[ekidd]

I co-founded a startup that had a technically-solid product that people swore they wanted. It failed. I've also worked for a number of successful startups. And I've consulted for startups that succeeded, and ones that sank without a trace.

If there's any pattern I can see with the non-technical founders, it's that some knowledge of coding is certainly nice, if only so the founders can talk to the actual coders. But coding's not the most important thing. The two most important things for a non-technical founder are (1) understanding their market, and (2) closing deals.

Steve Blank (a respected startup expert) proposed a way to prove that you can do (1) and (2): Collect non-binding letters of intent from future customers. These letters should say something like "If you can produce software that does X, Y and Z acceptably well, we would would like to negotiate a contract with you for $1000/month." (See Blank's classic "Four Steps to the Epiphany" for more details.)

If you can collect 10 of those letters, then you should have no problem finding a technical co-founder, and you'll be bringing strong assets to the table.

(The details might be different for your startup. Maybe your product is only worth $200/month, or whatever. But the key point is that you can go talk to customers and close deals.)

[dalfonso]

I cannot echo this enough. If you're eventually trying to be the CEO: sell, sell, sell, and then sell some more. If you've got customers waiting, you have so much more of an advantage when it comes to finding a technical co-founder. "I've got this great idea." pales in comparison to "I've got this great idea and 10 letters of intent/1000 people on a waiting list/$X,000 in revenue using gmail and a spreadsheet." (not all of those but the more the better), you'll easily be able to find someone.

If you're eventually trying to become the CTO with someone else doing the selling, then learn to code it up yourself.

[jameshush]

If someone came to me with 10 letters like that I'd probably jump at becoming a technical co-founder depending on my life situation at that moment. If it was bad timing for me I could connect that person with a few other people who would jump at that opportunity too.

[fny]

Don't forget that MVPs don't need to be apps.

I'm a technical guy, but the first start up I joined started selling sheets of paper to clients at a premium before we scaled to an app.

If you can get a business running with spreadsheets, you'll have a lot of leverage bringing devs to the table.

[ta17711771]

More details on that first startup?!

[ajeet_dhaliwal]

Agreed, find a technical co-founder and focus on the market/selling yourself. Do you have a brief of the problem you’re looking to solve?