Dear Non-Technical Cofounders
Dear Non-Technical Cofounders,
A Technical Cofounder’s job is not to write code. Stop treating your cofounder like a commodity you could outsource to Bulgaria. That’s a waste of a CS PhD’s time.
Writing code is not a secret ninja skill, as much as we would like for you to believe that it is.
Python, Java, Lisp — whatever your cofounder’s weapon of choice — is a language in which to communicate an idea. A doctor may communicate his diagnosis to the patient in English, but fluency in English is not what a doctor advertises as his primary asset.
The ability to write code brings an idea into responsive, communicable form. But a Technical Cofounder’s job is not to write code any more than a French cofounder’s job is to translate all your ideas to French. The job of a Technical Cofounder is to be a Cofounder.
The role of any Cofounder, technical or not, is this: Do whatever the other Founder can’t do.
If your Cofounder’s only applicable skill is to translate your ideas into an iPhone app, just outsource that nonsense and keep the equity.
By the way, you could always spend some time on Coursera and learn to code, and then we wouldn’t need to have this difficult conversation.
