Finding the Right Tech Help for Your Startup Part 4 (here’s part 1, part 2, and part 3)
In Part 3 of Finding the Right Tech Help for your Startup — Learning Code vs. Recruiting Developers, I covered why every founder should start learning how to code before hiring a developer or outsourcing. In this article, I will cover the specific benefits of learning to code.
It was a tough decision at the time, but I decided to learn how to program and studied Computer Science at the University of Illinois. I am not a developer, and my coding skills would not win any Hackathons. While I may not be a pro developer, this experience in coding and the overall value that I’ve gained from the process has been worth more than the time I’ve invested.
Whatever industry you go into, work to develop skills and a background in that core focus. It’s truly amazing the number of founders that are jumping into a tech-based startup without any experience in technology. There is tremendous value in understanding the basics even if it isn’t your true passion. As a founder, you will be working with developers, and you need to be able to communicate and guide them.
Not enough incentive for you? Here are nine benefits of learning how to code.
1. Critical Thinking – Avid runners and workout fanatics don’t workout solely for the purpose of preparing for a competition or a marathon. Exercising has many benefits and so does learning how to develop and the critical thinking involved with computer science. Push yourself not only so you will become better at coding, but to apply this process of critical thinking to other skills and aspects of your business. Expand your mind and skill-set, and both you and your business will benefit.
2. Evaluating Talent – A baseball coach knows what he wants out of a first-baseman. Do you know what you need out of a developer? Learn the basics, even just for the purpose of properly evaluating potential talent to add to your startup.
3. Freelancing – I know many founders who (before receiving funding) freelance develop on the side. This allows people to put money towards their own startup while earning a living. If times get tough with your startup and you have a cash flow problem, freelancing can help pay the bills and keep your dream alive.
4. Hidden Passion – Founders need to be well rounded and have experience with many aspects of business. You may find that you are very talented at coding and can pick it up much quicker than most. If you never try coding, how do you know it’s not your true calling?
5. Investors – Investors love technical teams. They look for a strong and capable team that can build and grow quickly. If the founder(s) can code, investors will feel more comfortable with the startup’s stability and ability to overcome obstacles.
6. Opportunities/Applications – There’s a reason you are reading this – developers are in high demand! Learning to code will open up many opportunities outside of just your startup. These skills are also valuable in creating relationships with other founders, developers, and industry connections. Offering a little help or looking at problems a fellow founder is facing can lead to new opportunities.
7. Risk vs. Reward – Learning to code lowers the risk of your startup and gives you the flexibility of doing things yourself instead of relying on others. The more dependencies you have, the higher the risk. Also, the overall risk of coding is extremely low, unless you count the time invested as a complete loss. The understanding and foundation you will build learning how to develop code will almost always outweigh the cost.
8. Time – Learning to code may seem like a long and tedious process, but the time you can save by automating tasks with code will more than make up for the time spent. One of our earliest programmers went to Princeton. While at school, he often needed to get in a class that had no open spots. There was a period when people dropped classes, which opens a spot for someone to take a class. Instead of refreshing the page every hour to see if a spot had opened, our programmer wrote a script that checked to see if someone dropped a class every second and sent a text to him immediately when it happened. Brilliant!
9. #Trending – Do you see any scenario in which coding becomes less important or less desired? Coding is the present and the future. Start learning it.
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Cory Levy is the Co-Founder and COO of ONE, creator of the NextGen Conference and Internapalooza. ONE is a mobile application that lets you know when there are people right next to you who share your interests. ONE raised millions in venture capital from True Ventures, Charles River Ventures, Ron Conway, and others. In high school, Cory did externships at: TechStars, Union Square Ventures, Founders Fund, and DFJ Mercury. Cory took an absence after studying CS at the University of Illinois to start ONE. Connect with Cory on Twitter.
