Totally different skill sets! Big moment for me when I read this in E-Myth :)
2
Your article is great.
I experienced the following (at early stages):
Marketing: most developers don't know how to market a product properly.
Time management: developers have a habit of making software products to efficient and design which is not really necessary at an early stage.
1
Thanks!
In general, a lot of people don't know how to market products, but some developers even despise marketing. I've got a few angry comments in /r/programming from the ones who still believe that "good software sells itself" and doing marketing is unnecessary.
2
Wow really? I don't believe that phrase myself, Facebook and other platform didn't sell itself, I remember knowing Facebook from an advert (in school years).
I guess most programmers don't know the potential of marketing
1
All right, this article is just the thing I was looking for! Everything is on point, gives a nice perspective on what obstacles are there for developers in business (especially I agree on introversion and perfectionism).
P.S. your product looks interesting, and illustrations there are really cute!
1
Дякую! :)
1
This article assumes that "developer" is an identity rather than simply one skill among many. It also overlooks the fact that developers are dramatically over-represented among the most successful entrepreneurs of the past two generations.
Steve Jobs, Elon Musk, Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerberg, PG, etc were all good at other things and ended up spending most their time doing other things, but they could all code. Not only that, but they could all code in C and manage their own memory if necessary! (Though PG would probably have just used C to write a Lisp interpreter and then built from there.)
The only other hard skill I can think of as common in billionaires as coding is finance. Perhaps a better focus would be, "What other skills will help a coder succeed in business?"
2
"Developer" in this article is not an identity but a professional background that brings in some professional biases.
Instead of a few extremely lucky survivors, look at the numerous stories of developers failing because of the reasons listed in the article. For example, this one.
1
Instead of a few extremely lucky survivors, look at the numerous stories of developers failing because of the reasons listed in the article. For example, this one.
As stories of failed businesses go, that one is very tame! I have friends and family who have gone through much worse in failed restaurant and non-technical services-related businesses.
While most of those at the very top encountered some luck, they also had tremendous advantages both from understanding technological changes but also from systems-level thinking skills.
Speaking to your broader point, as a population, people who have coding skills find entrepreneurial success at far higher rates than those who can't. The same is true of people with online marketing skills or in-person sales skills. None of these skills are mutually exclusive, by the way. People with none of these skills will, on average, be less likely to successfully become entrepreneurial than people with one, who in turn have a more difficult time getting started than people with all of the above skills.
In my own case, I ran two non-technical businesses with modest success and then chose to add development skills to my talent stack so that I could pursue a different sort of business with larger upsides. Others start with other points of leverage first. Either way, I reject the hypothesis that having development skills makes someone bad at business. It fails to stand up to scrutiny either at the level of analysis of examining the highest achievers or at level of surveying the broader population.
1
As stories of failed businesses go, that one is very tame!
Yes, this is just the latest one I've read. :)
Speaking to your broader point, as a population, people who have coding skills find entrepreneurial success at far higher rates than those who can't.
Even from my tech-savvy bubble, I've seen more non-technical successful businessmen than ones with an engineering background. Often techies play a secondary role (think Jobs & Woz) or even outright exploited. Anyway, both of our views are based on anecdotal evidence.
None of these skills are mutually exclusive, by the way.
Yes, but in general developers tend to have an advantage in system-level thinking and disadvantage in social and marketing skills. I have spent many years fixing this imbalance in myself and still not finished.
Either way, I reject the hypothesis that having development skills makes someone bad at business.
The development skills on their own don't, but a specific mindset does. I'm not sure what comes first – this mindset or choosing an engineering career, but it definitely exists.
1
This should be mandatory reading for EVERY developer looking to start a software business! Well written!
1
Thank you! This is actually my goal: writing the guides that would have helped me when I was starting.
1
Great article and I think this is such an introspective and wonderful piece of content for engineers to read.
1
Thank you!
1
Ivan - thank you for taking the time to write and share this wonderful article.
Developer or not...EVERY SINGLE entrepreneur will need to get comfortable with the idea that they need to get outside of their comfort zone if they hope to build a product that users love.
Most people I talk to on Indie Hackers KNOW they need to spend more time talking to users, refining their landing page, writing blog posts, marketing, and sales...but most struggle to consistently follow through and do it.
I get it (and I do the same thing). We all have a bias to want to do more of what we're good at (for me, it's product design) and try to avoid the things we're not good at (for me, it's marketing).
What I've also seen is that even though marketing and sales and talking to users seems daunting at first...if you make a commitment to do just a little bit every day, it will get easier!
I've found that surrounding myself with like-minded people can be a good catalyst to start on something new (that I'm not good at).
If we both make a commitment to do something, and I see you follow through, then I'll do it too (and vice versa).
Now comes the shameless plug...if you think accountability buddies could help you follow through and do more marketing / sales / etc, check out my project (www.tribefive.me).
Cheers!
Jonathan
1
Hi Jonathan! Thank you!
Yes, I think it is one of the hardest parts of being an entrepreneur – switching from somewhat deterministic internal business processes to marketing and promotion that are full of guesswork and dumb luck.
1
Spot on! However...it's virtually a guarantee that if you DON'T invest time to market and promote and talk to users, then you'll never find that elusive product market fit ;)
Totally agree with all of this!
As far as overthinking and perfectionism are concerned, this is also a great explanation. Most smart founders fall pray to this fatal assumption: "If you understand the technical work, you understand a business that does that technical work."
Totally different skill sets! Big moment for me when I read this in E-Myth :)
Your article is great.
I experienced the following (at early stages):
Marketing: most developers don't know how to market a product properly.
Time management: developers have a habit of making software products to efficient and design which is not really necessary at an early stage.
Thanks!
In general, a lot of people don't know how to market products, but some developers even despise marketing. I've got a few angry comments in /r/programming from the ones who still believe that "good software sells itself" and doing marketing is unnecessary.
Wow really? I don't believe that phrase myself, Facebook and other platform didn't sell itself, I remember knowing Facebook from an advert (in school years).
I guess most programmers don't know the potential of marketing
All right, this article is just the thing I was looking for! Everything is on point, gives a nice perspective on what obstacles are there for developers in business (especially I agree on introversion and perfectionism).
P.S. your product looks interesting, and illustrations there are really cute!
Дякую! :)
This article assumes that "developer" is an identity rather than simply one skill among many. It also overlooks the fact that developers are dramatically over-represented among the most successful entrepreneurs of the past two generations.
Steve Jobs, Elon Musk, Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerberg, PG, etc were all good at other things and ended up spending most their time doing other things, but they could all code. Not only that, but they could all code in C and manage their own memory if necessary! (Though PG would probably have just used C to write a Lisp interpreter and then built from there.)
The only other hard skill I can think of as common in billionaires as coding is finance. Perhaps a better focus would be, "What other skills will help a coder succeed in business?"
"Developer" in this article is not an identity but a professional background that brings in some professional biases.
Instead of a few extremely lucky survivors, look at the numerous stories of developers failing because of the reasons listed in the article. For example, this one.
As stories of failed businesses go, that one is very tame! I have friends and family who have gone through much worse in failed restaurant and non-technical services-related businesses.
While most of those at the very top encountered some luck, they also had tremendous advantages both from understanding technological changes but also from systems-level thinking skills.
Speaking to your broader point, as a population, people who have coding skills find entrepreneurial success at far higher rates than those who can't. The same is true of people with online marketing skills or in-person sales skills. None of these skills are mutually exclusive, by the way. People with none of these skills will, on average, be less likely to successfully become entrepreneurial than people with one, who in turn have a more difficult time getting started than people with all of the above skills.
In my own case, I ran two non-technical businesses with modest success and then chose to add development skills to my talent stack so that I could pursue a different sort of business with larger upsides. Others start with other points of leverage first. Either way, I reject the hypothesis that having development skills makes someone bad at business. It fails to stand up to scrutiny either at the level of analysis of examining the highest achievers or at level of surveying the broader population.
Yes, this is just the latest one I've read. :)
Even from my tech-savvy bubble, I've seen more non-technical successful businessmen than ones with an engineering background. Often techies play a secondary role (think Jobs & Woz) or even outright exploited. Anyway, both of our views are based on anecdotal evidence.
Yes, but in general developers tend to have an advantage in system-level thinking and disadvantage in social and marketing skills. I have spent many years fixing this imbalance in myself and still not finished.
The development skills on their own don't, but a specific mindset does. I'm not sure what comes first – this mindset or choosing an engineering career, but it definitely exists.
This should be mandatory reading for EVERY developer looking to start a software business! Well written!
Thank you! This is actually my goal: writing the guides that would have helped me when I was starting.
Great article and I think this is such an introspective and wonderful piece of content for engineers to read.
Thank you!
Ivan - thank you for taking the time to write and share this wonderful article.
Developer or not...EVERY SINGLE entrepreneur will need to get comfortable with the idea that they need to get outside of their comfort zone if they hope to build a product that users love.
Most people I talk to on Indie Hackers KNOW they need to spend more time talking to users, refining their landing page, writing blog posts, marketing, and sales...but most struggle to consistently follow through and do it.
I get it (and I do the same thing). We all have a bias to want to do more of what we're good at (for me, it's product design) and try to avoid the things we're not good at (for me, it's marketing).
What I've also seen is that even though marketing and sales and talking to users seems daunting at first...if you make a commitment to do just a little bit every day, it will get easier!
I've found that surrounding myself with like-minded people can be a good catalyst to start on something new (that I'm not good at).
If we both make a commitment to do something, and I see you follow through, then I'll do it too (and vice versa).
Now comes the shameless plug...if you think accountability buddies could help you follow through and do more marketing / sales / etc, check out my project (www.tribefive.me).
Cheers!
Jonathan
Hi Jonathan! Thank you!
Yes, I think it is one of the hardest parts of being an entrepreneur – switching from somewhat deterministic internal business processes to marketing and promotion that are full of guesswork and dumb luck.
Spot on! However...it's virtually a guarantee that if you DON'T invest time to market and promote and talk to users, then you'll never find that elusive product market fit ;)