Mistakes Non-Tech Founder Make

I have spend lot of time looking for founder. Some of the non-tech folks really underestimate the contribution of tech in building a tech company. I have compiled a list of mistakes that non-tech Founders make when looking for tech founder.

1. I want someone skilled in this tech stack. Early stage products are all about building MVPs to test hypothesis. Tech Founder should be able to build the MVP and iterate with little to no extra help. It’s all about learning what is missing and building it.

2. I want someone who can scale and design systems. It’s like finding a founder with specific tech expertise. Scaling isn’t a big issue unless you’re building something like Facebook, Instagram etc. The chances are higher that you are going to die even before you get 10 users. Get someone who can iterate fast.

3. It a small app, I will outsource it. It’s like not owning a car and depending upon uber. You will get uber most of the time, but you will struggle to get one during peak hours and emergency. For startups there are always rush hours and emergency. No outsourcing agency will have that much intensity and iterations as of a tech founder.

4. I understand tech and can get some Founding Engineer. The tech space is evolving rapidlt, and most of the tech people struggle to stay updated. so don’t underestimate tech contribution. You are more likely to succed focusing on business and getting a strong tech founder to build and iterate faster.

5. I have already built the MVP. The whole basis of software is it evolves rapidly. If you think, your product is already ready. You are either assuming that there will be no changes in features in the future. Or you competition is not going to catch up with you. Which are highly unlikely.

Most of the Non-tech founders assume that they have a very clear vision and only remaining is building product. In reality building and experimenting is what brings clarity. Every idea looks good in mind, It starts breaking when real people use it.

Someone who loves building product can help you navigate those feedback cycles faster.

What is great?

It was a nice snack time, during my internship at Directiplex. And one of the team members asked me.

What do you want out of this internship? My mind said PPO. but I kept my calm and said, I want to learn How to write great-quality software.

Curious, he asked, “What does great quality software look like to you?” I replied to all the standard things like Maintainability, ease of reading, etc.

To which he probed me further. Will you be able to tell which one is well-written?

The question was deep. I could not answer it. I did not know, What great software looks like.

Every time I ask this question to people. They can not tell me what a great looks like.

People want to be great entrepreneurs, great engineers, etc.

But very few have developed the taste of what great works look like in their field.

so, start developing awareness about what great looks like. Ask questions like

1. What’s different about the work that’s classified as great?
2. Look at great people in the field and try to find answers to what makes them great.
3. If something is bad, What makes it bad?

Taking control over brain

What makes a monkey brain? Too easy it gets bored. Too Hard it runs away.

It needs right level of stimulation. Let’s try with an example.

What’s 86*96? You can’t use calculator. Most likely, you would have skipped it.

Let’s try again.

1. 86*100 = ?
2. 86*4 = ?
3. 8600 - 300 = ?
4. 8300 - 44 = ?

The completion rate of second would be higher. At’least you would have attempted some calculations.

In the first part brain is trying to do two things.

1. Breaking the calculations into smaller ones.
2. Doing calculations.

The brain switches between performing calculations and referencing a sequence of prior calculations. Utilizing paper to record these calculations simplifies the process, making it easier for our minds to follow the logical path.

When you open your laptop for work, it’s beneficial to establish a clear goal and document the path to that goal in thorough detail. This approach simplifies your thought process by allowing your brain to follow a predefined path rather than simultaneously figuring out and tracking progress. <!– Brain is an idiot. It does not want to sit idle nor it want to go deep. It needs a right level of stimulation otherwise it will abandon the problem and move to next one. or have the easy problem it will jump to something else.

Let us try a small excercise. If I ask you mentally calculate it. You are most likely going to skip it.

86*96 =

If I break the problem to smaller chunks. Your brain is more likely to comply in solving it. Example Step 1 = 86100
Step 2 = 864 = Step 3 = 8600 - 300 Step 4 = 8300 - 44 Step 5 =

It is ready to walk the path, but if you ask it to figure out the path and walk simultanesoulys It will try to escape.

What’s the difference? In the first problem, its’ figuring out the path and performing it.

Removing the mental blockage make it easy

It is likely to procastinate.

How can we trick it? Don’t rush to figuring out the path and solving it simultaneously. Try to do detail planning of next day.

Try to break every task into the smallest bit possible. Don’t attempt to solve two kind of problem simultanesouly.

Every time you are trying to solve a problem and feel like brain wants to skip it. Try to break the goal further and just focus on immediate next step.

Example Trying to debug a bug.

1. Write down possible approaches before debugging.
2. Atle

It needs right level of stimulation. One way you can clear What can you do –>

The Necklace

The Necklace📿

Remember the textbook story “The Necklace”? A girl borrows a necklace to wear at the ministerial ball.

She loses it and did not come clean to her friend. She was worried about her prestige, ego, and pride. Instead, She purchased a similar looking one. It was above her means and she took hefty loans. She spent the rest of her life repaying the loans.

A chance encounter with her friend revealed that, The necklace was an imitation and was cheap.

As a fresh engineer in the company. I have to estimate timelines for projects. And I tend to underestimate.

The result will be working harder and still, the project gets delayed.

My team members’ thinking of me as incompetent would worry me. The reality is software gets delayed and no one can predict it. Fixing bugs takes more time than expected.

So, come clean. Don’t let your prestige, ego, and pride come between. It will save you and your team. The visibility at the earliest sign of timeline change is important.

You can learn everthing, but not at the same time.

Story of Hungry and Thirsty Donkey

There was a thirsty and hungry Donkey. To his right side, there was grass, And water on his left.

He will look at the grass, and then look at the water. Thinking whether to drink water or eat grass.

He kept doing that, and died of both hunger and thirst. We behave similarly in life. We would want to learn all hard things simultaneously.

We want to learn data science, competitive programming, and ethical hacking…

All at the same time.

If we zoom out from the situation. It’s possible to learn one for some time, and move on to the next after that.

Have you faced such situation before?