

Businessperson With a Web Startup Idea Looking to Find a Tech Partner? Read This First. - transburgh
http://www.centernetworks.com/looking-for-a-tech-partner

======
mixmax
Hmm...

<sarcasm>

I have this great idea for a web service. Haven't thought it out completely
but it will be kind of like in between google and twitter.

Want to be my partner? I've got the idea, you program it. And the idea is so
great that it will virtually sell itself...

Anyone interested?

</sarcasm>

~~~
NSX2
</more sarcasm>

I wouldn't dream of partnering with programmers because they're all so wise
with deep experience from a wide range of experiences.

I tried partnering up with programmers before but they all informed me they're
busy becoming billionaires by setting up their one-person companies to be sold
to google on the basis of their awesome algorithms that load YouTube videos
1.23% faster, or their awesome multiplatform databases that connect my car
garage opener via satellite to my blackberry, so I can know the instant my
garage door opener's battery is running low, or a bluetooth enabled automatic
public restroom toilet flusher that links to the ruby-based website they just
built so I can know when all my friends are using the restroom, or any other
such random multi-billion dollar ideas that lots of people are willing to pay
for that every programmer I ever come across seems to secretly be working on.

I can't for the life of me figure out why I keep running into the same
brilliant, wise, full-of perpsective programmers at the same
parties/meetups/conferences and somehow the folks at google STILL haven't
discovered the business value of their Ajax enabled fantasy
poker/football/pokemom/Skoble stream mashup, but I refrain from commenting
because I know that all programmers everywhere know a lot more about
businesses and how to start one in a down, non-speculative economy than
anybody anywhere.

</more sarcasm>

~~~
chaostheory
"...why I keep running into the same brilliant, wise, full-of perpsective
programmers at the same parties/meetups... because I know that all programmers
everywhere know a lot more about businesses... than anybody anywhere."

I could be wrong but have you ever thought that maybe since you had trouble
convincing/selling your idea to the programmers themselves that they logically
concluded that you'd probably have a hard time convincing/selling to other
people too? or that since you have no track record, that its hard to prove
your busines acumen... Knowing about textbook business is different from being
able to execute it in real life...

~~~
NSX2
"I could be wrong but have you ever thought that maybe since you had trouble
convincing/selling your idea to the programmers themselves that they logically
concluded that you'd probably have a hard time convincing/selling to other
people too?

Well, since it usually never even GETS to my idea because they're busy showing
me their brilliant technical features that few people would use and even fewer
would pay money for ...

Plus, I don't trust the business acumen of most programmers. In 1999 I got
turned down by Phil Greenspun because he was 100% convinced he could build a
successful company building $1-5 million a pop corporate websites forever
based on (1) Oracle costing a million per licence then (2) no other
technologies existing to compete with Oracle (3) complete obvliviousness to
offshore development trends (4) never-ending bubble enabling people to pay
that much for a website forever and ever.

Guess he really showed me his business acumen when a year and a half later the
VCs outmaneuvered him out of his startup.

So, since most programmers admire his business acumen, by transition most
programmers in my mind have ... um ... not too much business acumen.

"or that since you have no track record, that its hard to prove your busines
acumen...

See above.

Or my current experience this summer with a programmer who left my profitable
business model and private equity relationships to work on his awesome idea
which currently has a blog with ... um .. 3 subscribers (myself being one) and
a never ending stream of posts with "o" comments.

" Knowing about textbook business is different from being able to execute it
in real life...

I know nothing about textbooks. Just a market with a need and willingness to
pay and a relationship to a CEO at a Dubai based equity firm willing to invest
if I can build a "showable" example.

I would have thought in today's environment a profitable business model and
people willing to invest would be of some value ...

But I could be wrong. Maybe bush is right and we're not coming into a
recession/depression, but are merely in a "slowing down business time" as he
put it that's due to reverse any second now, which will mean come this summer
Ruby/Ajax based sites with no paying customers and no business model in the
foreseeable future will be all the rage again.

------
epall
Maybe this isn't the right place to ask, but what if you're a tech partner
looking for a businessperson? There seems to be a lot of talk out there about
evaluating geeks, but how do you sift through all the chaff of idea guys?

~~~
bfioca
I think a great way is to befriend the business executives (or better yet,
founders) at your current job. Impress them, be their go to guy, put in your
time, and then be the one they pick to go with them when they leave to go do
their next big thing.

------
Mistone
he outlines a good idea vetting process, which is worth while for both
business dude and hacker dude(ette) alike.

