I'm a developer that
followed a friend twice through his business ventures. I spent a lot
of time and effort building prototypes while he did virtually nothing
except schmooze with "potential investors" at social events. Since he
had not personally invested anything nor had incurred any risk it was
easy for him to lose focus and move on to the "bigger" opportunity when
the current one seemed to fizzle. I let him do it to me twice because
he was a friend. He recently approached me about another
opportunity which I thought was an excellent idea, but told him that he
needs to raise seed money before I will even think about it. He's
moved on to other ideas since then. I guess creating a summary
business plan was too difficult.
Would you be interested in an equity-only position in my startup?
I've been running my own services/product based uISV for the past two years
and the most important thing I've realized is that having a good idea
is easy. Creating a profitable business from the idea is very
difficult. You need to walk the fine line between persistence and
foolish stubbornness. There are so many challenges with building a
business that just having an idea is almost worthless.
When a developer invests his or her time into a venture they need to feel
comfortable that the other people can deliver. Do the marketing/sales
people understand the market? Do they know what the target market
wants? Do they know what the feasible price point is? Will this price
point lead to profitability? Is the CEO an idiot? At the first sign of trouble will these other people be able to work
through the inevitable bumps or decide it is more time and effort than they initially signed on for? Etc, etc. etc….
My policy for equity-only startups is that I only get involved when someone has a personal investment or has incurred significant risk. Otherwise, losing interest after a bump is a little too easy.
Visitor Comments
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I've had experiences from the other side. I'm a developer that followed a friend twice through his business ventures. I spent a lot of time and effort building prototypes while he did virtually nothing except schmooze with "potential investors" at social events. Since he had not personally invested anything nor had incurred any risk it was easy for him to lose focus and move on to the "bigger" opportunity when the current one seemed to fizzle. I let him do it to me twice because he was a friend, but no more.
He recently approached me about another opportunity which I thought was an excellent idea, but told him that he needs to raise seed money before I will even think about it. He's moved on to other ideas since then. I guess creating a summary business plan was too difficult.
”
-- Henry C.
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One of my favorite stories is this guy I know who used to work at the IBM development center in South Florida when there were rumblings of them shutting down.
One of their fellow workers ran into their office and asked the guys in the room if they would care to join this company he was starting. They of course laughed him off and chuckled at the thought.
The name of the company the guy was starting was called Citrix.
”
-- Dr. Doolittle
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How long would it take a non-programmer to learn C#, the .NET Framework, and SQL?
That's like asking how long it would take to learn French:
- 1 day to learn what it is
- 1 week to learn it to an infant/elementary level
- 1 year to be considered a beginner by professionals
- Several years to be considered an experienced professional
- Plus there's "deep" knowledge of those subjects which a mere mortal such as you or I will never learn
Then again, plenty of people (most normal people, non-programmer) never learn those subjects, so if you're like "most" people then the answer would be "it will forever" or "it will never happen"
”