developing it on my own, and having 100% equity?"

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SingAlong
That's a good question.

If you look back in time, you'll definitely find a bunch of non-technical
people looking to start technical businesses. Some of them have good track
records of churning success out of it too.

Among these "non-technical" people, you'll find that some aren't entirely non-
technical and they do understand what it takes to lure their target audience
into using/buying what their business sells. For example: I have a cousin, a
mechanical engineer, who's always looking to do mobile apps. He doesn't have
the skill to develop them himself, but does have sufficient knowledge required
to deal with any technical guy and reads a lot (possibilities on the specific
platform, understands technical terms like 'Activity' understands that web
services called 'APIs' are available for use, etc).

But again there are exceptions, and I guess we've all come across people who
just blindly want to develop a GroupOn or Facebook clone, because the original
ones were successful. These are the ones I would clearly stay away from by
just politely giving them a good reason or try pushing some real business
questions into their mind (like "do you have something different to offer?").

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wladimir
It's interesting how mechanical engineers pass as 'non-technical' these days
:)

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SingAlong
well, when I said 'non-technical' I was referring to those who do not want to
put in the time to learn to understand the internals or the process of
creation (where internals==mobile app development in the above case). In this
case, IMO my cousin can be labelled so, since he doesn't want to put in the
time to skim thru the development of a simple app and just wants others to do
it. Again, opinions differ and I would love to hear what you have in mind.

Apologies for not being clear earlier.

P.S: That cousin of mine is a mech engg but works for an accountancy firm :)

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RiderOfGiraffes
Clickable: <http://bit.ly/hOoexC>

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hippo33
thanks! missed that

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JoachimSchipper
There's no way to get a clickable link in a submission - hence why there is
usually a "clickable" comment (which just includes the URL - news.arc turns it
into a link automatically.)

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hippo33
ah thanks! still kinda noobish to talking on HN. I mostly lurk.

