[lsc]

If you can't code, and you can get funding, you probably want to try to get funding, then use the funding to attract talent.

Really, you want a technical co-founder, but if this is the first thing you've done and you don't have cash, that will be difficult. A business guy without money is like a technical person who doesn't have completed projects on his resume.

[bloomshed]

Finding a technical co-founder has been surprisingly difficult as I've worked through my network of college buddies. The project is risky and I think my buddies who are also trying to establish their careers are more tentative than I thought they would be about this.

The people who like this project the most are the industry contacts I've pitched to. Essentially I've got three believers in my product: the IP lawyer I consulted with in fall of '09 when this whole thing started, the former coworker who is also a "guerrilla-style" marketer/graphic designer/photographer, and my current coder who I've contracted to do $2K of work to build the alpha prototype.

As far as investors go, I think the recession of '08 shook people's perceptions of Wall St. and made it easier for startups to argue for funding from individuals. I make the case of, "Hey, you lost how much in your mutual fund? This product is a high risk to be sure but the potential return for a small amount of cash is astronomical." I never say those words exactly of course but that's a theme of my financial argument to investors.

Its very very cheap to start a web company and I'm trying to run it that way.

As far as my status of being a nontech guy without money, that's true to a certain extent because I have no formal training. I have been working a lot on developing the marketing and product design end of things. Graphic design has been a hobby of mine for a long time so I've been doing all the initial UI design. I guess that's my "sweat" contribution to the thing so far.

There's always talk of "value" with startups. I would argue my "value" to my startup is in the fundraising, conceptual development, and UI design end of things. I communicate well with investors, I'm comfortable speaking to people because of my teaching experience, I know the difference between selling and educating (thanks to two failed attempts in sales) but I can do both if necessary. I also have talent in graphic design and can create meaningful mockups to guide coding development. People pay for those two functions in the industry. A lot of R&D money goes into developing ideas (Google Wave anyone?) so the conceptual work I've been doing is also not without value.

The only difference is that I don't have formal training so it takes me longer to develop these things to industry standard formats because I don't know what developers need to create a quality product. I'm learning though.

[lsc]

I'm not saying you don't have value to bring... just like the programmer who hasn't yet completed a major project, you might be brilliant, but you might not be. The thing is, choosing a bad/useless co founder is nearly always fatal to the venture, so people can be a little conservative.

If some business guy without money approaches me and claims he knows how to raise money, well, maybe he does and maybe he doesn't. How would I know? but if the same guy approaches me and can prove that he's already raised $bignum dollars from various investors, then I at least know he's good at raising money. I mean, that's not the whole of the business guy job, but it's certainly an important part.

[bloomshed]

I hear you. No worries.

I've been running into some dominant themes on HN as I've been participating and learning. This is my first project so usually when I say I can't code, HNers say, "Well you have no resume and can't code, so what value do you bring?"

Since I'm applying for winter session, I want to let the selection people know how I respond to those questions because I'm sure they have similar concerns.