Ask HN: Entrepreneur Excuse: "I dont have enough experience"?

[jpd750]

I've been working on an IT-Sec company for some 6 months now, solo founding it. I recently met a guy at a networking event who advises startups - we met 1:1 for coffee, and then he sent me a really lengthy email basically being really frank on what I was doing.

I have a number of years of IT experience already (primarily in programming) and some IT-security (some of the experience hands-on out in the world)

He stated he thought that I:

   " didn't have enough experience in the field I was creating a startup in"

and also stated I should:

    "Go back into the working world for a number of years to gain more real world experience"

I'm just really trying to distinguish out what said whether its signal (frank, legitimate feedback) or just noise.

Do you have to BE AN EXPERT in a field to really make a nice dent in it?

Personally, I just think its noise more or less, but wanted some other opinions.

Thanks

[T-A]

Wild stab from an idiot: it depends on what you're trying to do. Generally speaking, if you want to advance a field, or just do top-of-the-line work, you need to be an expert; but if you spot an ignored or underserved group of potential customers who could benefit greatly from a more basic implementation which the experts might find pedestrian and uninteresting, you might be on to something. In that case, your lack of expertise could even be a strength; you might understand you target group's difficulties better than the experts.