Comments on: Why Founders Should Learn to Code (It’s Not Why You Think) https://startupsoutherner.com/2016/02/11/why-founders-should-learn-to-code-the-reason-is-not-what-you-think/ Are you a Startup Person? Wed, 16 Mar 2016 12:42:40 +0000 hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=4.4.2 By: Joe https://startupsoutherner.com/2016/02/11/why-founders-should-learn-to-code-the-reason-is-not-what-you-think/#comment-28 Wed, 24 Feb 2016 16:07:01 +0000 https://startupsoutherner.com/?p=492#comment-28 Hey, programmer here as well. I think Jake has some great points. Britt, I think you’re looking at this too much from a programmer’s perspective. As someone who has worked with a lot with business people who have no idea how to even go about finding a good programmer, and don’t really know what that means. Jake’s solution is for the person to learn a bit of code, and I think that’s because he’s coming from the point of view that the person doesn’t have a person in their immediate network to help them (if they did, none of this would probably be an issue).

It sounds like Britt is being a little overzealous. I’m all for the business people I work with learning how to code, because the alternative (a business person that knows little to nothing about code, and doesn’t care to learn) is terrible to work with. Also, Britt is assuming the business person has the resources necessary to convince a tech co-founder to come onboard, and programmers I know 9 out of 10 times don’t take jobs where they get paid little to nothing to work on some random idea.

I think the question here is pretty simple; should founders learn to code, all else being equal? The obvious answer is yes. Whatever the reason, who cares. I think Britt misses that point.

]]> By: Britt https://startupsoutherner.com/2016/02/11/why-founders-should-learn-to-code-the-reason-is-not-what-you-think/#comment-26 Mon, 22 Feb 2016 22:31:02 +0000 https://startupsoutherner.com/?p=492#comment-26 Programmer here–as well as founder. The idea that a dilettante programmer can accurately estimate the technical challenges, seeable and unforeseeable, within a project is laughable. Only someone with technical knowledge (high-level is fine), and a track record of successful projects will be in this position. I know; I still struggle with estimates and unforeseen issues as a seasoned programmer. Founders do not need to learn code; they need to learn how to find technical co-founders (hint: the first step is by not harboring a suspicion of how programmers do their job.) If your startup is having its product built by an agency, you are to face problems regardless. Not due to the agency, but due to the startup’s inherent weakness of offering a technical product without a technical co-founder (Sounds like a bad idea to me). However, I’ll play along. Let’s assume that a technical co-founder is impossible (in this case, I find it more likely the startup’s founders are downplaying the importance of a techie, and this has prevented them from going through the trouble of finding one. If you can’t convince a single programmer of your tech idea, how will you convince the world?) It would be better to have a trusted technical consultant vet the agency in mind. Learning a few if/else statements and for/while loops will not grant much clarity here. It is the experience of actually completing a technical project and all that it entails that does the trick.

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