What general background does your founder have (business or tech side) and what do you think the pros and cons of coming from either one are

[silent_wife]

Been thinking a lot about starting a company. I come from the business strategy side of things. The main detractor from the business side is obviously that I don’t know how to build the tech I’d envision. But I know the market, I understand what customers want, lead a team, etc. it seems like people from the tech side diminish the value of having business experience but it seems to me that they are both important and things can’t get done without both (e.g you may build something great but if that doesn’t solve a problem customers are having, you have no business case, and you don’t understand the market context, you’re fucked. And obviously if you have a great idea and know how to run and org and shit like that but you don’t know how to build out your idea it’s pointless).

I’m probably 4-5 years out from actually starting a business if I go that route, so really just trying to get the lay of the land.

 

[satonvn]

@silent_wife Coming from the technical side, I can say this: I don't care how cool your "billion dollar idea" is if you're not constantly validating and selling it (at minimum, getting people on a waitlist), before I even begin building the MVP. Far too many non-technical co-founders think they can rest on the laurels of their brilliant idea, and the only "selling" they try to do in advance is to investors.

 

[greenrock]

@satonvn If they’re going to be an idea guy, they better be a subject matter expert with at least several years of professional work experience under the belt and putting up some serious cash to bankroll it all.

There’s no way I’m taking a pay cut and equity is worthless 99.99% of the time. Every idea guy I’ve met ultimately disrespected and devalued the people wholly responsible for making their ideas come to fruition.

 

[silent_wife]

@greenrock How much work experience in the relevant domain would you expect? Definitely coming from the idea guy side of things

 

[christanboy69]

@silent_wife Your questions are so clueless given how your post was patronizing. Another reason pure business founders don’t get respect. They earn it.

 

[silent_wife]

@christanboy69 I think you’d have to be very sensitive to be offended by any of this. Also seems that this sub leans to the tech side so it seems I should expect a certain skew to the answers, although for the most part some excellent points are being made in the threads on this post overall. Not yours, but definitely others.

 

[satonvn]

Also: Anyone who's been around will laugh at you if you try to get them to sign an NDA, as so many "idea guys" do.

 

[tunnelpalestine]

@satonvn I'd echo the sentiment that one of the biggest pitfalls for founders is believing they have a "billion dollar idea".

That said, I wouldn't pin this on non-technical founders because it's is equally common amongst technical founders. It just comes from a different angle - that the idea or solution they've come up with is "cool" because it's technically brilliant. So the same applies to both sides

Ultimately, it doesn't matter if you're technical or non-technical - the framework is the same. Love the problem, not the idea. Dig into the problem space, and understand the use cases and build a solution that solves those urgent pain points.

 

[silent_wife]

@tunnelpalestine Love the problem not the idea is great advice

 

[tunnelpalestine]

@silent_wife I left a comment as a follow-up to another response that might be helpful but wanted to offer a more holistic response.

At the end of the day, it doesn't matter what background you come from. Building a startup, you're going to have to make it work by filling in the gaps of the stuff that you don't know. As a business-centric founder, the biggest gap is likely the technical aspect. And that's normally filled in by finding a technical co-founder. Some have found success (though tougher) by initially working with contractors or some even teach themselves how to code.

But these gaps extend far beyond business and tech. You could have a sales background but you'll still have to figure out how to deal with the various flavors of marketing, legal, finance one side and your technical co-founder might be an engineer but is unlikely an expert on product, research and design.

The most important trait of an entrepreneur is recognizing that you can't do everything but have the willingness and motivation to learn as much as you can about something in a short period of time to get you to the next milestone. Enough to get you through until you can hire someone to help you do it. That's what counts.

 

[silent_wife]

@tunnelpalestine Would you rather have a tech co founder that’s a former product manager or former engineer?

 

[tunnelpalestine]

@silent_wife It depends.

For me, I have a product and business background. But I also know enough technical stuff to be dangerous. What made sense for me was to find a deeply technical co-founder to complement me.

If you were to ask my co-founder, who's deeply technical. He was looking for someone who understood the customer, how to work with them and how to sell to them. Someone who knew how to think about building a product alongside customers.

So...it depends It doesn't matter who you are - as long as you're great at what you do - you just need to find someone who complements you in the right way.

 

[mister_kisses]

@silent_wife Engineer 99 times out of 100. What is a PM going to do from 0 to 1?

 

[crustyfrog]

@silent_wife Young startup needs not so much of a business strategy, just a pinch. What it needs in masses is lots of hard work on either building things or selling things. You need to be good at selling, cos IT people are builders, normally.

 

[satonvn]

@crustyfrog Not "either." Lots of hard work on both. But there's seldom if ever a point in building something you're not already selling. "Build it and they will come" is a dumb baseball/ghost movie quote, not a sound business strategy.

 

[danjpos]

@silent_wife General rule of thumb investors look for: 1 product founder, 1 sales founder. You need to be able to get product out fast in the early days and the only way to do that is by constantly talking with customers

 

[shir]

@silent_wife My co-founder and I are in the bootstrap phase but before we decided to go our own route, we've worked with many devs on different teams we've been apart of. Something I cannot stress enough is understanding the technical side as much as you can. Not just the product and how it runs but also how the teams (and the individuals themselves) on the tech side run, work, their highs and lows, workflows, dislikes/likes, etc.

Our tech team (of 2) understand they're important and integral to us just as we are to them, it's an equal partnership. The core team we have is pretty user centric vs business or investor focused (at this time), so at the end of the day we know we're building a product users will enjoy.

And our guys on the tech side can rest easy knowing all other facets of user acquisition, admin, cashflow, costs, partnerships, and all the things they don't want to do is handled.

 

[mister_kisses]

@silent_wife You say ‘business strategy side of things’. What does that mean? You are in sales? If so great! You will be selling the first $1M worth of product. There is minimal strategy in 0-1 stage, it’s all about can you speak to lots of customers and get customers to buy from you. I have over a decade of sass sales experience and when cofounder dating I brought to the table LOIs that I closed without a product. My cofounder is a worldclass engineer and if I came to him on just an idea he would not have moved forward with me.