How To Build A Tech Startup With No Technical Skills

you're offering Adventure you're

offering the unknown and Adventure isn't

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 yeah I think to set

this up um 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 like

they find us they find us and 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 like this is

one of the number one opening questions

we get when we meet people in the real

world yes 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 and 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 tall people like

to go and have drinks with you you've

got Amazing Ideas

unfortunately there are a lot of folks

like that yeah imagine the set of people

imagine the intersection there's the set

of people that are great business

Founders yes and there's the set of

people that can recruit amazing

technical co-founders yes 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 I would argue it it is so

distinguishing that you're given amazing

opportunities um but what's tricky is

not only to people not see this um or to

people try and not get a Tech Co or they

just dismiss it out of hand it's too

hard like they'll just kind of like shut

this line that's what's even more common

it's just that like well I 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 like a

lot of people will pitch this to me as

like but this is the true Spirit of an

entrepreneurism like no barrier can

prevent me from getting my product to

market right like I couldn't find

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 back and 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 would 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 people

would be able to do it yeah and so it's

just like it's a shame because it's so

much wasted Talent yeah I I like to

think about it this way again we are

what we're talking about implicitly

let's make it explicit we're talking

about a company that uses software as a

deep part of it so Teck 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 my I have such a big

heart we can just like like I have such

Hustle I'm Johnny hustle I'm going to

the Moon Michael like do you see how

absurd that is but and the as is okay if

you want to start a new clothing brand

or a liquor brand okay you don't need

this doesn't OB but if you're if you're

saying yeah I'm going to build a

software company and you don't have a

software co-founder it just you're not

even in the in the ball game 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 like I

am trying to tell you the number or like

I came to you for advice about my

product but you're telling me I need a

co- 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 is advice is informed

by my personal experience right like I

was the single non-technical person on a

forers co-founding team at Justin TV and

twitch and like uh I'll just make it

plain without my three other co-founders

none of that happens like ideas are

a dime a dozen and so um 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 d 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 door Dash

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 door Dash or

literally Airbnb or any of these folks

yes they lived and died by their speed

of shipping software and if they 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 ball game like it's not

even well what what pisses me off is

that like I think in other areas um that

are equally as hard as being 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 like 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 66 and like you're

like a great high school basketball

player you probably won't make the NBA

but like all right at least you you're

in the stadium in the stadium you're

amongst the million people who could

yeah 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 like an extreme positive

it's like a golden what is it Willy

Wonka ticket and and even if you are

technical yourself or sometimes people

are medium technical like so I 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 you know 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 commit

as much as a founder and who's at you

know 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 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 office

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 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

and they are naturally going to start by

hiring worse Engineers all of your

future Engineers

are exactly it compounds bad so okay so

all right Michael all right 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 is to go get a job

at a startup is to go change the people

you know and what's so interesting is

that like sometimes taking that step

sideways is the easiest and best path to

starting 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 have you talked to them and they're

like no they would like basically folks

put up the barriers yes 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 um 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 be

like I'm an idea guy I've got a great

idea do you want to be my like worker be

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

yeah 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 like

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 all right 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 live 247 named

after him yes named after named

Justin.tv do you want to work up my

startup yes it's me yes and and

and he had 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 I

you know I'll tell you what he promise

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 D it's like they don't realize

you're offering Adventure you're

offering the unknown an adventure isn't

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 yes 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 play 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 guy is important D like you

don't need them I agree you don't need

them but I will say this um 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

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

all right thanks D

[Music]

thanks