Questions

Hey Everyone, I currently have an idea for a start up that I have been working on for about a year. I have done a lot of market research, validation, and I have a launch page setup that people have gone to and signed up for my mailing list. I am currently in high school so I am on summer break right now and would really like to get something going on my time off. I do have money saved up to hire freelance web developers if i have to. What would you recommend I do next? Learn to code myself, hire a freelancer web developer, work on finding a tech co founder, or any other suggestions. Thanks!

Alex from Groove talks about this in one of his posts on being a non-technical founder: http://groovehq.com/blog/non-technical-founder

I would say first off, make sure that you can drive the start-up without being able to code. ie: are you great at sales, product vision, user-experience, writing, marketing etc.?

Next, hire a freelance developer to make you a prototype cheaply. It won't be a real product yet, but just an MVP to get feedback from your target audience. Make sure the design is great, but it can be duct tape and bubble gum in the code. This will show investors that you can validate the market need, people are interested in what you've made.

Combine that with a great pitch deck and you may be able to raise $250K-1M from angels to hire a great full stack developer as your CTO and start building a team.

I've been there myself and currently run a funded SaaS startup. If you want to chat more book a call.

PS: It's really easy for other people to tell you to learn to code yourself. But not everyone is great at math logic, and asking someone to "just learn" is like asking someone to "just learn to play guitar". If you're not wired that way, it's impossible to expect you can just wish yourself to be able to do it. Besides, a couple months of Treehouse or Linda.com courses aren't going to give you the ability to code a web product that users are willing to pay for. Real engineers take years of training, practice and constant reading/learning to keep their skills sharp.


Answered 10 years ago

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