I had the same question about a year back, and I'm sure some of you will remember it. I saw myself as the 'business major [I don't have a major] who loved the web and had a good idea about a web based business.' And there's one thing I found out through posting on web bulletins, posting flyers around school, and trying to network - it's extremely difficult to find a hacker cofounder who is willing to jump on board. How could I, a non-hacker, possibly play an equal contributory role has my hacker cofounder? And furthermor, how could I accurately convey my ideas coming from a frame of mind completely different from that of a hacker? I realized that if any sort of relationship was forged for the sake of having a team, these issues would soon arise in the future and cause much bigger problems, and would ultimately hinder the success and growth of a startup. So I started to learn how to hack, and it literally changed the way I think about ideas. I try to conceptualize how I can tackle problems with code, and how feasible it'd be to do so. And it's this newly found understanding that will help me play a more integral role in my team, and allow me to communicate with hacker cofounders on a leveled playing field. Even two of the Auctomatic founders eventually learned how to hack.
At the beginning, I was irritated by the response I got here. People told me left and right that business people are useless and that if you don't know how to hack you can't go anywhere. But, after getting my feet wet and thinking about it, I understand where they were coming from.
So I guess a business guy can in fact lead a successful startup. But do I think that business savvy guy who knows a bit about hacking will have significantly higher chances of succeeding in the web world? Yes.
"How could I, a non-hacker, possibly play an equal contributory role has my hacker cofounder?"
As the hacker co-founder in a shop of two people, let me tell you, you can play an equal role. Okay, so my partner doesn't setup the servers or write the code or design the site; I do all of that. So what does he do? _Everything else_. Ask most any hacker and they'll give you a laundry list of things they hate doing when it comes to starting/running a business or working on a project of any kind. In fact, it's usually easier just to ask them what they _do_ want to do; the answer will almost always be "code." In my case I add design and a couple other items to the list, but I digress.
You're the one out there networking and making deals, finding advertisers, building a list of beta testers, writing up details on the competition, handling the finances and the ho-hum paperwork, handling the customers/visitors/whoever, and _much_ more. My co-founder has been invaluable to the business (I hope he stays invaluable, too, so he never gets paid ;). He describes his job as essentially making sure I am never bothered. I'll take that over another hacker any day of the week because with another hacker I'd end up getting stuck doing at least half of all that stuff that is no fun, very time consuming and highly distracting (in a job where small distractions can cost huge time).
And (briefly!) on the subject of conveying ideas: Hackers may have different mindsets, but unless your idea involves conveying something in code, you're not going to notice too many issues. My co-founder has come up with a lot of ideas and not once did I not understand him... unless he started talking about differences between LLCs and C corps and crazy talk like that.
So, in summary, if you are "just a business guy," don't give up. Sooner or later most of those one-man-band hacker founders are going to realize turning you down wasn't such a great idea; they needed you after all and now _they_ have to search for a CEO.
EDIT: And I'd like to point out that we got into YC this summer, too. I'll leave you to guess who wrote most of the application, did 99% of the talking in the interview and who had the market knowledge to pitch the idea in the first place. (hint: it wasn't this guy!)
Tom, thanks for the kind words. Our team has been fortunate in the fact that after Tom moved away in high school, he decided to become a programming genius. To add a little bit to what Tom said...
Because of the nature of our project, numerous parties and moving parts are involved. For better or for worse, there's lot of "business stuff" to do on a daily basis. Looking at some of the other YC projects, I could definitely understand the advantages of having two hackers or one hacker and one designer. However, for our project, our skills are extremely complimentary of each other and well aligned with the work that needs to be done.
One caveat, I have built a few simple websites from scratch before and taken a couple programming classes so it's not like I know nothing about programming although Tom would probably argue otherwise :).
You bring up excellent points. There is a very long list of things I hate to do would likely screw up even if I tried to do (like file my taxes on time). I would be more than happy to partner with a non-hacker cofounder that had a good idea and was willing to take care of the boring parts. (By good idea I mean a business that can actually make money and with market research to back it up, not gamble on M&A).
Here on the east coast and the events and circles I hang in, developers are a rare thing and hard to come by!
For instance Startup Camp in NYC had one or two hackers/developers not involved in a startup already. The remaining 70 people in the room were creative/business people. Same goes for the DC startup community. Business/creative people population is higher then available developers!
As for me I taught myself web design(html, css, photoshop) and hired a developer from India. He does good work and is inexpensive.
I don't think it matters either way. Rather how focused and driven you are!!!
"How could I, a non-hacker, possibly play an equal contributory role has my hacker cofounder? And furthermore, how could I accurately convey my ideas coming from a frame of mind completely different from that of a hacker? I realized that if any sort of relationship was forged for the sake of having a team, these issues would soon arise in the future and cause much bigger problems, and would ultimately hinder the success and growth of a startup."
Indeed. I'd add that you risk being at the mercy of your staff.
while i havent founded a company yet i have had talks with a friend of doing it at several occasions and while he has a lot of ideas and is very outgoing and got people smarts he didnt really fathom that the tough part is still writing the application and not him giving me a rough idea of how it should be then me doing all the work and we splitting the profit to his favor lol.
At the beginning, I was irritated by the response I got here. People told me left and right that business people are useless and that if you don't know how to hack you can't go anywhere. But, after getting my feet wet and thinking about it, I understand where they were coming from.
So I guess a business guy can in fact lead a successful startup. But do I think that business savvy guy who knows a bit about hacking will have significantly higher chances of succeeding in the web world? Yes.