So, I have been thinking about this a lot recently and want to get some thoughts.

The internet is a great place for entrepreneurs, but what if you don't know the technical side?

Personally, I'm not a technical guy. I wish I was, but I wasn't productive when I was younger and was guided down the "wrong" path in college. And as of now, I don't have the time to become a star programmer.

So, I've thought, I wish I just had a friend that could program. A technical co-founder. Unfortunately, I don't have any such friends. So what's the solution?

I've found the following articles that point out two varying opinions. I want to get your thoughts.

1. Technical Co-founder: first "hire"? - Passionate Intensity

To summarize: you can't hire a technical co-founder. You have to find someone and develop a relationship. Someone who is there from the start. They like to point out that in Silicon Valley, the founder will be technical and they hire out the business portion. For the author...

"Your co-founder should be there before the company even exists, otherwise it’s not a company."

2. - Thisisgoingtobebig.com - Need a Technical Co-founder? Hire a Product Design Lead First

Here the author points out the importance of DESIGN. They say the following:

"The reality is, a lot of the stuff being built now isn’t rocket science."

Please assume that the following can be learned by the business founder. While I am not trying to say design is easier, it is less daunting to learn than programming. So, I think if a business founder wants to do more, they can accomplish this.

"With a good user experience designer, a business founder can wind up with a complete spec--one that has been thoroughly tested in front of users and is well thought out in terms of what it aims to get users to do. Hand this to a competant outsourced development shop and what you've got is a great start. Contrast that with finding the best developer you can find, but giving that person a poorly
designed and conceived product to build and you're not going to wind up anywhere."

What do you think!

Do you feel it's necessary to have a technical co-founder? One that is with you from the start?
Highly recommended with complex technology

Do you feel that you can be your own designer and create a comprehensive, complete spec of your internet business, and hand it off to a developer to develop?
Only if your project is so simple that you could train someone quickly and the developers are like replaceable McDonald's workers

I outsource in volume. People are generally unreliable and I will NEVER outsource larger projects, which can't be fully understood within 30 minutes.

What's the incentive of an outsourced person for you to succeed?

JayKid said:

"With a good user experience designer, a business founder can wind up with a complete spec--one that has been thoroughly tested in front of users and is well thought out in terms of what it aims to get users to do. Hand this to a competant outsourced development shop and what you've got is a great start. Contrast that with finding the best developer you can find, but giving that person a poorly
designed and conceived product to build and you're not going to wind up anywhere."

Click to expand...

Wherever this is quoted from, it's a heavy underestimation of importance of development work. Sounds more like a sales pitch.

And it's so super-vague. Google, Facebook, you name it - are they super awesomely designed websites or their strength is something else?

So what's the priority depends solely on specific requirements of your project.


About your question on technical co-founder, I think it may be a good idea, just determine the terms upfront, as when success comes people sometimes tend to change and get greedy.

If you can sell, a tech co founder is important. If you can't sell, then a tech co founder isn't important. My friend is an English major. At age 26 he sold a media/content management solution to a large Canadian telecom for a quarter mil. Then he hired the techies shortly afterwards.

A paying customer is key. With a paying customer, everything is possible.

I'm starting out with my Tech Startup right now and this is the issue that I'm facing personally. I'm non-technical and it's just been really hard and difficult for me, as I can't make changes or further develop the site or add features, etc.

Right now I'm trying to attract talent and help. I'm doing everything I can to find programmers that I can build/develop a relationship with that are willing to join and help me out. I have found one so far and he seems like a really nice, funny, mellow, and awesome guy. Even if he helps out a little and sticks around for a few weeks, that alone will have helped me tremendously.

I regret not starting or launching my Tech Startup when my ex was around, he was a sr. programmer and it would be a great partnership as I suck at anything super technical.