How To Build A Tech Startup With No Technical Skills

You're offering adventure. You're offering the unknown. And adventure isn't just about having an idea. Here's my idea for a social network for dogs. Will you build my website? No, let's build a company together. Together? Yes! Welcome to Doon Plus, Michael.

Today, we're going to talk about why business folks need great technical co-founders. So who's this video for? Let's talk about the business folks we're talking to.

I think, to set this up, Michael and I both talk to a lot of aspiring founders in any number of different venues: on the street, at conferences, in interviews, wherever they find us. One of the more common opening lines is something like, "Well, I'm a really good business person with a great idea. I have the best ideas!" Yes, you know, how do I need a technical co-founder? Or how do I find a technical co-founder? Or, I can't find any good technical co-founders. This is one of the number one opening questions we get when we meet people in the real world.

And so, this video is aimed at all of those people that ask all these questions that we have met, and all the people that haven't met us that might be thinking these questions. What we want to do is give you the key secret to actually being the best business co-founder. And we're not going to hide it; we're going to put it right up front. The best business founders recruit amazing technical co-founders, and that is how they distinguish themselves. That is the number one distinction.

So, it's not what's on your resume, where you worked, the fact that you were some fancy executive, that you're someone people like to go and have drinks with, and you've got amazing ideas. Unfortunately, there are a lot of folks like that. Imagine the set of people; imagine the intersection. There's the set of people that are great business founders, and there's the set of people that can recruit amazing technical co-founders. You want to be in the intersection of those two sets, and there's not many people.

No, that puts you in a very special class. Well, and I would argue it is so distinguishing that you're given amazing opportunities. But what's tricky is not only do people not see this, or do people try and not get a tech co-founder, or they just dismiss it out of hand, it's too hard. They'll just shut this line.

That's what's even more common. It's just that, like, "Well, I can't find this person, so I'm just going along." "Yeah, I don't know anyone." Okay. You know, and this is the crazy thing because a lot of people will pitch this to me as like, "But this is the true spirit of entrepreneurism! No barrier can prevent me from getting my product to market." Right? Like, "I couldn't find a technical co-founder, so I just moved to the next challenge. I hired some engineers or I got a dev shop, and like nothing will keep me, will hold me back."

What's so sad about that way of thinking about it is that, like, one, the percentage chances of death just went through the roof, right? Like, you've just completely reduced your chances of success. But two, I bet if you had put the same amount of effort you put into getting a product to market without a great technical founder into finding a great technical founder, at least half of people would be able to do it.

Yeah! And so it's just a shame because it's so much wasted talent. I like to think about it this way: again, we're talking about a company that uses software as a deep part of it, so tech software startup. If we're talking about a software startup, yes, and you somehow don't have a technical co-founder, this would be like, "I'm going to build a rocket to the moon!" Yes, but no one here knows anything about physics. "We can! I have such a big heart! We can just, like, I have such hustle. I'm Johnny Hustle! I'm going to the moon, Michael!"

Do you see how absurd that is? But, and this is okay. If you want to start a new clothing brand or a liquor brand, okay, you don't need—this doesn't apply. But if you're saying, "Yeah, I'm going to build a software company," and you don't have a software co-founder, you're not even in the ballgame. You're not even in the stadium.

Well, what's so sad for me is, like, when I say that to people, sometimes they think I'm trying to discourage them. But if you go back to that, "I'm going to prove you wrong, Michael! I'm going to learn physics!" Yeah, and I'm like, I am not trying to discourage you. I am trying to tell you the number of—I came to you for advice about my product, but you're telling me I need a co-founder. You're insulting me, Michael!

Yeah, yeah! And it's just like, no, I'm trying to give you the most important thing I can tell you. And you know what? Interesting is that, like, this advice is informed by my personal experience. Right? Like, I was the single non-technical person on a four-person co-founding team at Justin.tv and Twitch. Without my three other co-founders, none of that happens.

Ideas are a dime a dozen. And so, I think that more business people need to embrace the idea that great software companies are built by great software engineers. Yep. A common retort out here is like, "We're not building a software business; software is in there, but it's not that; it's a tech-enabled. Yeah, we're just building a simple marketplace." Right? Like, we can just use jedit marketplace software; it's just a copy of DoorDash with a little twist. Why do we need a great software engineer?

What's your response? You know, it's hard to win that debate in theory. Like, it's hard to convince someone just in the debate. They'll be like, "Well, we're just going to agree to disagree." Yes, but I think if you just look at the facts of the companies we funded, like literally DoorDash or literally Airbnb or any of these folks, yes, they lived and died by their speed of shipping software. And if what they did was buy white-label software or have some dev shop in a foreign country making edits to the website, there's a 0% chance those companies would have worked.

Yeah! And so, again, who am I to say there won't be some future company that maybe uses one of these things? Yes, but the more that— the more that we're exposed to seeing what these companies look like at the earliest stages, even if they don't look like strictly tech businesses, man, there's no way these things would have gotten off the ground without having a really great person who cared as much as a co-founder cares, yes, building this thing day in and day out versus someone ripping you off, charging you $500 an hour to change some words on the website. And you don't even know, you're not even in the ballgame. Like, it's not even...

Well, what pisses me off is that, like, I think in other areas that are equally as hard as being a successful tech founder, let's say athletics. I think more people are realistic about it, strangely. Like, the equivalent is, you know, a 5'4 person who doesn't jump can't run, yeah. And got a lot of heart, mangles, yeah, they're not that many of those people who are saying to the world, "I want to be in the NBA!"

Right? Whereas we see the equivalent of that in startups all the time. And it's like, it's one thing if you're 6'6", and like you're like a great high school basketball player. You probably won't make the NBA, but alright, at least you're in the stadium, you're amongst the million people who could!

And I think that people are not honest with themselves, and I think what we're trying to do is give you this secret, which is that, like, you can almost get a ticket to being in the game, and it requires recruiting one person. Yep! How cool is that? Like, this shouldn't be seen as a negative; it's like an extreme positive. It's like a golden—what is it? Willy Wonka ticket!

And even if you are technical yourself, or sometimes people are medium technical, like, so I was a technical CEO, but I still tremendously benefited by having an additional technical co-founder. And so this is also a thing where you're not like, "Okay, well, I can kind of, I can kind of..." Okay, that doesn't count. There's actually tremendous benefits from having someone again who cares as much as a founder, who's committed as much as a founder, and who's at the top of the game, like a 10x engineer.

On a founder level, you're unstoppable! And what's weird is sometimes we had competitors in my startups whose teams were constructed this way—horrible tech talent. And it was funny in hindsight because we never had to be worried. They could raise more money; they could have nicer offices; they could have more employees; they could have cooler people using their... it didn't matter!

Like, having better engineering is the gift that gives you more shots every day, even if you need to pivot. No matter what happens, good or bad, you're in a better position, a better position to react to these changes! Yes!

And I think the even scarier thing about this is that, like, when you start with a team of business people assessing engineers, they are naturally going to start by hiring worse engineers. All of your future engineers... Exactly! It compounds bad!

So, okay. So, alright, Michael, alright, you guys convinced me, I guess whatever, but I don't—you know—sure, guy, you know, I guess that's a point you can make. I don't know, but Michael, I don't know anyone! Where do I find these people?

Yeah, how—again, that's what we always say in these conversations. So how—what is your response when they tell you that?

So, the first thing is that, like, who are you disqualifying and why? I can't tell you how many business people told me, "Well, I obviously need a CTO with 10 years of experience and who've managed teams of at least 50 to 100," and I'm like, "You're 23 years old with no years of experience. Why do you need that?"

And they're like, "Well, because, you know, when we launch, this thing's going to get big." Just, like, come on! So first, you might be disqualifying great people. Don't do that. And so, let's say you don't know them. Sometimes the number one thing to do if you're in this position is to not start the company right now; it's to go get a job at a startup!

It's to go change the people you know, and what's so interesting is that sometimes taking that step sideways is the easiest and best path to starting a journey with the highest likelihood of success.

Well, here's the thought experiment I encourage people to do. Visualize the best person you have ever worked with, either in school or in your job—the best engineer that everyone knows is the best person. Yes? Can you visualize someone? Okay. Can you get that person to be your co-founder?

And often people are like, "Oh yeah, no, they would never— they would never work with me!" "What do you mean, man?" Or, like, "They're making lots of money!" Yeah, and again, I would just stop right there and be like, "Well, why haven't you talked to them?"

And they're like, "No, they would..." Like, basically, folks put up the barriers to negotiate against themselves! Yes, right out of the gate! And again, if we zoom all the way out, yes, so you want to start a company; you want to do something big, but you won't actually even bother to try to recruit the most obvious person that's a candidate that you know?

But what if they say no? Or you talk to them, and they're like, "No, I don’t think so." What often happens, again to go deep on this, is that the way they'll pitch the person is they'll pitch them their idea. They'll be like, "I'm an idea guy! I've got a great idea; do you want to be my worker bee, to go do all my ideas?" And of course, the person that's the best person you've ever worked with does not want to sit in a cage! No!

And do all of the work that you give them? No! And instead, I'm like, well, have you asked them what if they have startup ideas? Yeah, and then you sell yourself where you can come together, come up with the idea together as co-owners.

And it's shocking how often that appears to have never occurred to someone! Like, they think the idea of finding a tech co-founder is to find someone who will basically submit to their whims and be like their assistant—to find an employee! Yeah, and that's not the move, man!

Trying to find a partner. You know, it's funny because my dad would say this to me about my co-founder, Justin Khan. He was like, "You know, Michael, Justin's an amazing recruiter." And I always thought, I was like, "What's weird is, like, I think if you're recruited by a good recruiter, you don't even realize they're a good recruiter!" Right?

But, like, in hindsight, I'm like, "Alright, so we got me, Emmit, and Kyle to work for him." Well, not work for him, but to be his co-founders in a startup where he was wearing a camera on his side streaming his life 24/7, named after him! Yes! Named Justin.tv! "Do you want to work at my startup? Yes, it's me!"

Yes! And he raised 50,000. Seems like a great deal! Michael! Yeah, right? And so, it's like, okay, well, like how did he build that team? Like, you know, it comes back to, like, you want to sting yourself as a business person? Go do that!

Like, that's—people should be impressed! I'm impressed! You're a great business, and hey, they're working on your idea! Let's even—I promise you, I have no idea!

Well, you know, I'll tell you what he promised me; it wasn't that the idea was going to work, like it was the adventure! Okay, it was the adventure! And, like, I think what's so interesting when people, like, don't ask their friend and they assume, "Oh, but they work at this company; they're never going to do it," da da.

It's like they don't realize you're offering adventure! You're offering the unknown! An adventure isn't just, "Here's my idea for a social network for dogs, will you build my website?" No! Let's build a company together! Together? Yes! That's adventure!

And, um, what's crazy is, like, when you're pitching adventure, there aren't a lot of—there aren't a lot of alternatives! Most people don't have six adventures on the plate! How often does any one person get pitched adventure?

Yeah, I know it's usually adventure or like—so, you know, it's a good pitch! It's a good pitch! So, anyways, right? I think that, um, we're trying—you know, I think that there's—like, I'll say this, right? I'm a business guy, right? I think YC has a lot of messaging that's like, yeah, our business guys are important. "D, like you don't need them!"

I agree, you don't need them. But I will say this—there are a lot of very successful non-technical people in our network that do amazing work. And I think one of the things that if you want to learn from them, we're trying to give you one of the most important patterns we see from those folks—they're great recruiters! And they do this thought experiment of "Who's the best person in the world?" and they find a way to get that person to work with them!

That's bending the universe to your will, is what that is! So you should hold yourself to their standard, and maybe you'll get their success!

Alright, thanks, D! [Music] Thanks!