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12 Comments

How to bridge the Entrepreneur / Developer divide?

Talent

There are a lot of very talented developers on IH. 👍

There are a lot of very talented entrepreneurs on IH. 👍

Foot in both camps

Those who sit in the intersection of those two circles must surely stand the best chance of success.

But what about those who don't?

Foot in one camp

Entrepreneurs want to know enough to be able to ensure developers are doing the right thing.

Developers want to be convinced that Entrepreneurs are making the right decisions.

But it can be a bit like men are from Mars and women are from Venus when they interact.

So we typically get entrepreneurs trying to be developers and developers trying to be entrepreneurs.

How to improve

What's the way to improve this situation?

One immediate suggestion is partnering but does that really happen on IH?

  1. 1

    Good entrepreneurs seem very few. There are many people with ideas but virtually none who can bring sales or funding to the table. Those that can don’t need developers as partners. They have money. They can hire developers.

    1. 1

      Fair point though see @fnfcom's comment on this post about difficulty entrepreneurs can have finding developers.

  2. 1

    This is why entrepreneurship is not a process that can be easily engineered ... is about people, not just processes and tasks: human relations.

    It is really hard to build strong relations between team mates, and even harder if those work remotely, it's a huge challenge. But trust the other side and working hard is what I do and what I expect from my mates.

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      Agreed though there are techniques to help accelerate trust. Depends on your starting point.

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        what techniques do you recommend? having worked together before is a great thing. I believe that if one of the entrepreneurs is "leading" the project (I think it should be this way) he should try to get to work with "candidates" before they become company partners eventually.

        1. 2

          Soft techniques as you say no engineering process. For trust, Mission building, Value sharing, Team building exercises. For selection, task sharing games with a disruptive coordinator can reveal how people/teams react under pressure. These can help when new team formed or considering candidates. A coach I know suggests book called Speed of Trust for trust specifically though I can't vouch personally for it. For working with candidates before becoming partners I assume Vesting Schedule, maybe you have experience of that.

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            Thanks Rab, this is quite interesting! and will definitely check that book out.

  3. 1

    Am entrepreneurs and an investor , and what you stated is the truth, its has take me many years to get a developer who could turn my Ideas as an entrepreneur into services and products online... Most developers have a great challenge in going into the mind of the entrepreneur and downloading the mind of the entrepreneur. An entrepreneur is not a businessman or a business lady... Entrepreneurs build their Ideas into Systems which are salable in the long run, while businessmen/women do business, get the difference.

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      Was it just trial and error until it clicked. What could have made it happen quicker for you.

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        Its hasn't been quicker, its took us close to 12 years to get the right team or the right people in the bus, not quite easy, its requires Patient.

  4. 1

    Wow, this really hit home. I love the Mars and Venus reference.

    1. 2

      Hey. Thanks. Trust also an obvious enabler/barrier. Just wish it was all more fluid.

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