Do Technical Founders Need Business Co-Founders?

Summary

このビデオは起業家が事業共同設立者を必要とするかどうかを検討しています。技術共同設立者の重要性に比べ、事業共同設立者の必要性についての議論が提示されています。ビデオ全体としては、事業共同設立者は必須ではないと主張しています。

Takeaways

• 😀すべてのスタートアップがコードを書けない人を必要とするわけではない。
• 👩‍💼技術的な共同創設者は、非技術的な業務もこなすことができる。
• 📈ビジネス共同創設者が絶対に必要ではないことを証明する例が多数存在する。
• 🚀成功した多くの大企業は、全て技術的な共同創設者から始まった。
• 🤔ビジネス共同創設者は、必ずしもスタートアップに不可欠ではない。
• 📊「ビジネス人材が必要」という投資家からのフィードバックは、実際には創設者の姿勢や業務遂行能力に対する直接的なコメントである可能性がある。
• 🔍特定の業界に対する深い知識がある非技術的共同創設者は有益かもしれないが、必須ではない。
• 🏢ビジネススキルは学べるもので、必ずしもビジネス学校の教育が必要なわけではない。
• 👥スタートアップは困難なため、感情的サポートを提供できる共同創設者が必要である。
• 💼「ビジネス共同創設者プラス技術共同創設者が等しくスタートアップの成功」という公式は正しくない。

Q & A

起業にビジネス共同創業者は必要ですか？

はい、しかし条件付きで。すべてのスタートアップがコーディングができない人を必要とするわけではありませんが、非技術的なタスクを担当する人が必要です。

非技術的な共同創業者の定義は何ですか？

非技術的な共同創業者は、コーディングに関係ないタスクを担当する人を指します。

起業において、コーディング以外に必要なタスクは何ですか？

会社設立、銀行業務、給与計算、税金の支払い、顧客との対話、採用、セールス、資金調達、カスタマーサポートなどです。

技術的共同創業者も非技術的タスクを担うことができますか？

はい、技術的共同創業者も非技術的タスクを担う能力があります。これらは一般的な知能を要するタスクです。

タスクを担当する上で重要なのは能力ですか、それとも意欲ですか？

両方重要ですが、特に意欲（アペタイト）が重要です。タスクを積極的に、そして上手にこなす意欲が必要です。

ビジネス共同創業者がいない大企業の例はありますか？

はい、Google、Nvidia、Microsoftなど、技術的共同創業者のみで成功した企業は多数あります。

特定の業界に特化した非技術的共同創業者が有用な場合はありますか？

はい、特定の業界に深い知識や経験を持つ非技術的共同創業者は、その業界向けの製品やサービスの販売に役立つことがあります。

起業においてビジネス共同創業者の必要性は、技術共同創業者に比べてどうですか？

技術共同創業者が必須である場合が多い一方で、ビジネス共同創業者の必要性は状況によりますが、必ずしも必須ではありません。

投資家が「ビジネス共同創業者が必要」とアドバイスする本当の理由は何ですか？

それは、創業者が非技術的タスクに対する意欲や質に問題があると見られる場合の、間接的なフィードバックであることが多いです。

スタートアップが成功するためにビジネス共同創業者と技術共同創業者の組み合わせが魔法の公式だと考えるべきですか？

いいえ、一人のビジネス人と一人の技術人がいれば成功するというわけではありません。成功にはさまざまな要因が絡み合っています。

Outlines

00:00

🤔ビジネス共同創設者は必要か？

このセグメントでは、ビジネス共同創設者の必要性について議論しています。特に、非技術的な共同創設者がスタートアップにとって絶対必要かどうかに焦点を当てています。彼らは、すべてのスタートアップがコーディングできない人を必要とするわけではないと主張し、ビジネスの側面（例えば、顧客との対話、販売、資金調達など）を担当できる技術共同創設者の存在を強調しています。要するに、非技術的なタスクを効果的に実行できる能力は、技術的な背景を持つ人にも見られるため、ビジネス共同創設者が必ずしも必要ではないと結論付けています。

05:00

📈技術共同創設者だけの成功例

このパートでは、技術的な背景を持つ共同創設者だけで構成された成功した企業の例（例えば、Nvidia、Google、Microsoftなど）を挙げて、ビジネス共同創設者が必ずしも必要でないことを証明しています。特に、Nvidiaの例を取り上げ、技術的な専門知識が企業の成功に不可欠であり、ビジネススキルよりも価値がある場合があることを強調しています。さらに、技術共同創設者だけの企業が大企業に成長した例を示し、ビジネス共同創設者がいなくても成功できることを示しています。

10:00

👥共同創設者の真の価値

最後のセクションでは、共同創設者が持つべき真の価値について語っています。ここでは、共同創設者がビジネススキルを提供することが重要なのではなく、起業の難しさを共に乗り越えるための精神的支援を提供することが重要であると主張しています。スタートアップの旅は困難であり、共同創設者はこの挑戦を乗り越えるために必要なサポートとなるのです。

Keywords

💡ビジネス共同創業者

ビジネス共同創業者とは、技術以外の面で会社を運営する責任を持つ人を指します。動画では、スタートアップにとってビジネス共同創業者が必要かどうかというテーマを掘り下げています。例えば、顧客とのコミュニケーション、販売戦略、資金調達などが挙げられます。このコンセプトは、スタートアップが成功するためには技術だけでなく、これらのビジネス面も重要であるという考えに基づいています。

💡技術共同創業者

技術共同創業者は、製品の開発や技術的な問題を解決する責任を持つ人です。動画では、スタートアップが技術共同創業者を必要とするかどうか、そしてその理由について議論しています。技術とビジネスの役割の区分けに挑戦し、技術的な知識がある人もビジネス関連のタスクを遂行できることを示唆しています。

💡非技術者創業者

非技術者創業者とは、主にビジネス、マーケティング、または他の非技術的分野での知識やスキルを持つ人のことを指します。動画では、非技術者創業者が技術的なタスク以外の重要な役割を果たすことができるかどうか、そしてそのバランスが成功の鍵であるかどうかを探求しています。

💡顧客対応

顧客対応は、顧客の問い合わせや懸念に対応するプロセスを指します。動画では、このタスクがビジネス共同創業者の責任領域であり、成功するスタートアップにとって不可欠な要素であることを強調しています。顧客対応は製品やサービスの改善に直接つながる重要なフィードバックを提供します。

💡販売

販売は、製品やサービスを市場に提供し、それによって収益を生み出すプロセスです。動画では、販売がスタートアップの成功に不可欠であるとともに、この役割を果たすためには技術的なスキルが必ずしも必要ではないことを指摘しています。販売戦略と実行は、スタートアップが成長し、市場での地位を確立するために重要です。

💡資金調達

資金調達は、スタートアップが事業を成長させるために必要な資金を確保するプロセスです。動画では、資金調達活動が技術的な知識とは無関係であり、非技術者創業者がこの分野で重要な役割を果たすことができることを説明しています。資金調達は、新しい製品の開発、市場拡大、または運営資本の確保に不可欠です。

💡バックオフィス

バックオフィスは、組織内の管理的およびサポート的なオペレーションを指し、通常、顧客との直接的な接触が少ない業務です。動画では、バックオフィスの業務が法的義務を含む重要な運営タスクであり、これらを管理することがスタートアップの正常な運営に必要であることを強調しています。

💡採用

採用は、適切な才能を見つけて組織に加えるプロセスです。動画では、スタートアップが成長するにつれて、採用がますます重要になり、これは技術的なスキルだけではなく、組織全体の成功に貢献する多様な才能を必要とすることを示しています。

💡アペタイト

アペタイトとは、特定のタスクや活動に対する熱意や意欲を指します。動画では、成功するためには、創業者がビジネスに関連する様々なタスクを積極的に、そして熱意を持って取り組むことが重要であると強調しています。

Highlights

Many tasks need to happen at a startup that don't require coding, like talking to customers and doing sales.

It's easier for technical founders to pick up business skills than vice versa.

Don't let yourself be limited by the notion you absolutely need a business co-founder.

Transcripts

oh yeah well Michael I could go do sales

that's not hard I can definitely reply

to emails yes you know I could well

doter are you going to do

[Laughter]

that welcome to Dalton plus Michael

today we're going to talk about do you

need a business co-founder so many of

you have seen our video do you need a

tech co-founder I think we can summarize

that as yes yes

yes now a far more complicated question

do you need a business co-founder it

would seem like these are you know yeah

okay one-on-one why are we making this

video why why do why is this interesting

question I think the short answer is yes

asterisk and I think this comes down to

definitions what does it mean to be a

non-technical founder and so if we

Define this as does every startup need

one person who can't Code full stop the

answer is of of course no that is what

why would you even ask that question no

but like I think people think like I

think we think that but we'll explain

we'll break this down and so let's talk

about the as so basically every company

has stuff that needs to happen yes right

and so to enumerate some of the tasks

that need to happen that are not related

to to writing code y let enies of these

incorporation yes Bank payroll like yes

you know bureaucratic filling out forms

paying taxes every year back office back

whatever you want to call it someone's

got to do that if not you are breaking

the law yep problem so someone has to do

that yes talking to customers someone

has to talk to a customer you don't need

to know how to write code to talk to a

customer right do not no so someone

needs to do that yes hiring people

that's not writing code but you have to

interview people whatever right people

won't just show up yeah sales is a

really important one we talk about this

a lot if no one on the team considers it

their job to do sales we have a problem

no sales will happen right and someone

that doesn't know how to code could do

sales yep fundraising is another one do

you need to know how to code to

fundraise no negative customer support

as well totally like replying to yeah

amen yes and so the point is as we're

enumerating all these anyone that is a

Founder could be doing these and is

qualified to do it yes but a technical

co-founder is just as qualified to do

these tasks as a non technical

co-founder these are smart human tasks

yeah smart generalist tasks and so we

have seen lots of cases where everyone

on the team may have a technical degree

yes but there's still a clear someone

knows they have to do this stuff right

man yes well I think that this is what's

so interesting is that it's much easier

for a technical person to do things that

just require general intelligence than

it is for a business person to learn how

to a code indeed as a business

person I can attest to this fact but I

think that you know you've brought up a

really good point um having the ability

to do these tasks is different from

having the appetite to do these tasks

and to do them well and let's triple

underline that word appetite yes it's

not oh yeah well Michael I can go you

know yeah do sales that's not hard I can

definitely reply to emails yes you know

I could well doter are you going to do

that long pause long pause I think maybe

I think you should look into

that I think this is extremely important

right and I think that when we're

looking into this question we have to

ask ourselves like who is going to adopt

these tasks and responsibilities it

could be a technical person it can be a

non-technical person you need someone on

your founding team who's willing to

adopt these tasks and do them well yeah

with Vigor with excitement with like

want to be the best in the world at

those tasks and not be grudgingly full

of excuses why they don't want to do it

or that work is beneath them or whatever

right bringing toxicity into the company

like no not that I also think what's

interesting is that if you are a

technical person and you happen to be

solving your own problem the idea that

you would need a business co-founder is

not only um confusing because you know

let's say You're Building A Dev tool

like your business co-founder probably

is not the right person to sell or

fundraise or hire or talk to customers

yeah um so literally the idea that you

couldn't do those tasks is actually

silly like a technical person should be

doing those tasks yes and if you're

solving your own problem it's technical

problem like it's kind of a no-brainer

that you don't need a business

co-founder maybe you need another Co I

mean this is an example you know we'll

talk about examples a little bit later

but like if you look at something like

Nvidia yeah all the found were technical

all of them were electrical engineers

with you know master's degrees or

something in electrical engineering when

you think about it how could a business

person with no technical background even

come up with the idea for NVIDIA or been

in a position to execute on it versus an

electrical engineer yeah and so the CEO

of Nvidia I don't think he spends a lot

of time coding to be honest with you but

the fact that he was a trained

electrical engineer with a history of

doing electrical engineering helped with

a specific vision of how to build a new

yes CPU company excuse me GPU company um

that seems important right seems

important I don't know if a a non-tech

Founder would have helped in video way

back in the day no um and certainly if

they would have helped it's not obvious

they would have been essential correct

and so I think that um this idea oh the

business person the MBA is essential

that's not like it's possible that the

technical person is essential and the

business person's not essential I think

the other thing that we think about

about a lot is let's say you don't want

to believe our Theory right talking

about Theory let's say Theory right I

don't like this because this is not

flattering to me Michael I'm I don't

like what you guys are saying because it

exactly doesn't help me um you could

just look at big companies and ask

yourself do there exist big companies

that have only technical Founders what

would you say to that question yeah I

mean let's look at the most valuable

companies on on the stock market Google

is

obviously two technical Founders yes in

video we just talked about is all

technical Founders yes Microsoft was two

technical Founders when they started

pretty valuable company pretty valuable

company so wait that's of the most

valuable companies in the world that's

three of them so far yeah you know

Facebook is complicated about who's

countered as a co-founder or not but

like you know Zuckerberg was a technical

founder in movitz and all that and then

if you look in the YC portfolio you know

strip yep Dropbox yep there's a theme

Here

so sometimes I like to say like hey even

if you don't want to believe these

theories you know you could just look it

up right if this is your question do I

need a business co-founder you could

just look it up and be like well if

Google didn't need one yeah but people

will be able to point to other examples

and that's fair we're not we're not

saying that you shouldn't have one we're

just saying you don't need it yes this

is we're not arguing this is the

exhaustive truth yeah we're just saying

it is not absolutely necessary and we

are providing proof of said argument and

furthermore if you're using this as an

excuse to not make forward progress

that's kind of and here's a

here's a Cory to this is sometimes we

see when you're selling into an industry

where a non-technical Founder has does

have industry expertise and knows the

language of their customer that can be

very helpful again I'm not arguing

necessary smart people can learn

anything in my opinion okay but imagine

you wanted to sell uh legal software

sure if you had one of the founders who

instead of learning how to code in

college they went to law school and they

were practicing attorney and they knew

how to sell to attorneys that could help

that sounds pretty legit that could help

right let's say that you're selling

software to doctors in hospitals it

might help that there's someone who's a

doctor or yeah maybe you're making a

prescription drug or maybe you're making

a drug Distribution Company like yep

might help what I will say though is

that like don't let yourself be held

back by these fake limitations yeah

these are fake I think that's such a

great way to like close off this

thinking I think the reason we got a lot

of requests to this video I think it was

from technical Founders yeah that had

been told by like investors orb you need

you need a business founder yes and are

kind of looking for Our advice about

that or like they're not really sure

yeah and I think a lot of times when

investors give a Founder that feedback

which is you need a business co-founder

yeah they're actually giving you direct

feedback on what they see as a

deficiency in your appetite to do the

work yes yes in a polite way or or or

the quality that you did the work the

quality of your Petra the quality of how

you set up your your your company um but

that doesn't mean you don't have the

skills to do it yeah like if you meet

with someone like I don't want to do

sales I hate doing sales sales is bad

yeah a lot of advice would be yeah maybe

you should get an on- Tech founder right

well by the way that's why I hate that

advice because that advice is suggesting

the solution versus telling you the

problem which is like hey it

you might have to talk to your customer

like you don't seem like you like that

that's going to screw you there are many

ways of solving that you you could learn

to like it you could hire someone who

does you could hire an engineer who does

you can hire um but I do think that

don't believe this idea that there's

some magic with like one business person

Plus One tech person equals startup win

no no and I think along these lines

sometimes people have a lot of push back

of our advice on why you need a

co-founder full stop but our argument is

not you need a business co-founder to

teach you business because they went to

business school no it's just that this

is so hard you need another person to go

through this experience with it's not

that there's any one particular bit of

experience that is necessary right like

100% you need someone to offer emotional

support CU this thing is going to be

hard yeah yes yes all right good shot

sounds good thanks

[Music]

man

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