Being a non-technical founder, your main goal is not to learn how to code, but you must understand some technology as basic as it sounds; if you are doing a mobile app for iPhone and Android, at least have an understanding of how they work or take an online course of basic programming, to understand the very basics.
Try to review examples and learn the concepts that will involve your product; if it’s mobile+web or something else, you don’t need to know the language, but the idea will allow you to understand your technology partner and the feedback that you might get as the founder of the company.
This also goes to shortcuts that you sometimes have for technology and development like (cross-platform development) this could help but only in specific cases, and get that you must read (it is simple to understand) and will save you a lot of headaches, especially if you have clients waiting for the product.
This is a simple matter, and this happens to everyone; you might think that your idea is the best and that no one else has it; well, that could take you to the following statements:
People think focus means saying yes to the thing you’ve got to focus on. But that’s not what it means at all.
I think this is a vital ingredient in creating a product because you can have a great idea and a great development partner, but the result is a mess, and this is because it is not clear how the development needs to be done.
As a company founder, you must follow a procedure or framework if you want to be involved. It doesn’t matter if it’s agile, scrum, or whatever you want to use. You must follow something; otherwise, it will be a messy process, and it will cause a low-quality product or will make your development partner go away (be careful; you can have an A-Team for growth, but if you don’t have an order or Process, they will go away, even when the idea is excellent)
Even if you don’t have the time or the energy to understand the Process, at least try to understand the stages, for example, prototyping, visual design, and development; otherwise, you’ll create a mess for everyone.
Based on my experience, I recommend active involvement in all processes. You can witness the product’s evolution, provide feedback at every stage, and make changes as needed.
Non-technical founders sometimes prioritize perfecting the product over releasing it, and I’ve witnessed many good products go bankrupt as a result. The idea of perfection is good, but if you try to be perfect, you’ll never finish, which means you’ll never launch. You will (for sure) run out of funding, or the potential clients will go because no one will wait for you.
For example, this happened to a former client; they wanted to have everything done (meaning all features and phases of their product); we explained to them that the idea is to launch and fail fast, get feedback, and pivot if necessary; in this case, they tried to have all mobile applications and web flawless, in that Process we spent 12 months (again this was a brilliant idea) at the end of this period they lose all funding, they re-create the visual design three times.
I know it is hard to ask the founder of the company to launch something not-perfect, but it is even worse launching nothing with this. I’m not saying to launch something buggy, but the idea of the MVP is to launch and get feedback and continue based on that and remember, if you have a technology partner (use it!)
Feedback is the most critical part of product development (and in general of everything, how could you improve without it?), following a couple of items that you must be aware of to get feedback
Choosing a tech partner involves more than appearance and portfolio; it’s about the following aspects:
These are just a couple of items, but the main one is trust! Distrust? Change your partner/provider. A quote without details is a red flag!
You will never finish the product, so start selling.
Suppose you wait until we finish the product. In that case, as the founder of the company, you’ll have precious time because developing the sales engine to get customers takes time, so this means that after a couple of months of development (if you are lucky!), you’ll have to wait weeks or months to get prospects, so that’s why to get wireframes or a power-point and start selling use your strengths as the founder of the company to get customers. The development never will finish because a product is an entity that will live as long as you have customers.”
We once sold a product using a 5-hour mobile mockup. The prospect liked it and bought it. However, it took us three months to deliver, so act quickly.
Has the development been completed?
Assume that development is an ongoing process even when you have all main features done, technology improves/changes and evolves. Here are a couple of tips that might help you in this journey:
As a non-technical co-founder, learn from others’ mistakes and save time and money by following these rules.
]]>The title of the post is Hiring Rock Stars, and yes, that is what all startups want and what you should be looking for, but depending on the maturity of the startup and the stage it is in, it will definitely require a different focus in terms of the seniority and experience of the candidates you are going to be hiring.
When I started, I didn’t have much money to invest, so I was looking for potential, not experience; I was looking for people with different values and characteristics.
Those were characteristics and soft skills I was looking for in a team member regardless of seniority, so all these were more important than the experience, at least for now.
You can hire rock stars, but be careful to hire someone who is too corporate. When developing your business strategy, you might want to have people that understand that constant change is always happening and can adapt to them. They must have all the characteristics explained before, but now you can search for more experienced members according to your budget. If applied correctly, your business strategy is going to be limiting the number of mistakes and improving efficiency.
The key is to have the right person in the right role to scale a team and company
You need to hire the right person for the right role, or the consequences will be harmful; here, the recruitment process is even more complex, and cultural fit is ten times more necessary. If you have the right person in the right role company will fly!
My recruiting process from day one was designed to force you to fail. I didn’t care about the resumes or anything they might say they did or how special they say they are… everyone could say that in an interview. I was interested in making sure they had the characteristics listed above. So my secret formula for recruitment is:
My findings using this formula were:
What we also did was:
We currently have a final test, the cultural interview, that is carried out by the CEO or Founder, so that we explain from day one how life at the company really is and set up the right expectations.
Don’t compromise on quality, even with a tight budget or time constraints. Lowering your standards in recruiting can lead to long-term company issues. If you fail, do so quickly, learn from it, and refine your process for future success.
]]>This journey started several years ago, almost at the beginning of Tekton, because I was the CEO not by choice; I was the CEO by need. In a way, for me, the essential part of building a startup is to create good quality products and to make them long-lasting; this means that the company should be more significant than the founder if that is the case. Understanding the CEO meaning in business is crucial to achieving this.
I tried for many years to recruit an executive team. As you might realize, I didn’t have much luck, which could be due to various reasons, from not knowing what I wanted, not making a proper selection process, and the maturity of the company and myself.
Long story short, I mentor several universities and accelerators, offering guidance on various aspects of entrepreneurship, including the “CEO meaning in business.” During one of my mentoring sessions, I met Lorena Ortiz de Zevallos. She was not part of the program per se. She was invited because of the need for tech orientation. In the end, her StartUp didn’t work out, and then we had lunch; I still don’t remember how we approached the subject of looking for a CEO, and suddenly she said I could do it!! Initially, I was not sure, but I said let’s talk….
After all my bad experiences hiring non-technical people, I was sure I wanted it to be as close to 100% as possible before hiring. My process was the following:
Every founder is no requeried to be the CEO o C-Level of their startup.
After all these meetings -that took longer than expected-, we decided to move forward. I think she got three months before moving from her old job. To make this work, I applied something different. I had her participate in several key company meetings, even before joining Tekton officially, so she was already learning about technology, our way of doing things, and getting acquainted with the company. I think this was a key differentiator.
It’s been three years since she took charge, and I can honestly say it’s been a rollercoaster (just as happens in all great and solid relationships), from going through emotional stress (mostly on my end) to having lots of fun and amazing experiences together. I’m glad everything worked fine, and it still does, but I must admit there were so many things that could go wrong. Some of my fears with the new CEO were:
This article is probably the first part of a series of articles so I can continue explaining the journey.
]]>I genuinely believe that the significant reason Why Tekton survived all the challenges we faced was because of the team we were able to have, and all this was thanks to our culture; we have a lot and some very critical issues along the way. In this article I will explain examples of culture, you will be able to decide do you like.
I know a lot of companies and startups that try to force their “organization culture,” but the reality is that you can’t force culture; Also, Culture defines how we interact with clients, employees, and the company’s vision. Culture can’t be fake, so my first recommendation is that you decide what values and culture you want for your company from day one.
The culture in most universities and school all over the world but specifically in Latam are based on a fixed mindset (dont make mistakes, failure is terrible, among others), so when I was in school in Peru, I asked one of my professors how I can sell software in the US, and their answer was that was impossible, this was not the answer of one professor, this the response of most of them and this define the type of culture that they had, thanks to them I realize that I never want to be like them, in technology, in particular, failure and mistakes are part of the journey, and you want people to align to that not scared of making mistakes because they will get a memo.
You can’t make good wine with bad grapes.
I was in my second year of the university when I decided to create Tekton. Still, from day one, I realized first that I would serve the US market (which is bigger, pays faster, has better rates, and has a different mindset). I had no idea how to do it; I only knew that I was going to make it happen, you need crazy people to join you, especially if you are only in your early 20’s trying to do that with any investment, so I was able to recruit. Together we co-create Tekton culture with my team having the following aspects:
The culture will evolve over the time and maturity of the company, but the core will be the same; one of the better tests for the culture of a startup or company is a crisis like Covid19; that’s where realize that culture is not an office or a coworking space with pool tables and beer.
Also, a crucial part of organization culture is the recruiting process; you need to see this process as a sales funnel, and the objective is to maximize conversion (meaning good candidates).
As I always mentioned, you can’t make good wine with sour grapes. I hope it helps!
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