How to Start a Startup

Not true, if you want to start a candy store all you need to know is how to make candy.

I wouldn't agree with that necessarily. When I look at some of the guys making money with iPhone aps, for example, there is ample non-programmer representation. There are even companies out there that will build aps to your specifications for less than $5,000, so all you need is a solid vision.

If you're trying to build the next Facebook, then yes, you should probably have mad programming skills. But there are a lot of tech entrepreneurs who are just idea guys and they have a stable of nerds to do the heavy lifting.

Thanks Eddie!

I think it depends on whether or not you have someone technical to help you out on your venture. If you're trying to be a sole founder of a tech startup, it will be pretty difficult, although you can certainly use outsourcing methods to get a basic prototype going. Why not teach yourself the basics of programming so that you can have some credibility when it comes to recruiting tech talent? Even something as simple as spending half an hour to learn a language. It also obviously depends on what your goal is for the startup and what kind of ideas you have.

Sorry - got cut off. What I mean was half an hour a day for a couple of months, so that you're comfortable with the jargon and better judge for what kind of technical talent you would need.

Depends on the business. I work in the valley as a programmer and talked to a fair share of startup founders who tried to recruit and other programmers. In general I would say definitely a programmer respects someone who is a good coder which is not hard to find out after few interactions. But most programmers would respect business guys who have vision,aggressive,hard working and can close in on deals(funding,sales,hiring etc). I think you would need atleast one of the 2 (preferrably an aggressive and intelligent biz type). If you are neither, chances of attracting good programmers to build your product is almost negligent. Programming is just another skill which can be learnt, but knowing how to get customers is more important and hard imo. Thats where business people can add value. Just having an idea is useless. Any programmer worth his salt has tons of ideas too. Most ideas are just common sense, you dont need much business saviness there, but its needed in successful execution.

DidNotSleepLastNight - disagree with you :) Learning jargons? Really? Any decent programmer can figure out if you know what you are talking about. If you want to learn some basics, dont waste time reading about jargons. Build something. maybe even something very simple.Thats the only way you will learn something.

Yes. If I were you, get some programming skills...C++, VBA, Python, ruby...those are some get shit done languages. I'm a business major just took a couple programming classes last semester. Not saying become and expert at them, just saying be familiar with the shit you want to outsource.

Bartek Ringwelski started a start up with a degree in economics and VC experience.....

http://www.skillslate.com/about

Look, you do NOT need to know programming to start a tech startup. It helps to understand it, yes.

Say it with me kids:

1) Go to freelancer.com or elance.com or guru.com or whatever

2) Post a description of what you want built/programmed

3) 100s of Indians will bid on your project

4) Pick an Indian with a few thousand positive reviews

5) Pay 20% of what you would have paid a U.S. programmer

6) (after multiple delays and miscommunications) PROFIT!

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What are the successful startups that have been started with outsourcing programming? Only one I know off is digg.com but Kevin Rose was smart enough to hire the programmer and give him nice chunk of equity.

There are other businesses in the world besides tech startups. I feel that a lot of intellectual people, overlook the beauty of owning all cash businesses.

It's really hard to have a solid vision in a tech related venture if you don't have a firm understanding of tech. How feasible things are, how quickly they can be done, how much space they require, etc. are all tied to being able to envision solutions to problems.

Actually, it's hard to have a solid vision in a [anything] related venture without a firm understanding of [anything].

1. Programmers input-worth IMO is seriously underestimated in this thread by some.

2. If you are not starting a tech company , even then their input does matter as part of delivering your product to the end user. You have to either know how what and how of outsourcing or .. I donno or what. You are not selling your products under rock right ? so it may be a good idea to let those who know better of it .. The thing is unlike other service industry programming is in very much nascent stage and it is easy to get bad programmers (because they dont have much work anyways), and so it becomes tricky ...

3. Unlike 'motivational speeches' people just can not switch to programming career. A good programmer is a product of few years(after few years of degree) and an software/website architect is product of decade (unless he has two brains..)

Think of programmer-architect as the guys who will make blue print for your 120 floor building . If you are into business of selling Building you better hire good architect , because it will make a lot difference.

Just to give an example, when they started the company PokerStar they offered insane % to a some indian programmer guy , I am pretty sure it was to get his tech. expertise

In a nutshell,there is a HUGE difference in a product produced by two different programmers. if you are dealing with s/w you better get good programmer.