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Hot on Quora: How do I provide value to my startup as a non-technical Founder?

Florin Muresan
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Non-Technical Co-Founders: How do I provide value to my startup as a non-technical cofounder? – Quora

http://www.quora.com

 

  • Be maniacal about product details – Focus on every single detail from UX, UI to marketing and messaging. There are a lot of aspects about the product that don’t immediately require code, therefore, own the details so that the product embodies your vision. Don’t overestimate the necessity of technology here, but understand that before putting pen to paper, a lot can be accomplished.
  • Own customer development – In a startup, customer development is paramount. As a non-technical co-founder determine not only how best to drum up excitement with customers about your product (beta users, net promoters, etc.), but also how to evaluate success every single day in the product life cycle (metrics, metrics, metrics!). This is a time consuming process, own it.
  • Focus on business development, partnerships and fundraising – If you want to be a non-technical founder, you should be able to go above and beyond in all these categories. A techie is too busy hacking away at the beta to be bothered with these tedious, time-consuming yet crucial aspects of your business.
  • Become the visionary, consultant, accountant, blogger and janitor – In other words, do everything under the sun other than code. Starting a business involves a lot of moving parts, if you can’t figure out a way to stay up all night managing all these processes, you probably aren’t doing something right.

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