[amarghose]

As a fellow "business" guy whose recently broken out of the "stereotype" this is what I can offer:

nobody cares about your idea. They care about your execution.

Most business guys get a bad rep because they think they have a genius idea and expect programmers to make it happen. They don't appreciate or even recognize the amount of difficulties and problems that have to be solved to come anywhere close to a usable product.

Focus on what you can bring to the table. My current focus is mainly about identifying first the market and marketing strategy (and testing it) then about helping the developer come up with a minimum viable product (as in what functions are truly necessary to our potential users that can allow us to better get an idea of our market).

If you can convince a technical co-founder that you can EXECUTE on an idea (with their help) then you'll start gaining some traction. Until then you're just another guy with an idea whose asking someone else to do all the work (this might not be true but by default it's what others will assume unless you explicitly explain what you bring to the table).

[throwaway789123]

Unfortunately the character limit on HN made me cut that paragraph out.

I have researched my idea thoroughly. I have the market, the business model, the validation. I have contacts that I have been trying to cultivate with investors, I have the marketing strategy worked out. I have been reading up on design so that I could craft a basic design for my app. I have read everything that I could get my hands on (HN included) to learn about entrepreneurialism, technology, and start-ups.

[argonaut]

Going off what soneca is saying (and soneca is right), the problem is that you don't actually have the market, the business model, and the validation. What you mean is you have written down on a piece of paper (or in your head) a market you're thinking about targeting, a business model you think works, and the validation which you think is actually valid.

The problem is that you'll get a lot of people who'll say "sounds interesting," but unless you have people signed up and actively engaging with your product, or people actually giving you money, that doesn't tell you much. Even getting people to sign up for an invite list is a good step (albeit only the first step of many in validation).

I would seriously consider outsourcing your MVP. There are some really good developers out there who work in countries where $10-20 / hour is a really good wage; typically Eastern European, South American, or SE Asian countries. Yes, many of them suck. The way to go about finding the "gems" is to have a very small "test" project which you test against several (5 or more) developers simultaneously. Then see the results and either pick the best or try running the same experiment again. Learn the basics of coding so that you can look through their code and judge for yourself.

Once you have an MVP with traction it'll be a lot easier to get a technical co-founder or even a technical "founding employee."

[soneca]

Why the most important word of an early stage startup validation is missing here? "Customers". The only thing that matters of your whole paragraph is "validation". Explain this better, somehow I feel that it isn't exactly validating the idea with customers.

The main thing a non-tech founder can bring to the table is customer development. Focus on that, as they are practical things. Don't try so hard to be the "self-taught MBA guy". Just do your customer development very well. If a tech co-founder trust that you know your customers, than you have chance to attract a very good one.

[throwaway789123]

I'm in that rut where customers say "Interesting idea, show me how well it works" and the technical guys say "Show me customers that are onboard before I build the thing".

I get what you are saying though. Obviously having a product to show customers will be huge in acquiring them.

[soneca]

You make it sounds like a chicken and egg problem, but it isn't. Customer "saying" "insteresting idea" is not customer development. I have no idea what your business is, but I pretty sure you can validate it without code. There are lots of ways to do that. For an example, check this thread https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5424206 Look how much validation they got! And - except for the demo, which isn't the core thing of their landing page - there is no code in there. Actually, we don't even know if the founder can code or if they are just "idea guys" (ok, you can assume they aren't, but nothing there prove they aren't).

There are dozens of examples of MVP that don't use any code out there, just google it. "Concierge MVPs", "Fake it before you make it" MVPs, find a strategy for your own. Just find something stronger than "I talked to a few customer and they told me is an interestgin idea and want me to show them how it works".

[throwaway789123]

You are right. However since my product is a social consumer-facing product, it is harder to validate without having something to show users (and honestly the marketing will be more important here). The customer portion of my app/business comes from the data gathered and it is hard to show how useful that data is without some real examples (and no I'm not gathering this data maliciously).

I will look into making a page like those "Fake it before you make it" MVPs.

[soneca]

A google result with good examples: http://kontrary.com/2012/05/03/how-to-fake-it-until-you-make...