"Assume a solo tech founder has all the skills needed to complete a given Web application for a startup."
A huge assumption.
If you're wrong about that and you get a non-tech co-founder, you're toast.
Personally, I'd hedge my bets with a second tech and worry about the non-tech stuff later.
I have been in the exact same situation twice before and here's what happened both times: I was working 100 hour weeks and my partner was bored. Then he went out and oversold what I could have delivered. A disaster. Twice. (You'd think I'd have learned.)
The problem isn't whether you have the skills for what is needed. It's whether you have the time to do it. I underestimated what it would take and didn't account for all kinds of stuff. It's a very easy trap to fall into, believe me. The stuff that bites you in the butt down the line will be technical; count on it.
I would have traded either non-technical partner for a fellow hacker in a heartbeat. If I had, who knows, you may have been reading this at Eddie News instead while I typed it from my yacht. Don't make the same mistake as me. Get another tech.
Perhaps its the fact that I'm in the Boston area (instead of the West coast), but I've had problems connecting with a good hacker co-founder. Most that I've met are looking for co-founders themselves for their own ideas ... I'd join a different startup, but I think I've got a good idea with a rare domain to boot.
next time take your guess at how long something will take and multiply it by 3. Sounds like a joke but I've been surprised at the number of times this has worked out.
Comments
"Assume a solo tech founder has all the skills needed to complete a given Web application for a startup."
A huge assumption.
If you're wrong about that and you get a non-tech co-founder, you're toast.
Personally, I'd hedge my bets with a second tech and worry about the non-tech stuff later.
I have been in the exact same situation twice before and here's what happened both times: I was working 100 hour weeks and my partner was bored. Then he went out and oversold what I could have delivered. A disaster. Twice. (You'd think I'd have learned.)
The problem isn't whether you have the skills for what is needed. It's whether you have the time to do it. I underestimated what it would take and didn't account for all kinds of stuff. It's a very easy trap to fall into, believe me. The stuff that bites you in the butt down the line will be technical; count on it.
I would have traded either non-technical partner for a fellow hacker in a heartbeat. If I had, who knows, you may have been reading this at Eddie News instead while I typed it from my yacht. Don't make the same mistake as me. Get another tech.
Perhaps its the fact that I'm in the Boston area (instead of the West coast), but I've had problems connecting with a good hacker co-founder. Most that I've met are looking for co-founders themselves for their own ideas ... I'd join a different startup, but I think I've got a good idea with a rare domain to boot.
I hear ya. Keep at it.
next time take your guess at how long something will take and multiply it by 3. Sounds like a joke but I've been surprised at the number of times this has worked out.
Ah, but you forgot Hofstadter's law: