I lost $209,640 of my own money trying to start a business

Re:I lost $209,640 of my own money trying to start a business by acdha on Tuesday January 31, 2023 @10:25AM (#34596245)

Someone needs to be technical or they’ll get hit by a number of problems which are almost always fatal: consulting companies (especially the large ones) will take them for a ride, burning budget and likely failing to deliver something viable; they are likely to make bad hires because it’s hard to tell people who can’t deliver or, more commonly, who aren’t capable of building what the business needs right now; and the more general version of that last point, someone needs to be making sure that you’re building something secure, reliable, etc. which is compatible with both your budget and the kind of app you’re building.

That doesn’t strictly have to be a technical cofounder but if not that’s a significant degree of trust placed on an early hire.

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Re:I lost $209,640 of my own money trying to start a business by twawaaay on Tuesday January 31, 2023 @11:01AM (#34596821)

Which is to say there are upsides to being expert in the field.

The question is whether every company requires technical people to run the company just because they need an app to sell their services.

One theory is that in future every company will be a technical company -- because merciless competition will favour companies driven by technical, scientific mindset. But I don't think we are there yet.

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Re:I lost $209,640 of my own money trying to start a business by acdha on Tuesday January 31, 2023 @11:27AM (#34597266)

I think this really comes back to the question of how custom your technology needs are. My local coffee shop has a website and apps but the owner doesn't need to be a programmer because they have the _exact_ same needs as everyone else, and something like ToastTab can be licensed and used without modification. The same is true of a lot of online stores where their business is conceptually very similar to many others.

If your business is less like that, however, I do think it's critical to find someone you have a high degree of trust will make reasonable calls. Once you start needing things like custom development you're saying that technology is core to your business. That doesn't mean the CEO needs to be a techie any more than the CEO of a restaurant chain needs to be a chef but they definitely need someone whose judgement the CEO respects.

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