Great points. Programmers (collectively) on pedestals is a fair point. I
have worked with some great ones though, and the business knows it! I
have also worked with many programmers, some that you would never put in
front of the business (internal), your customers (external), let alone
form a company with them.
Your point about CTO is a good one, though I would say not all start-ups
need an experienced CTO. Depends on your business really. A tech
co-founder should demonstrate more than just coding skills though.
And to be clear, developing software, or in the bigger picture systems,
is much more than just churning code... so don't get coder and
programmer mixed up with a good software/systems developer. In some
businesses you will see, coders, team leaders, business analysts,
project managers, software architects, testers and various other people.
A good SOFTWARE DEVELOPER should have all those traits in some form,
maybe they are not CTO material but they are the type of person that
understands more than just code (Though they should be a master of code
first). Maybe this is the types of person you need as a tech co-founder
(again depends on your business). In my opinion there are lots of
programmers, fewer developers, and even less CTOs.
Ryan
On 7/04/11 2:20 AM, pcoll...@cpan.org wrote:
I'm finding this thread quite amusing and for some reason it is
annoying me. I haven't put my finger on why that is yet. I think
perhaps it is the tendency for many people on this list to put
"programmers" on a pedestal. As if everybody could one day be Mark
Zuckerberg. (OK this part was maybe a bit harsh, but I think this
bubble we're in is creating this holier than thou attitude again).
Instead of thinking about it in terms of a "coder". Think about a good
technical co-founder who is actually an experienced CTO with a
business mind, not just a coder. The CTO should have enough skills to
do some initial prototyping. Probably has enough experience to assess
the risks and rewards of the startup. Can attract great coding talent
quickly (or if not lead the remote Ukrainian team). If your idea can't
attract an experienced startup CTO with a good stomach for risk, then
you're probably riding the wrong horse or in the wrong direction. If
you can't assess a good CTO from a great coder, then you probably
can't run a startup either.
In my experience other than having watched the social network, most
coders don't actually get the risk/reward tradeoff of a startup and
aren't sufficiently rounded to carry their half of a demanding startup
partnership. Coders are just regular smart people with some coding
chops, that doesn't make them anymore qualified to join the
partnership of a startup than my accountant except that they have the
skills I need to help get it off the ground on day 1 when I have
little cash.
Patrick.
On 6 April 2011 06:05, Brendan Quinn <bren...@clueful.com.au
<mailto:bren...@clueful.com.au>> wrote:
On 6 April 2011 07:49, Geoff Langdale <geoff.langd...@gmail.com
<mailto:geoff.langd...@gmail.com>> wrote:
3. There's no technical prestige associated in having worked for a
technically dull failed business startup. The vast majority of
startups are going to fail. If you're a tech guy and you're
realistic
about this, go figure out whether you're going to want to work
for a
startup that's going to fail that (a) is boring and has no
technical
kudos or (b) is technically interesting. Someone who works on a
technical startup that's a 'noble failure' is going to have
improved
their position; someone who works for a 'plug web front end into
database backend' type role has at best stayed in the same place
career-wise.
Possibly #3 is the point touched on the least. A lot of ideas,
whether
good or bad as business, are just boring technically and
that's all
there is to it.
Of course the converse is true as well: a lot of tech-focussed
teams don't care about the business side enough, and end up
spending all their time building something "cool" in node.js or
Scala or some other of-the-moment technology, forgetting that they
have to find users and revenue and traction etc etc.
So maybe we need some more give-and-take and respect for both the
tech and the marketing sides: "okay I'll let you build the DB
backend in Redis/Membase/MongoDB rather than MySQL so you can
boast to your friends at the ruby meetup, but only if you help me
to make the SEO work and create a good viral invite system so we
can get traction"
In the end it's more important to build a successful business than
a sexy one... well that's my opinion anyway!
Brendan.
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