Are you wondering how to start a business as a non-technical person? Do not worry, the tech scene is backed with non-technical entrepreneurs. You only need someone/something that will help you overcome these technical obstacles. However, it is easier said than done. Finding the technical assistance that’s suitable for your own startup can be really challenging.
What is so challenging about finding a technical cofounder?
It needs time
You need to be able to find the person with the right skills
They might ask for big equity or you have to invest lot of money hiring them
Read more about finding a technical cofounder/partner
What is so challenging about finding a CTO?
A developer is not a CTO. CTO should have also other managerial skills and is able to prepare a development plan and lead a team
Most CTOs have already stable jobs or can have a good salary without any risk
Steps to find the right technical cofounder
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Get advice from experts before you start
try to talk to experts especially if you are venturing into a new industry and you have little knowledge in it. They will offer great insights and might save you months or even years of effort.
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Identify the qualities that you need in the other party
This is not easy especially if you (as an entrepreneur) don’t have the technical expertise to tell who is an expert and who is not. You need to identify several factors:
What they have done in the past?
How big were their projects?
Whether the technologies they are working on is relevant and suitable to your project
Read more about qualities you should be looking for in a CTO
This is specifically challenging because most technologies can be used to build a product but some are much more suitable and telling the right one is a challenge. For example you can use C# or php to build a webservice and depending on your servers, response time and integration with other technologies you can tell which is better.
Does the CTO have expertise in the industry that you are working on? For instance, you might be working in the travel industry and if the CTO or the team has already expertise in this industry then they can expect what you will be missing in the requirements and think in advance about the possible challenges that you will be facing.
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Good PMP skills
Does the CTO know how to lead a team? Can they break development into steps that are clear and transparent for the team?
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Passion for the work
Passion is essential especially if the CTO is not receiving a cash income but rather equity. If they don’t believe in what they are doing and if they don’t have passion for it, then they are more likely to quit earlier and try to find a steady job or work in another startup where they are more passionate about the vision.
“But why not hire freelance developers to handle all that technical work for me?” I can hear you asking. It is actually essential to have someone - preferably a team - with a strong technical background and wide knowledge to help you create your MVP.
There are three different ways to solve this problem
You can hire a CTO who will be an employee within your team to solve all these technical problems.
You can look for an outsourcing team that will care about the development processes.
You can search for a committed tech cofounder who will handle these technical issues for you.
Read more about outsourcing and how it is different from finding a tech cofounder
And last but not least
But first of all, you need to distinguish between these three apparently-similar but different options:
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Tech cofounder
A technical founder is one of the key roles in a company. It is a person who will be responsible for all the tech-related processes and have a share of overall profit. In this case, he or she will also call you a cofounder of his company, a non-technical cofounder.
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CTO; Chief Technology Officer
It is an employee who will be your hired technical director. He is an employed person who will be the leader of the technical team.
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Tech Partner
An outsourcing team which will care about all the development processes — not as just a contractor, but considering all the business needs
We will provide you with technical and business expertise in our Tech Cofounder program. You can learn more and apply here
What if you are searching for a tech cofounder? What are the challenges that you might come across? Where can you find the right technical assistance? Let us take this bit by bit.
What are the challenges?
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The fierce competition
The market is already filled with startups, and you need to be convincing enough to make the technical cofounder choose you over all the other options he has.
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Finding the right people
You need a team that can integrate and coordinate with your team. You also need people who are talented enough and well-experienced in order to give you the best assistance, all these specifications cannot be found easily when you’re looking for your tech-partner.
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Where can I find such experts?
Other than asking people within your network for recommendations, you can search online, you can simply google it, or you can visit some professional websites that co-founders visit usually, and there are plenty of them out there. To name some of these,
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CoFoundersLab
It is a huge platform that attracts a lot of entrepreneurial-minded people who may be interested in co-founding. You can use the platform for free. You only need to register and start surfing there.
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FoundersNation
It is similar to CoFoundersLab. The same idea. You need to register and search for your prospective co-founder.
LinkedIn
It is a well-known business-oriented website that may help you find your potential co-founder.
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Business incubators
You can also search for business incubators. These are companies that help new startups make their way to success and they might offer you technical services.
For example, FasterCapital offers becoming your technical co-founder and also investing 50% of the money needed for the technical development your project needs.
FasterCapital offers many other services for startups aside from becoming their technical partner; it will help entrepreneurs make a good business plan, it will help with marketing, and it will connect them with potential investors/mentors. All these services can be offered through the incubation program FasterCapital runs. Submitting for this incubation program is very simple and the process does not take more than 5 minutes and a few clicks.
That’s it. You see? Even if you do not have the technical skills you still can establish your business, so stop postponing and start actually looking for the components you are going to need for building your great startup.
