Startup questions

I mean...you're talking about a startup that is entirely based on technology, however, you don't have any technical skills.

I'm sorry if this comes off as harsh, but this happens to me all the time when people approach me as a 'programmer' (use the term developer, just as a quick aside) for their idea...YOU DON'T UNDERSTAND WHAT YOUR IDEA ACTUALLY ENTAILS. Simply creating a site like that is a massive undertaking that you or your team at this point cannot do at all. Honestly, until you work with a few developers to think about how you're going to do it, you really don't have anything.

And as far as VC goes, you're in trouble, yes. Angels and VCs don't invest in ideas--they invest in teams they think will work. I've seen god awful ideas get funding because the dev teams were great....

You guys are probably putting the cart before the horse a little bit on this, I would consider if having 3 non-technical guys this early is a good idea (it's not IMO), and then go find some devs and get back to the drawing boards.

Kenny Powers is right on

Brady4MVP:

2. Once we have a functional site going, we are planning to apply to techstars and Y combinator. Would having 3 non-programming guys on the team hurt our chances? A friend of mine who is the co-founder of a very successful NYC based startup thinks this will hurt us.

It will definitely hurt you. How much it will hurt depends on which incubators you apply to

Out of curiosity, have you been able to find any developers who are interested in joining your team yet?

Also, to have a chance at an idea that big, I recommend breaking the project into very small parts that yield real results

a.k.a. what is the smallest piece of that project you can complete that will start to attract users. Focus on that first, disregarding any other plans

Think back to the social network where Mark took an idea and ran with it. With no technical powers, you guys have nothing. Great ideas are worthless, execution is everything.

If you aren't technical, then you learn. No seriously, go learn. PHP/Mysql could be learned in a week. Not well, but well enough. You need to get a prototype up and running as quickly as possible and test it with all your friends and family.

Any decent programmer is not going to work for free and equity stakes are meaningless. You will get what you pay for and when your equity is worth nothing, well, you get the idea.

Having 3 non-technical guys and one tech guy will most certainly hurt you when applying to techstars and Y combinator. Why? You have nothing to offer. Your friend is right.

Your other problem is getting a critical mass for the users to be useful. Slight chicken and egg problem here because VCs are going to want users in order to invest and you will need money to market and get those users. You will need to start off with your own money, then family and friends, then angel, then VC money.

If possible, try to get cash flow positive right off the bat so you can bootstrap growth.

Exactly what Kenny Powers said. My university business school had this great idea to try and team up MBAs with programmers to come up with iphone/android apps. The business students had such great ideas promising the world to the users but had no idea of the difficulty in implementing them (one of them confused java and papaya. The fruit). The techies quickly realised MBAs aren't worth shit in this context and formed their own teams.

Nothing personal, I also think your idea is not good at all. You've seen how Google+ fared against Facebook. Why should a small startup be any contest to LinkedIn? I know you don't want to give it all away, but really your site doesn't offer anything more than LinkedIn.

Yeah I mean everybody's already said it, but just to reiterate, I really think your chance at this is to take the time (like 3 months, not 1 week) for the three of you to learn enough basic HTML, Javascript, CSS, PHP, and MySQL that you are putting together this "simple demonstrative version" yourself.

I think if you do this, you'll gain perspective in what is easy/hard technically, and you'll gain enough technical credibility that a talented developer will be more comfortable taking orders from you.

there's guys with great ideas and no programming skills and vice versa. I say the one side doesnt have to master the other.

I say learn the basics so you have an understanding of what your future developer is talking about, but don't spend all your time trying to learn the developer aspect - this is extremely inefficient and will slow you down. You three should spend your time on what you are best at and and bring in the best developer you can to focus on what they do best. After that bring in more people to help in the areas that you lack in. This is what partnerships are for.

Also, learn to outsource / bring in virtual assistants/interns, and like TDurden said - get cashflow positive as quick as you can.

good reads: http://www.fourhourworkweek.com/blog/2011/06/07/whats-your-start-up-bus… (particularly see #2 about programming)

http://www.fourhourworkweek.com/blog/2009/08/12/google-website-optimize…

http://www.fourhourworkweek.com/blog/2009/05/19/vanity-metrics-vs-actio…

My buddy (former IBer, 0 programming experience) recently lauched a start-up (a review site, sort of like yelp, but exclusivly for comment on specific dishes/meals at restaurants). He got all the programming done in Argentina, relatively cheap, and the interface works pretty well and has been well received. Granted he had to spend 2 weeks in Argentina working with developers, but he got the whole thing off the ground for cheap.

www.dishenvy.com

To the people who said you can become a competent developer in a few weeks/months, get a fucking grip.

Brady, you want to build a company that competes with LinkedIn - a publicly traded, venture capital backed corporation with former PayPal founders on its board of directors - and you want to do this with zero programming skills?

I guess crazier things have happened... Here's a REAL starting point: I got this list from a programmer friend of mine when I wanted to work as the "Loader" on a startup. Good luck.

HTML and CSS

Knowing HTML and CSS is essential for everything we do:

HTML: http://htmldog.com/guides/htmlbeginner/

CSS: http://www.htmldog.com/guides/cssbeginner/

Positioning with html and css: (this can be the trickiest part of html/css and is more advanced) http://www.alistapart.com/articles/css-positioning-101/

Apache:

You'll need to get Apache (or another web server) running on your local machine in order to develop. Some rudimentary knowledge will also be useful in configuring sites:

http://httpd.apache.org/

Besides getting apache running, I wouldn't put too much effort into learning everything about it -- this knowledge will come over time as needed.

MySQL: (http://mysql.org/)

So far, MySQL has been the database of choice for my projects. It's easy to setup, ubiquitous, and quite powerful. You'll also need to get a MySQL server and client running on your local machine to develop sites.

http://dev.mysql.com/downloads/mysql/

Again, like Apache, I wouldn't put too much effort into learning everything about MySQL -- it's important to understand databases and SQL, but this knowledge will come over time.

For those using Macs, I recommend installing Sequel Pro, a great MySQL client with a graphical interface:

http://www.sequelpro.com/

Wordpress (http://wordpress.org/)

Wordpress is what we use for developing simpler sites, usually Content Management Systems (CMS) and Blogs.

I recommend trying to get a site running on your local machine (after you install Apache and Mysql):

http://codex.wordpress.org/WordPress_Lessons

When you're ready to move on to more advanced stuff, I recommend developing a theme:

http://codex.wordpress.org/Theme_Development

For reference:

http://codex.wordpress.org/Function_Reference

Ruby on Rails

This is the big one -- we develop more advanced database sites with this, and this is easily the most rewarding and powerful to use. You can develop any website with Ruby on Rails (unlike Wordpress, which is limited in what you can do with it).

Ruby is the programming language, and Rails is the web framework that allows you to develop websites using Ruby.

Ruby (http://www.ruby-lang.org/)

Getting started:

First get acquainted with Ruby using the following site. It runs in a web browser, so you don't even need to install Ruby to get started:

http://tryruby.org/

Then install the Ruby language if need be. (I think your Mac comes with Ruby 1.8.7, but you may need to upgrade to the latest version):

http://www.ruby-lang.org/en/downloads/

After you've installed Ruby, you can use irb, a ruby console, to learn the language a little more:

http://www.ruby-lang.org/en/documentation/quickstart/

For reference, these sites are useful:

http://apidock.com/ruby/ - a nice interface that allows user input http://ruby-doc.org/core/ - the core reference docs http://www.ruby-doc.org/docs/ProgrammingRuby/ - the essential Ruby book, often referred to as the PickAxe (as it has a PIckAxe on its cover). This is the first edition, online for free. There are later editions of this book, but the first edition should be fine. Ruby doesn't change a lot with each new release (unlike Rails, which changes quite a bit with each new release).

Rails (http://rubyonrails.org/)

You can introduce yourself to the language by watching these videos:

http://rubyonrails.org/screencasts/rails3/

And then, you can give this Ruby on Rails course that was recently developed a shot. Like the Try Ruby course above, you can actually program rails within your web browser without installing it on your computer:

http://railsforzombies.org/

Now to go further, you'll need to install Rails:

http://rubyonrails.org/download/

Once you've installed Rails, I recommend going through the following Rails 3 online book, which guides you through developing a sample application in Rails:

http://railstutorial.org/ruby-on-rails-tutorial-book/

For reference:

http://apidock.com/rails - a nice interface that allows use input http://railscasts.com/ - great screen casts on particular facets of Rails. For Rails 3, the most recent version of Rails (and the one we'll usually use), Episodes starting at 200 are relevant to Rails 3 (older episodes might be useful, but might also be out of date) http://asciicasts.com/ - these match up with the screencasts on railscasts.com, but are text only. Can sometimes be easier when you're quickly looking for something and don't want to watch a video. http://api.rubyonrails.org/ - official reference http://guides.rubyonrails.org/ - great guides for learning and for reference on particular areas in Rails

Other Useful Applications:

Git: http://git-scm.com/ -- you'll need to install this as well eventually. It allows us to save code in a common repository and work on the same projects simultaneously. (For those familiar with SVN and CVS, this is the latest and greatest for version control systems)

Photoshop: http://www.photoshop.com/ - this is of course useful for manipulating graphics. You can download a free trial.

Linux: Some knowledge of linux / unix will definitely be useful, and Mac's OSX is built on Unix, so there's a lot of carry over knowledge between the two. When I deploy sites to my live server, my favorite distribution is Ubuntu:

http://www.ubuntu.com/

Misc:

Regular Expressions

Regular Expressions is another concept you'll need to become familiar with.

http://www.regular-expressions.info/ -- is useful for learning and using as a reference http://rubular.com/ -- this is a great online tool for testing regular expressions, particularly to be used with Ruby code

Javascript and jQuery

Javascript is a front-end language useful for making websites more dynamic and jQuery is a popular library that makes programming in Javascript easier:

http://jquery.com/

Stackoverflow

Stackoverflow is a great online community for asking technical questions on anything mentioned above. You can usually expect an answer within hours or at least a day. Ensure you google around for answer first before asking a question that may have already been answered elsewhere:

http://stackoverflow.com/

Web Browsers

All web browsers render pages a little differently, and cross-browser compatibility is important for live sites, so be sure to test in multiple browsers.

Firebug and the Web Developer Toolbar

Firebug and the Web Developer Toolbar are essential for troubleshooting code. First download firefox, and then add the plugins:

http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/firefox/ - Firefox http://getfirebug.com/ - Firebug https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/60/ - Web Developer Toolbar

You don't need to do the coding yourself, but you need a familiarity with coding in order to contribute effectively to your idea. Key to going into a startup is to go into an industry that you know. If you don't know tech, yes you'll have to acquire the skills through someone else in order to get your startup off the ground. But know this, if he's the sole coder he has far more control over your company despite all the equity you hold, since he controls essentially your product and as a startup that's all you have to offer.

That said, here are my .02s based on my startup expeirence (med device - successfully sold)

1. find coders to do the coding for you. Don't offer equity, since no one good is going to work for stock units that are worthless. First, good engineers don't understand VC financing and whatever you offer them they'll think you're cheating them out of value and secondly engineers respond better to liquidity, ie short term cash.

2. Funding. Bootstrap yourself first. You can't get a startup off the ground without fronting your own cash. Even if you could, your credibility will be greatly diluted if you go up to any angels/VCs stating that you've put virtually no money into this company from your own pocket and now you are expecting others to do so? Makes no sense.

3. Talk to others about your idea with respect to leaders in the field. No one's idea is truly original, the execution of the idea is what drives a successful startup from mere machinations. Get feedback of your idea from other KOLs or leaders in the industry you're targeting, and start building a network/advisors you can turn to for help. Give them equity/board seat if you want to entice some key people in helping you drive your product, in short of paying them if you want all your cash going into prod dev and R&D.

Good luck.

One thing I'm always telling young people these days is the importance of learning the basic programming languages (HTML/CSS at least, Javascript after). I think it's even more important than learning a foreign language in this day and age, and you guys know what a premium I place on that (being a speaker of 4 languages).

I just think you put yourself way behind the 8-ball if you don't at least know the basics of programming. Computers and the Internet dominate almost every aspect of our lives and that is not going to change in the future. Learning to code is absolutely critical for almost any white collar professional these days.

Jesus christ - how did you guys manage to extrapolate what I said into "coding the entire thing themselves"

Again, they need to get some technical skills - enough to throw together a shitty demonstration model. The frontend UI and fancy javascript stuff is nothing more than a skin. If you can't prototype out basic wireframes and basic forms to determine the flow, then how are you going to do it with fancy technologies?

Good UX starts with being able to explain things in simple terms. This means drawing wireframes.

I recommend this because it's easy and it's less painful than trying to use Visio. http://pencil.evolus.vn/en-US/Home.aspx

If you can't make a basic model clean and understandable with a plain white background and basic forms with PHP, then you need to revisit how you do things.

The list evilbyaccident provided is great... if you want to be a coder. They don't need that. They need to get enough of a prototype started so that they can start doing market research. From there, it's a matter of iterating until they have a workable product. They do not need to learn wordpress, rails, apache, git, etc. That's irrelevant!

By learning the basics of coding, they get an appreciation for how hard it actually it, the design that needs to go into the application and the realization that whatever they're going to do will take 10x longer. They'll also have a better understanding of how to evaluate programmers when they bring on outside help.

For fucks sake:

Install this: http://www.apachefriends.org/en/xampp.html

Install this: http://aptana.com/

Do these two tutorials: http://www.webmonkey.com/2010/02/make_an_html_document/ http://devzone.zend.com/6/php-101-php-for-the-absolute-beginner/

That is ALL that they need initially. Anything else can be googled.

I actually think if a finance guy wants to learn coding to start off in MS Visual Basic in Excel macro coding (ALT+F11)..the compiler is already built into software and VB is very easy to learn and although not true OOP, is similar to most other programming langauges for the web..just my thoughts.

Also, relevant forbes article here:

http://www.forbes.com/sites/stevenberglas/2012/03/02/ten-myths-about-su…

You're not going to have much luck hiring a good software developer for equity alone.

Hire some kid as an unpaid college intern and ask him to do it. Maybe he'll get course credit or something.

1. Quit your job(s).
2. Go to India (Bangalore or Hyderabad).
3. Go to a hackathon kind of event. Don't even expect to rent anything in India. It would be cheaper to rent an office in Atlanta later.
4. Buy beers, t-shirts for coders. Get a prototype done.
5. Come back to valley. Get a techie to latch on to your team to start pitching your prototype.

by the time you learn the basics of CSS, database, tags, your ideas would have evaporated from your exhausted minds or worse have been stolen by someone else.

Brady4MVP:

Two of my friends and I are currently working on a startup. We are still going through the details, but the basic concepts have been laid down. We are trying to present an alternative to sites like linkedin, that will make it easier and more efficient for finance professionals to network with each other and for recruiters to get in touch with highly qualified candidates.

This is my first attempt at a startup, so i'm trying to get as much advice as possible. A few quick questions.

1. Since me and my co-founders are not programmers, we are looking to bring a strong programmer onboard. We cannot pay him initially but will promise him equity. How much is the "right" equity to offer the programmer in this case? Is it too soon to discuss our stakes, or should we wait until we get first round of VC funding?

2. Once we have a functional site going, we are planning to apply to techstars and Y combinator. Would having 3 non-programming guys on the team hurt our chances? A friend of mine who is the co-founder of a very successful NYC based startup thinks this will hurt us.

Any thoughts or advice would be greatly appreciated. If any of you guys want more details on our project, feel free to pm me.

Thanks.

Think you're also late to the game: see GoBuyside.

http://gobuyside.com/

http://www.wallstreetoasis.com/forums/gobuyside-any-good

"GoBuyside is a global finance recruiting platform that specializes in connecting qualified candidates with top buyside firms. Private equity firms, hedge funds and alternate investment management firms utilize GoBuyside to identify suitable candidates for their searches.

How GoBuyside Works

Candidates provide buyside preference, academic, and professional information by completing the GoBuyside application. If the application is accepted, this information can be updated at any time and is made available to firms with opportunities that match the candidate's buyside preferences. Firms then use this information to contact and interview candidates; GoBuyside facilitates this process by administering proprietary modeling tests, providing scheduling support, and conducting initial interviews. Candidates can terminate access to their GoBuyside application once they accept an offer to ensure firms only see their information while they are still looking for a buyside position."

Hey, we have a start-up now that's actually pretty successful and is doing something similar. Check it out:

www.connectcubed.com

i am actually in the process of starting my own start up. Its been a year now and we have obtained contracts and small amounts of funding. I would personally say that all the posts above are right. First off you think your idea is so good dont be so quick to give away equity. Secondly VC's won't look at you seriously unless you are starting to generate a bit of revenue. The point is you need to try to get as far as you can on a shoe lace budget... If three of you are in this and aren't techie at all then you guys should be able to come together put some money up front and find 2 or 3 people who can play that role for you. In my opinion you need three cogs to the machine. You need a CEO visionary. A manager/ business analyst who can manage your programmers and the CEO expectations and project manage, and the last piece you need will be is your techie or engineer.....

I have had people approach me asking me for money cause i have a few dollars from smart investments. The problem is my money is going towards my own project and also I find it just as difficult as a VC firm to invest money to someone who doesn't want to prove that they can do it. Very few ideas are good enough to obtain the funding from seed stage. You will need to make a business plan and do financial projections and market research as soon as possible. Last but not least when you have done these things... maybe look at an angel investor forum.... angel investors tend to have a much more personal relationship with the dev team. Also you may not be ready for a VC firm just year and your angel may be able to help you to get to that point.

GL i hope my post helped

It isn't the case that every single web-based start-up is necessarily a tech-driven affair. It's just about who's more replaceable (substitution of supply, basic microeconomics). In a business that is essentially selling a UX/UI, the 'business' people are much more replaceable than the developers (unless one of you is Steve Jobs). In a business that is using technology to draw people in and create content and create a feedback loop, it's more of a "we both need each other" kind of arrangement. And in a business that is selling proprietary content (admittedly rare), the holders of the content are the key, and the developers are the replaceable ones.

The answer to the OP's question, in this case, is: round up some cash and pay a developer as a contractor. Unless you can convince a developer that your business truly requires the expertise and leadership of the non-developer co-founders, he won't want to work for equity because he'll think that he's the cornerstone of the project instead of you. Give him cash. Engineers are (perhaps overly) skeptical of bullshit and like tangible things that work: ie. money on the table.

http://www.quora.com/Startup-Failure/Why-do-startups-fail has some discussion you should check out brady