[untog]

The article deals with non-technical people wanting to take their idea and turn it into a startup, but I'm wondering if anyone has any words of advice for a techie (i.e., me) who has little business experience.

If I set up shop tomorrow, I'd be the solo founder of my first startup. Given the amount of work involved (and how much of it would be non-technical), I figure it would be better to have a business-minded cofounder with me.

But how do I find one? Or, more crucially, how do I assess how good they are? Given that I have zero experience of running a startup on my resume, it's quite likely a co-founder would be the same. Am I better off just teaming up with my less business minded friend, whom I know very well and trust?

[mindcrime]

but I'm wondering if anyone has any words of advice for a techie (i.e., me) who has little business experience.

Just flip the equation around... if we're always telling "business people" to "learn to code" then, as a coder, maybe you should make a conscious effort to learn more about the business side of things. Is that really any less reasonable than asking a marketing guy to sit down and learn to code from scratch?

For an entrepreneur, I'd suggest reading Steve Blank's The Four Steps to the Epiphany (at least until his new book comes out) since that's about as close to a "paint by the numbers" guide as I've ever seen, for founding a startup and dealing with the customer/market side of things.

Beyond that... read all the Jack Trout and Al Ries books on positioning, marketing and branding. Read Crossing the Chasm and The Art of the Start. Find out what textbook the nearest college/university uses for their "Business 101" class and "Marketing 101" class and "Business Law 101" class, and buy and read them. Even better, go to the nearest community college and take those 3 classes. That trio makes a pretty good foundation on some of the most basic stuff one needs to know about running a business.

And (talking out of my ass here, since I haven't done this part yet myself) read some of the top books on selling and negotiation. SPIN Selling always seems to be high recommended, so that's queued up on my personal reading list for this very reason (technologist with no business background, acting a founder).

[untog]

Just flip the equation around... if we're always telling "business people" to "learn to code" then, as a coder, maybe you should make a conscious effort to learn more about the business side of things.

Oh, absolutely. And I have been. But I know it's more work than one person can handle, so it simply seems like it ought to make sense to bring a business head on board. But a cofounder is no small deal, so I'm concerned about doing it right.

[mindcrime]

Oh, absolutely. And I have been. But I know it's more work than one person can handle, so it simply seems like it ought to make sense to bring a business head on board.

Yeah, that's similar to the boat we're in. Three technology people (2 hardcore server-side coders, and one front-end coder/designer), and we're still looking for the right "business head" to bring in. The good thing is, we (well, me anyway) are arrogant enough to think we can go ahead and get started, and add the dedicated "business head" a little later on. But I've also been working hard to remake myself into a little bit of a "business head" myself (including taking some business classes at the community college and that whole bit).

Keep slugging away, the right combination is bound to come together eventually. Like pg says "just don't die." :-)

[speedracr]

Though be careful not to confuse "business head" with "a person capable of adding a business model to a solution and bringing revenue from 0 to 10m within 2 months". Depending on your idea, I've seen CS Ph.D. students take on board a former management consultant with 2-3 years of work experience as CFO. (data integration solution that sells to corporate customers) His motivation? Less hot air, more opportunity to advance an actual project.

Alastair, if you're talking about Taxonomy - really liked your custom maps blog post, btw, even though I'm not a tech guy myself -, someone at college might be well-suited, as you seem to be working on a solution that needs larger-scale consumer adoption and an interesting story to sell (PR-wise) in order to be successful. I am always amazed at the number of business students I know (of) that are happy to intern at (commercial) startups or company builders and end up "community managing" the Facebook page, just because the business founders are successful at pitching their Groupon clone. If you give a talk at a university etc. and mention you welcome feedback on which feature is missing (>> ask for advice, you get money; ask for money, you get advice) afterwards, you might just find someone with a good product sense that also doesn't mind approaching people, and spare them that fate.