How To Evaluate A Non-Technical Co-Founder For Your Software Startup

If you’re a software engineer you’re used to people evaluating you. As a hacker you’ve realized that there seems to be no limit to how much you should know, have done, and should be able to do.

Screw this, you say. “I’m going to do my own thing!” Soon you realize that building a successful product involves more work than just programming. Or maybe a non-technical founder has approached you with an idea for the… Ah. You’ve lost count of how many times someone has tried to sell you an idea just because you know how to build software.

In either case, the tables have turned. You’re the one evaluating. You need someone to handle the business and marketing side of your product. Here is how you assess that they’re able to do so.

Evaluate Their Experience

Start by asking these questions to find out if they have the skills and experience necessary.

Have you been a part of an executive team at a startup?

The C-suite. Look for signs that prove that they’ve dealt with non-technical issues with limited resources. That they’re able to think about products from a business perspective. They know how to make customers spend their money. They know what business metrics to consider to enable success. Big plus if they’re connected with journalists, investors, and potential partners. People that can help you to grow your product.

Have you raised funds for a startup?

Have they ever contacted investors? Created and/or delivered a pitch? Do they have any first-degree investor connections? Trust is a huge boon when raising funds. If your co-founder already has established relationships of trust that is a another plus. If you’re planning to bootstrap you should ask them if they’re prepared to invest as much money as you.

Have you done product marketing and/or business development at a startup?

Check to see if they’ve defined a target market before. If they’ve outlined and evaluated a business model. If they’ve written marketing copy and emails. If they’ve set up ad campaigns. If they’ve pursued partnerships. If they’ve used data analytics. If they’ve created screenshots, sales materials, blog posts, and landing page content.

Can and will you write code?

They might not be as good as you but they might have some basic CSS skills. At least they should be passionate about technology and understand software products. And the software development process (why bugs appear, etc.).

Can and will you design UX?

OK. Maybe it’s a bit too much to ask for business skills, coding skills, AND design skills. But if they know their way around Sketch to make wireframes that’s great. At least they should have a sense for what makes a good user experience. What makes a good user interface. And have an opinion about it. They’re going to face the users after all.

Can you get things done?

And are you structured? There will be Trello boards to update, Slack chats to sort, and Dropbox documents to organize. Also, once you set up a legal entity, there will be paperwork to do. Including bookkeeping if you’re bootstrapping. You want someone who can handle any business-related non-technological issues while you code.

Have you done product management?

Written backlogs? Created roadmaps? Specified requirements? Scoped and prioritized features? Mapped it all to a business model?

Have you shipped a product?

If they tell you that they’re an “idea person”. That they have an MBA. And that they’ve never shipped a product before… Run.

Evaluate Their Progress

Use the following questions to assess someone that approaches you with their own idea. These questions will help you to gauge them on how far they’ve progressed already. Without a technical co-founder to help them.

Have you:

• Researched competitors?
• Defined the customer?
• Outlined the business model?
• Written a backlog and/or roadmap?
• Created wireframes or user interface mockups?
• Written user stories or feature specifications?
• Built a clickable prototype? (InVision, Keynote, Marvel, PowerPoint).

Ask to see what the’ve created. Ask them about their conclusions. Ask how they reasoned about. They don’t have to have everything figured out. But their thoughts should be concise and reasonable. If they haven’t done any of this you should question their level of dedication for their idea.

Evaluate Their Attitude

Work on something together over a short period of time. A small project for 30 days, for example. Something that creates some pressure. It could be your MVP? This will give you an opportunity to see how it’s like to work together and how you handle stress. Look for subtle clues that you might not be compatible. Trust your gut on this.

During this time a non-technical co-founder should be able to help with wireframes. Draft a business model. Suggest feature prioritization. Create content for a landing page. Do content marketing. Start building a pre-launch email list and open up a conversation with anyone who signs up.

Don’t expect them to last a year if they can’t last a hackathon.

Make A Decision

Your non-technical co-founder won’t have all these qualities. But they should have several of them. The more years of experience that both of you have, the more you of these qualities you should expect.

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