How can a non-hacker (with very basic C++ knowledge only) start a start-up successfully?

Re:How can a non-hacker (with very basic C++ knowledge only)... by rokhayakebe on Tuesday April 17, 2007 @06:34PM (#13835)

One of the first American Billionaires once said he could answer any question asked. He called in a meeting and ask each journalist to come armed with top notch questions (of course industry related ), which they did. The day of the meeting they were surprised to see 16 phones at the Great Entrepreneur 's desk. For each question asked he pick up a phone and call someone who then, somehow, provided the proper answer. If you cannot code, need to start a startup and do not know the moral of this story, then you probably should go sit back and think for a few weeks before jumping into the middle of the ocean.

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Re:How can a non-hacker (with very basic C++ knowledge only)... by nostrademons on Tuesday April 17, 2007 @07:30PM (#13871)

It's a little different when searching for technical experts, however, because it's often not possible to tell a technical expert from a technical nincompoop without a solid background in the subject. There are a lot of folks out there who can play buzzword bingo with the best of them, but can't actually sit down and code something.

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Re:How can a non-hacker (with very basic C++ knowledge only)... by jaggederest on Tuesday April 17, 2007 @09:39PM (#13916)

Ask someone you do trust to recommend someone to...

Build a chain of trust to someone with technical knowledge, and use them to assess possible technical people.

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Re:How can a non-hacker (with very basic C++ knowledge only)... by bootload on Tuesday April 17, 2007 @11:26PM (#13949)

Of course the problem is, not being technical you are always prone to the 'Warren Harding' error. [0] You know, someone who dresses badly, uses a mac notebook, talks real fast about technical things that has all the attributes of the hacker except they are crap at building product.

Some suggestions for finding a co-founder can be found reading, Students guide to Startups. [1]

Reference

[0] Warren Harding was 29th President of the United States and had the distinction of being pushed forward because he had the perceived traits of a leader and turned out not to be so good. I picked this up reading the Malcom Gladwell book 'Blink', 0-7139-9844-X.

[1] pg, 'A students guide to startups'

http://paulgraham.com/mit.html

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Re:How can a non-hacker (with very basic C++ knowledge only)... by pashle on Friday April 20, 2007 @06:25AM (#15018)

The billionaire is Henry Ford. The version I was told was that he was on the stand, and that was his reply to one of the prosecutor's questions. Jobs also liked to call himself the "Henry Ford of Personal Computing".

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