Does a start-up need a technical co-founder? A Singaporean case study
The founders of Google were graduate students studying computer science. Mark Zuckerberg has been programming since he was in his teens. Bill Gates was the quintessential geek. It seems like the most successful software/web companies are those that were founded by technically able people. This then brings a fundamental question…. do you really need someone who is technically able in the founding team for the company to succeed?
In this article by The Next Web, editor-in-chief Ernst-Jan Pfauth interviewed the founders of Singaporean start-up Conference Bay and posed a question regarding their biggest challenge when developing the portal. The founders cited their lack of technical experience. Due to this deficiency, the founders had to outsource the project to a company in Australia for its initial launch and then to an Indian company for its revamp.
This itself has presented 2 issues. Firstly, technical knowledge may have allowed the founders to have a deeper understanding of web design principles which MAY have prevented the need to do a complete revamp of the website which resulted in wastage of valuable resources.
The second problem that may not have existed if one of the founders had a technical background is that they probably would have more contacts in the tech sector and hence be better able to find technical help and can build the portal in-house.
However, what the Conference Bay founders lacked in technical skills, they more than made up with their business capabilities and networks. Being able to gain funding from private investors and the Singapore government (both of which are not easy to pitch to), they had enough resources to obtain the services from professional web agencies and a experienced PR/Marketing consultancy.
Overall, I would say that having technical skills in the founding team is extremely helpful but at this age where the world is so flat and outsourcing partners are so easily accessible, starting a web 2.0 is no longer a feat that is unreachable for the programming impaired.
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It al depends on what founders believe in: God or Darwin. If you think you can ‘create’ a company in 6 days and then it will be finished then you can outsource anything. If however you think that technology grows and development (evolution) is never ready then you need to be able to develop technology yourself or at least have a co-founder that can help you along.
My experience is that it is impossible to spec out the technology, have it built and then launch and be done with it. Development is an ongoing process.
I believe in Evolution…