Re:Why founders shouldn't be the developers
by Deestan on Thursday December 13, 2012 @05:50AM
(#4915221)
Same situation here.
Am I correct in assuming the following characteristics? The guy you are talking about:
* Trusts you to do your job, and assumes you are pulling your weight in whatever way you see fit. (contrast: "We need your ass in the chair 08:00-16:00 so we know you're working.")
* Trusts you to do your job, and accepts your technical decisions even if he doesn't fully understand them. (contrast: "I just don't see exactly why GitHub would be better than our existing Team Foundation license, so we won't switch.")
I disagree. I've worked at a couple of startups founded or co-founded by a guy with no hands on technical experience and he was great. He came up with the ideas, found the right people (or sometimes the other way around) and then let them do what they did best, with only gentle prodding to keep everything going in the right direction.
What he had was a good high level understanding of the relevant fields, plenty of experience starting and running companies, a vast contact network, an amazing knack for raising money and was very good at getting out there and selling our product.