@christianmusthaves I read through your previous post a bit as well, and man it's wild the type of advice people give, and how out of touch a lot of it is considering this is the YC subreddit, where hopefully these people have actually watched some of the videos...
I'm a non-technical co-founder. Yes non-technical people are important for your business.
If you lay out your specific needs, I think the questions you should ask and qualifications required become clear:
- Someone to either market or sell the product
- Talk to customers
- Raise money
- Work together on problems to come up with potential solutions and prioritize work
- Possibly someone to help design things
Ideas are obviously not top importance here, but user interviews are only part of the entire space of work.
I came to YC SUS and co-founder match with this in hand:
- Finished figma designs with some code done. I learned to code while looking for a co-founder to try to build an initial super simple prototype.
- Go to market strategy: insight on the problem, user segment, size of market, and very clear plan to get initial users. (it worked)
- Proven track-record in marketing: I ran growth at another startup I co-founded to 25M users
- I had proven expertise / understanding in our specific market as well. I was also already part of our target community on reddit and discord. Direct proven access to our customers on a daily basis. I had talked to a lot of users already, and had access to some community made documentation and tools.
1: You want a hustler, someone that has put in some real leg-work already
Have they designed something? Got something built? Tested a landing page? Posted for feedback on social media? Video recorded customer interviews? Do they have a clear GTM? Competitor research deep dives?
No one is waiting around for a technical founder. They're putting in work today.
2: You want someone with expertise in the market
This isn't just interviewed a couple people and researched online. They may have been involved in this particular space for a long time already, just adjacently somehow. The mind maze / idea space behind a problem can take a long time to solve, so its best if you start when it's already partially solved.
3: Track record in sales and marketing
Just like how they expect you to have built product before, you probably want them to show you that they've sold something.
I met a college freshman the other day that built a social media brand himself to millions of followers. I learned SEO in college and built a popular blog.
Remember, if you're building a potentially VC backable startup you're looking for someone that can take you to that $1B mark. You aren't looking for just anyone to join your startup. You're looking for someone that is AMAZING.
Amazing people show it often. They lean toward action. They ask engaging questions and answer insightfully.
4: Get along well and great communication
You are building a company TOGETHER. You are ideating solutions TOGETHER.
In the end you should do a 2 week sprint to be sure on how you work (could be 4 depending). You prove you can build something. They prove they can get some eyeballs on it and get feedback.