News for hackers. Stuff that matters.
Re:Non-tech Cofounders – Don’t Hire an Agency by jfdimark on Friday October 12, 2012 @10:13AM (#4645100)
Hey, good post! I'm in total agreement.

I am starting a company and was in the same situation as all non-technical founders: hire an agency, give away half the company to a tech co-founder, or learn how to build it myself.

I went with the third option. Not only is it extremely gratifying to build it with your own hands, but it means I can make quick decisions and changes on the fly, the only cost is my time, and the vision and execution are 100% aligned!

Re:Non-tech Cofounders – Don’t Hire an Agency by maxcameron on Friday October 12, 2012 @10:17AM (#4645115)
Hey man,

Wow, I really admire your determination to learn how to build it yourself. I can only imagine the amount of time you're devoting to it. You're in an interesting position because as a solo founder you're responsible for so many aspects of the business.

How do you balance working on the product versus acquiring customers vs operations?

Kudos either way!

Re:Non-tech Cofounders – Don’t Hire an Agency by jfdimark on Friday October 12, 2012 @10:25AM (#4645143)
Well, sleep is optional of course!

Otherwise it's just a case of being efficient with time and prioritising tasks, because everything works in lock-step i.e. have idea, get feedback, refine; create mockups, get feedback, refine; build mvp, get feedback, refine etc. so I take each step at a time.

Having said that, I will be looking for a more accomplished developer to join me as a co-founder imminently because the range of tasks and the timeframe do make it impossible to do everything myself.

Best of luck with Kera by the way, it looks like a great idea.

Re:Non-tech Cofounders – Don’t Hire an Agency by maxcameron on Friday October 12, 2012 @10:32AM (#4645175)
Hey, thanks for the kind words - I appreciate it. I think you're going to have a 10x better chance of finding a great technical cofounder because you took the time to prove the concept and build your technical skills. Not only will you have something in production (not just an idea or a lean canvas) but you'll have so much empathy for your cofounder. You'll appreciate what they go through in a way non technical cofounders can't do (or take a long time to learn).

What's your startup?

Re:Non-tech Cofounders – Don’t Hire an Agency by jfdimark on Friday October 12, 2012 @10:46AM (#4645226)
I hope you're right!

My startup is Xavy (xavy.com), it's a video discovery & distribution platform for connecting professionals and conference organisers.

Idea is to provide free/very cheap access to world-class conference content (of which millions of hours exist!) and help generate leads for upcoming events through utilising that content - all in one place, organiser-neutral, searchable/filterable by type of content.

(I have a conferences background, so I know the space).

Sign up on the landing page and I'll ping you once the MVP is up and running, which I'm aiming to be Monday morning.

Cheers!

Re:Non-tech Cofounders – Don’t Hire an Agency by maxcameron on Friday October 12, 2012 @11:04AM (#4645316)
Hey there,

Sounds cool - I'll check it out. I'm not a conference organizer so I don't know if I'm your target customer. We actually spun Kera out of Big Bang Technology. I guess it's time to update my HN profile!

Max

Re:Non-tech Cofounders – Don’t Hire an Agency by jfdimark on Friday October 12, 2012 @12:09PM (#4645637)
Ah, that explains it!

No need to be a conference organizer to test out the alpha, it would just be good to get independent feedback on the look and feel, functionality etc.

Have a great weekend!

Re:Non-tech Cofounders – Don’t Hire an Agency by jfdimark on Friday October 12, 2012 @10:59AM (#4645290)
ps I just realized you are not the person that posted this topic (who is building Kera).

What you do at Big Bang Technology looks great too though!