Should non technical founders drop their idea only for lacking tech skills or not finding the right technical co-founder?
Justin Kan stated that one of red flags when getting pitched by a tech startup is the inability to build your own project, meaning someone is pitching a technology startup but can’t build technology. If you are a tech startup you should be able to build tech.
Here’s our take on this
This leaves non technical founders with a huge disadvantage when their startup idea could be the next Microsoft. So, should non technical founders drop their idea only for lacking tech skills or not finding the right technical co-founder?
Jack Ma, founder and chairman of Alibaba with market capitalization of almost $420 billion, says “I know nothing about technology”. He instead brought attributes to his team.
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Yes, Of course, you should do that.
Who knows you could get great help
Possibly an unpopular opinion but:
Businesses exist to make money.
The person with the skill to make money always has a massive advantage over someone who does not.
Most startups fail because they don't bring in enough money. And that's because they are often started by technical founders and are focused on bringing a specific product to market rather than creating a belief system around which they can form a community.
If I had to bet on who between a world-class marketer & a world-class product creator would create the more successful business, I would choose the world-class marketer every day of the week and twice on Sundays.
That being said. Having both is the goal. Both need each other if they want to reach the height of their potential.
As a non technical founder of an early stage cybersecurity startup, you do not have to drop your idea or business. You can leverage platforms like UpWork or Fiverrr to get the technical side while you sell and operate the business.
Have a technical co founder is definitely a huge advantage though. I started as a solo founder and just recently brought on my first engineer as a my co founder. I worked with him at a past job, he started helping me on parts of the business and now is my technical co founder.
Moral of the story, keep executing and it will fall into place. You will either find someone that fits the role (technical + culture) or build the right team of technical folks that you can trust.
Its not impossible, its just how you approach it. Don't focus on the fear of not having that technical co founder. If you build a product people want, the rest will follow.
Knowing how to spot a real pain people are willing to pay for and selling on it is much more important than having the chops to execute on it.
Sorry to say, but the most brilliant coders are rarely the most successful in entrepreneurship.
An idea has very little value. The value you have is the ability to execute.