[kyt]

Vision is a word I don't like and gets thrown around a lot. It's not quantifiable. If you are a non technical co-founder you need to be able to bring in the money. That means you're either 1) Able to raise VC/Angel and probably have a track record, 2) Have serious connections/customers in the space you're starting a business in, or 3) Putting your own cash in.

[AdamNMalone]

I think Andy would probably agree with you that vision is a component of a "hustler", but does not a hustler make.

I would imagine he would recognize his sales experience as a key component of his start-up value, both in terms of 'stacking cheddar' and also in evaluating the market potential of a product.

The hustler can set the product development vision, but it better be based on a keen understanding of customer need, market readiness, and his team's ability to execute.

[SparksZilla]

I agree, both of you have excellent points. 'Kyt' has a really good point about needing to bring in funding (whether it's your own or others') in addition to being able to make some sales.

Adam, though, you make a really good point of how important a good vision is to sales. A clear vision makes a sale so much easier.

[Retric]

I think Vision is worth something I mean it can easily justify .01% of a company. The real question is what else you bring to the table, this can be money and contacts but again without a lot of money where talking tiny slices of the pie.

[SparksZilla]

I definitely agree with both of these points on vision. I could have done a better job on articulating what a non-technical founder should/could bring to the table. Thanks for the input here guys.

[7402]

Makes sense. So if the proposition is that a technical co-founder is to work for equity but no salary, perhaps that already shows the non-technical founder has failed the test of bringing in enough money to start the business.

[SparksZilla]

This could definitely be true. That said, I mentioned in a below comment a minute ago about working on the product on the side for a bit while I had a job during the day and they were in school. At one point we were pulling 40-50 hours at work/school and another 20-30 after work / on weekends. None of us were getting paid, but we believed in the idea and were having fun working together.

[camwiese]

How would you propose the non-technical founder raising funding without a product? Personally, I can sell the vision all day long, but people want to see a product. Any advice for non-technical founders who want to raise "idea" funding to pay a developers salary?

[joshglick]

There are two options and they both sound kind of cliched. 1)

1) The first is two find some way to "hack" together a product yourself. This can be as simple as a "demo" in keynote/powerpoint or something that you can show off to investors as the product initially. Or if you are in a service business, perform the service manually for a few customers (run it from a spreadsheet) and prove the need before plunging into full fledged development. Both of those will most likely also reduce the time-footprint of your development

2) A lot of accelerators seem to be accepting pre-product companies these days and I think this is the strength of a lot of the accelerators is to get you into the product stage. These could be a viable option if you have one in your area

[dagw]

I know it isn't really helpful advice as such, but have a great track record and a great network. I worked for this one, non-technical, guy on a couple of companies (as an employee, not a co-founder), and while I don't know exactly how he did it, he had list of people whom it seemed he could just call up and get a few $100k in investment from whenever he needed it. Of course this was far from his first company, he had years and dozens of companies (of varying degrees of success) behind him.

[SparksZilla]

Honestly, I don't know anybody who has done this. Zach, Carrie, and I moonlighted on LaunchGram before it was LaunchGram. We'd leave our day jobs / school and meet up to work because we were so excited about building this product. Selling the vision means selling potential co-founders on working on the thing at night with you for a bit. Thoughts?