Wise Startup Blog

Starting a new business and have no technical prowess? Looking to write a business plan but need a website first? Now you’re stuck using a consultant to build your startup empire?

You may be able to limp by initially with an elancer.com consultant, but soon you’ll find yourself relying more and more on development and have to spend more and more cash and devote more and more time to someone with barely any vested interest in the company.

Make Your First Developer Your CTO

If you’re a single founder looking to start a web company, your first step to get the ball rolling is to post a web project on the random elancer sites, Facebook marketplace, and on university job boards. You’ll get a lot of inquiries from guys with absolutely no clue, a lot of bids from “internet development firms” that are way overpriced, and if you’re lucky, you’ll find a guy sitting in his dorm room (or apartment) looking for the next big thing.

Relying on a consultant is expensive and time consuming, but if you have a developer in-house, you’ll be able to brainstorm better, and best of all, build web apps without having to pay anyone. You’ll even find your new CTO outsourcing a lot of the projects they formerly billed you extravagant amounts for.

Startup Founders Are Easy On, Hard Off

The key thing in approaching your new developer-partner-to-be is to not be too committed. Just because someone seems like a good fit, and is a good developer doesn’t mean they’re going to be a good fit as a co-founder. Bringing someone on prematurely, and splitting the equity in the company is a HUGE step and has led to many companies going under due to in-fighting, mis-management, and utter incompetence.

Once you bring someone onto the team, it’s a very easy process. Early on in the company, there are no real rules, no real guidelines, and no real product, so it’s easy to get excited and try to move things along quickly. I’m guilty myself of trying to rush things without doing my best due-diligence.

Evaluate Your Business Partners (and Employees) Before Hiring

This rule applies to employees as well as business partners, but it’s especially important when it comes to handing over large percentages of your company. Before signing the appropriate stock certificates, incorporation paperwork, etc. try out your new CTO for 2 weeks. Tell them, at the end of 2 weeks if we’re a good fit, I’ll bring you on as a partner. If you’re not, I’ll pay you for your time and we can be on your way. The payment is a good first test. If they’re just in it for the short term, you’ll know when they take the cash, and that’s great. When building a startup, there are going to be a lot of hard times, a lot of missed paychecks, and you’re going to have to rely on your new partner for emotional and financial support.

Please share your experience as a non-technical founder looking for a technical counterpart in the comments.