starting a startup

[Mr. Now]

You can't manage programmers if they do not respect your technical knowledge. Period !

Whoops, you dont have any technical knowledge? Prepare for a very bad experience.

[majesty2009]

[ QUOTE ]
This is a quote from Paul Grahams's essay "How to Start a Startup" ( http://www.paulgraham.com/start.html )

"In a technology startup, which most startups are, the founders should include technical people. During the Internet Bubble there were a number of startups founded by business people who then went looking for hackers to create their product for them. This doesn't work well. Business people are bad at deciding what to do with technology, because they don't know what the options are, or which kinds of problems are hard and which are easy. And when business people try to hire hackers, they can't tell which ones are good. Even other hackers have a hard time doing that. For business people it's roulette."

This quote seems a bit discouraging for those of us who aren't experienced programmers. How much weight do you attach to this quote (especially the bit about business type people not being able to hire qualified hackers because they don't know who is good)? How hard would it be to familiarize oneself with programming enough so you're able to at least speak/understand their language, if only generally? Does it mean that all people wanting to create a startup need to be hackers? (Surely it would help but it seems like Graham is saying it's a must.)

[/ QUOTE ]

I think you should read the book about Netscape. Its pretty interesting and I think you will see how a non programer can be sucessful with a tech startup.

Also Steve Jobs is not a programer. Bill Gates looks down on him for this. Whatever hes a great CEO in my opinion even though he probly made one of the biggest business blunders in the history of the world.

[Evan]

[ QUOTE ]

Also Steve Jobs is not a programer. Bill Gates looks down on him for this. Whatever hes a great CEO in my opinion even though he probly made one of the biggest business blunders in the history of the world.

[/ QUOTE ]
Steve Jobs isn't really relevant to this because Wozniak is the absolute paradigm of what Graham is talking about.

[SanONeill]

Netscape also had Marc Andreessen. Who was/is definitely technical.

[Mr. Now]

Clark wasnt exactly inept technically either, boys.

He also didnt fit in. Alot of entreprenuers are like this.

He is a very nice guy by the way.

[ QUOTE ]

Clark was born in Plainview, Texas and endured a difficult childhood. He dropped out of high school after being suspended, and spent four years in the Navy. Clark began taking night courses at Tulane University's University College, where despite his lack of a high school diploma, he was able to earn enough credits to be admitted to the University of New Orleans. There, Clark earned a Bachelor's degree and a Master's degree in physics, and then a PhD in computer science from the University of Utah in 1974. Clark served as an assistant professor at the University of California, Santa Cruz from 1974 to 1978, and then as an associate professor of electrical engineering at Stanford University from 1979 to 1982.


[/ QUOTE ]

...only Barksdale was inept technically/software wise.

Barksdale's definition of leadership: find a parade and get in front it.

See:
Barksdale quote

[lgas]

I've worked at 5 startups in the past. I co-founded the first one, I was employee #3 or 4 at the second one, about #70 at the third one, #3 at the fourth one and #60 or so at the last one. Since then I started my own consulting business and have just founded another startup. I've also done consulting work for half a dozen other startups.

This may be kind of obvious but my take is this: The best possible mix of founders of a startup is one really strong business development person and one really strong technical person. By technical person, I mean someone who has a background in whatever the specific business is -- in the case of internet startups, technical people are literally technical people. In the case of a restaurant, the technical person would be the head chef, etc.

As much as a lot of people would like to be able to do roles, most people are naturally much better in one capacity or the other. Also, I think it is invaluable to have a second person to use as a sounding board, for mutual support, etc. etc. Obviously you have the people should have a high trust level in each other, because there will be bad times as well as (hopefully) good times. You might be able to get away with 3+ founders, but in my experience two usually work well together, but with more than two there is a much greater chance of personality conflicts and other politics undermining the business.