[moocow01]

"You won’t be the only developer after that job. Second, it won’t be like this forever. Supply and demand are out of whack, and people are catching on and catching up"

Seems like a nice way to kick off an agenda with a bit of fear mongering but its rather the non-technical founders that are exploding in size. On top of it the actual thing that developers are catching on to is that it doesn't make any sense in this environment to become a CTO of a very small startup when you can just start your own and have proper equity.

[brianscordato]

Appreciate the comment - I didn't mean it as fear mongering, just pointing out that the landscape will likely change over the next two years. Great developers will still be great developers and will have tons of job offers, I just imagine there will be a bit of a squeeze in the middle. I may be wrong. As for developers starting something on their own, I'm all for it if they've got the idea. They'll run into the same challenges any single founder will, but will definitely start from a better spot than a non-technical founder. I was more targeting this towards people who didn't have the idea yet and were looking to join something.

[its_so_on]

Don't read too much into the following (I'm not really on either side of this) but I will say that many people who would make a great CTO have had 10 years to "just start your own and have proper equity." Have they done it?

almost invariably, not at all. Even though it is easy to find coders who have a legitimate claim to having 5-10 projects they did by themselves. This would mean they have "100% equity" in all of them. Then again, the 10 projects might have 30 active users between them.

Meanwhile, the non-technical founder in question has already outsourced a MVP, which is a product, gotten enough buzz for you to be reading their blog posts on hn, and you can join something that - unlike your own last ten projects - actually has a chance to make a great deal of sales in a real market. Whereas, in actual reality, if you took the idea and coded it up yourself without any further input than the concept pitch from the non-technical cofounder, it would go nowhere - just like your last ten projects.

Just saying... I would trade 5% of a company that raises a round at.. just about any amount, over 100% of ten 'companies' that never incorporate and have donation buttons which make a grand total of $76 over the same period of time.

It is easy to discount what the non-technical founder - or in this case owner - brings to the table. I wouldn't be quite so quick to do so.