if i would leave, it would be because the non-hacker in charge of the "business aspects" thought they meant that they were in charge of the direction of the business as a whole. this would manifest itself as not taking/considering the hacker's advice on things that the hacker knows better, not including the hacker on important decisions, etc.. if you're getting a hacker or two as a co-founder, they're a co-founder, not a low-level employee.
if you want a good environment and recruits, make sure that the work style is open and full of communication on important issues, and there are spheres of influence. for example, hackers know code. from a business standpoint, you can suggest features and such, but the hackers should get the final input on what happens with the code and therefore the product. and vice versa, hackers should have input on the business aspect if you're the business person, and you should take their input seriously, but in the end, you're the business person and you have the final say. the spheres shouldn't necessarily be exactly like that, but they should be well defined and stuck to, imo.
I'm not actually the business person either. I worked in medicine, and some constantly stupid things I see make me angry. I think I can design a product to take the stupid out of the processes I saw working in medicine. I also think that my solution to the problem I see might work as a platform for other health care innovations. Once our demo is working, we will decide together how to go forward, but I probably will be focused on design and medical aspects and hire a person for the business aspects too. Because our company is basically applying design and tech to medical problems, this means I will be CEO, so our focus stays there. However, my style includes being aware of my limitations, and delegating 100% of tech to the hacker, who wants to grow into CTO. A large aspect of our company will include components like creating a medical protocol, clinical trials and medical demographics, with tech being about 30-45% of what we need, so we may be substantially different then most Y startups in that respect.
I'm working on setting up a wiki to help organize our information and communication and preserve spheres of influence. I used to do some minor hacking as a kid back in the day, but just enough to have some respect for hackers and know I'm (way) out of my league if I want it done right.
When approaching hackers, perhaps you should present yourself as someone with expert domain knowledge, as opposed to someone with a business plan. That's probably more enticing to a hacker; it says "I know an interesting problem that we can solve" as opposed to "I know how we can make money."
Caveat: I am a graduate student, not a startup person.
I'm a medical doctor looking to join a healthcare startup. Not interested in residency right now; interested in rolling the dice. Shoot me back if interested.
non-tech person came to me with the idea and i accepted based on the idea, market feasibility, business model, and the work load.
for reference, i don't think we're working together. but i really hope we're not competing, its a fairly stagnant, old market and i don't want to have a new tough competitor :(
If you are competing, you could consider finding some way to merge and work together on it. On the other hand, maybe not. It's just something to consider just in case.
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i'm talking from the hacker standpoint.
if i would leave, it would be because the non-hacker in charge of the "business aspects" thought they meant that they were in charge of the direction of the business as a whole. this would manifest itself as not taking/considering the hacker's advice on things that the hacker knows better, not including the hacker on important decisions, etc.. if you're getting a hacker or two as a co-founder, they're a co-founder, not a low-level employee.
if you want a good environment and recruits, make sure that the work style is open and full of communication on important issues, and there are spheres of influence. for example, hackers know code. from a business standpoint, you can suggest features and such, but the hackers should get the final input on what happens with the code and therefore the product. and vice versa, hackers should have input on the business aspect if you're the business person, and you should take their input seriously, but in the end, you're the business person and you have the final say. the spheres shouldn't necessarily be exactly like that, but they should be well defined and stuck to, imo.
my $0.02.
Thanks!
I'm not actually the business person either. I worked in medicine, and some constantly stupid things I see make me angry. I think I can design a product to take the stupid out of the processes I saw working in medicine. I also think that my solution to the problem I see might work as a platform for other health care innovations. Once our demo is working, we will decide together how to go forward, but I probably will be focused on design and medical aspects and hire a person for the business aspects too. Because our company is basically applying design and tech to medical problems, this means I will be CEO, so our focus stays there. However, my style includes being aware of my limitations, and delegating 100% of tech to the hacker, who wants to grow into CTO. A large aspect of our company will include components like creating a medical protocol, clinical trials and medical demographics, with tech being about 30-45% of what we need, so we may be substantially different then most Y startups in that respect.
I'm working on setting up a wiki to help organize our information and communication and preserve spheres of influence. I used to do some minor hacking as a kid back in the day, but just enough to have some respect for hackers and know I'm (way) out of my league if I want it done right.
When approaching hackers, perhaps you should present yourself as someone with expert domain knowledge, as opposed to someone with a business plan. That's probably more enticing to a hacker; it says "I know an interesting problem that we can solve" as opposed to "I know how we can make money."
Caveat: I am a graduate student, not a startup person.
i'm working on a medical-related startup myself ;)
I'm a medical doctor looking to join a healthcare startup. Not interested in residency right now; interested in rolling the dice. Shoot me back if interested.
Fun. I hope we are not competing. :)
Out of curiosity, are you working on implementing your own idea or did a non-tech person contribute the idea you are working on?
non-tech person came to me with the idea and i accepted based on the idea, market feasibility, business model, and the work load.
for reference, i don't think we're working together. but i really hope we're not competing, its a fairly stagnant, old market and i don't want to have a new tough competitor :(
If you are competing, you could consider finding some way to merge and work together on it. On the other hand, maybe not. It's just something to consider just in case.
There are certainly plenty of stagnant old markets in the medical industry.
and lots of opportunity for startups to grow and profit, is what i like to tell myself.