This question comes up a lot: Should I learn to program? Also has been answered a lot. Here's my anecdotal experience in my early stage company to help you make your own decision:
First thing:
Learning to program and being a programmer are pretty different. Learning to program is not hard. Being a programmer and writing professional, production ready code is hard.
Second thing:
If the core of your business is software, then you or someone with equity needs to know how to program (not necessarily be a programmer). Emergencies happen, and when someone knows how to manipulate code on a basic level, lots of emergencies can be taken care of quickly and temporarily from the time they happen till the time your professional programmer can implement a permanent fix.
Third thing:
If you have basic code functionality working in MVP form, even if its embarrassingly shitty, then a professional programmer will be able to work faster. Imaging telling your general contractor how to build your house with a word doc or something. The answer is no. They need drawings/blueprints. And your shitty code can be a drawing. This translates into the programmer being respectful to you, you being respectful to the programmer, better communication, and lower costs (b/c faster work).
The core of my business is software, so I learned how to program. The innovation is in the software. I programmed my MVP from scratch, and it has basically allowed me to bootstrap more easily. My "outsourced" professional programmer knew exactly what to do, and gave me a good deal because of that. In going through the real pain of learning to program, then programming a functioning MVP, I figured out exactly what I wanted and better defined my problem and solution. Also, when the shit hits the fan and this guy isn't available, I can do what i need to do to put the fire out until he can fix it for real.
First thing:
Learning to program and being a programmer are pretty different. Learning to program is not hard. Being a programmer and writing professional, production ready code is hard.
Second thing:
If the core of your business is software, then you or someone with equity needs to know how to program (not necessarily be a programmer). Emergencies happen, and when someone knows how to manipulate code on a basic level, lots of emergencies can be taken care of quickly and temporarily from the time they happen till the time your professional programmer can implement a permanent fix.
Third thing:
If you have basic code functionality working in MVP form, even if its embarrassingly shitty, then a professional programmer will be able to work faster. Imaging telling your general contractor how to build your house with a word doc or something. The answer is no. They need drawings/blueprints. And your shitty code can be a drawing. This translates into the programmer being respectful to you, you being respectful to the programmer, better communication, and lower costs (b/c faster work).
The core of my business is software, so I learned how to program. The innovation is in the software. I programmed my MVP from scratch, and it has basically allowed me to bootstrap more easily. My "outsourced" professional programmer knew exactly what to do, and gave me a good deal because of that. In going through the real pain of learning to program, then programming a functioning MVP, I figured out exactly what I wanted and better defined my problem and solution. Also, when the shit hits the fan and this guy isn't available, I can do what i need to do to put the fire out until he can fix it for real.
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