Do Technical Founders Need Business Co-Founders?

Summary

Dalton and Michael discuss whether startups need a business co-founder, concluding that while helpful in some cases, it is not absolutely necessary. They argue technical founders can capably handle business tasks like sales, hiring, and fundraising. Looking at massively successful tech companies like Google, Microsoft, and Nvidia that lacked business co-founders shows the model can work. Ultimately, having a co-founder for emotional support is vital, but their background is less important than having the drive and appetite to do the less glamorous work building a company requires.

Takeaways

• 😃 Not all startups need a non-technical 'business' co-founder
• 👥 Most tasks like sales/marketing/ops don't require coding skills
• 🤔 The appetite and willingness to do these tasks is more important
• 😎 Technical founders are equally capable of doing these tasks
• 🔍 Big successful companies like Google/MSFT had all technical founders
• 🏥 Domain expertise can help when selling to certain industries
• ❌ Don't be limited by the notion you 'need' a business co-founder
• 👍 Investors asking for a business co-founder may see a deficiency elsewhere
• 🤝 The main benefit of a co-founder is emotional support through hardship
• 📈 Ultimately drive and determination matter more than backgrounds

Outlines

00:00

🤔 Defining what a non-technical founder is

The paragraph discusses the definition of a non-technical founder, arguing that every company needs someone to do business-related tasks like sales, hiring, paperwork, etc. However, technical founders can also do these tasks. The key is having an appetite and vigor to do them well, not just the ability.

05:00

👨‍💻 Technical founders can be sufficient

The paragraph provides examples of hugely successful companies like Nvidia, Google, Microsoft, etc. that were founded only by technical people. This shows that while a business co-founder can be helpful, they are not absolutely essential for success.

10:00

😊 Support and motivation is key

The closing paragraph states that the core reason you need a co-founder is for support and motivation through the difficult process of starting a company, not because one founder necessarily provides business skills. The belief that you need both tech and business founders is largely a myth.

Keywords

💡technical founder

A founder who has coding/engineering skills. The video discusses whether startups need both technical and non-technical founders. It argues technical founders can learn 'business' skills, while the reverse is harder.

💡business founder

A non-technical founder focused on business aspects like sales, HR, legal compliance etc. The video argues technical founders can handle these instead of needing a separate business founder.

💡appetite

Enthusiasm and willingness to do a task. Having the skills doesn't mean someone wants to do it. You need founders excited to handle business aspects, not just capable.

💡sales

Selling the product to customers/users. Doesn't require coding, but the video says every startup needs someone to eagerly drive sales.

💡fundraising

Raising investment capital. The video lists this as a key business function technical founders could handle instead of needing a separate business founder.

💡hiring

Recruiting team members. Non-coding task but startups need someone to proactively build the team.

💡emotional support

Providing encouragement through challenges. A reason to have a co-founder, technical or not. Entrepreneurship is demanding.

💡industry expertise

Deep knowledge of a target customer industry. Video acknowledges this can be useful (e.g. selling to lawyers) but isn't essential.

💡deficiency

Lack or shortcoming. Video argues investors labeling startups as needing a business founder really reflects deficiencies in existing founders.

💡fake limitations

False constraints people incorrectly put on themselves. Video says don't limit yourself - technical founders can handle business roles.

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

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man

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