[TalSafran]

LEARN IT YOURSELF. IT'S NOT HARD.

I am a developer that hangs out in startup circles and I get approached several times a week by "idea / business people" if I'm interested in joining a venture as a technical co-founder. My answer so far has always been no.

It's very hard to convince someone that your idea is golden. Even if you do find a co-founder, it's even harder to instill your ideology and passion into them. You should be founding projects with people you know already, not strangers. You don't want an employee -- you want a missionary.

Many non-technical people seem to think that developers lack creativity and need their guidance. What gave them this illusion? The majority of great web products came from people who could write a prototype. Do that and you'll attract attention from developers who will want to join your project.

Writing a prototype is not rocket science, and if you'll try it, you'll also see that programming is very fun and rewarding. Kate Ray hits the nail on the head -- all you need is regular old hard work. I started programming when I was 12 and it's not because I'm Doogie Howser. I just wanted to learn it, so I did.

[rue]

> IT'S NOT HARD.

YES IT IS.

[TalSafran]

heh. Maybe I should reiterate, this time with only a caps :)

LEARNING to program, with the goal of building a prototype or MVP to attract interest (investors, better devs) is not hard.

Programming WELL, as in solving large technical problems, is obviously hard. But how many founders stay on as technical leads?

Not many.

I saw Dennis Crowley (of Foursquare) speak a few weeks ago. He and Naveen built the prototype and as soon as they generated some interest, they hired Harry to be the dev lead so he could "fix up their crappy code."

The code for your prototype is allowed to be crappy. It probably SHOULD.

[rue]

Sure, many non-technical founders can pick up enough to put together some kind of a prototype. Some will not be able to, simply lacking the disposition. No harm trying if it does not detract from other necessary tasks.

[chr15]

Learning to code may suffice for building a prototype, but if your strengths and interests do not lie in coding, you're not going to be that good. You're better off finding money and hiring engineers. I'm not going to design, build, wire, pour concrete, etc for my own house. I would hire specialized contractors to do that.

Coding takes an immense about of focus, mental energy, and perseverance. You have to love solving problems. Sure, you can teach yourself basic if/else statements. But there's a threshold when coding becomes extremely difficult, especially when it comes to complex algorithms and mathematics.

[geophile]

If you are a non-techie founder, then yes, you probably can do it, but you should not. There have got to be a zillion other things that you should be doing -- raising funding, talking to potential users, researching the space, finding employees, finding office space, and yes, finding a tech co-founder.

I've been a tech co-founder a few times. If you can't convince me -- someone who wants to be working for a successful startup -- that your idea is worthwhile, I really doubt you will be able to convince users and investors either.

[TalSafran]

For a web startup, why would you look for an office and employees before having a product?

[geophile]

Employees to build the product perhaps?

Do things in whatever order you'd like, but I have a hard time believing that time spent learning to program, starting from zero, is an effective use of an entrepreneur's time.