5 Reasons Startup Founders Should Learn To Code

There are many great reasons to learn to code, but even more so as a founder or CEO. Upon analyzing many early stage startups (including my previous ventures), and speaking to numerous founders, I’ve compiled a list of the top 5 reasons why founders should learn to code.

1 — You can build your own MVP (Minimum Viable Product)

1/3rd of our students are entrepreneurs looking to get a handle on technology, and one of the great benefits they’ve expressed is they can actually build and ship V1 (version one) of their product! Often in the early stages, non technical founders spend an enormous amount of time looking for the right technical partner, or spend thousands of dollars having their V1 built. This of course comes with a slew of other common questions:

• How much should it cost to build what I need?
• How do I know I’m not getting ripped off?
• What languages / frameworks do I need so I can hire the right person?
• How am I sure I can trust this person?
• What kind of contract should I prepare?

The list goes on! For one of my ventures, it took 6 months to find the right technical co-founder, and after another 5 months of building, things fell apart. The opportunity cost was nearly a year I could have spent learning to code, and prove to potential co-founders that I have something worth working on.

Once you’ve invested a few months in learning the basics, you’ll probably be able to start building V1 of your product. You’ll be able to actually start validating your idea, test features, and maybe even get your first customer! You’ll also be able to answer all the questions above, as well as:

• Better visualize the product you’re building and the steps needed to grow
• Decrease communication barriers with engineers (because it’s you :))
• You can begin to garner feedback on your product and adjust accordingly
• You’ll understand how engineering teams operate

Which leads me to #2..

2 — Build Rapport with Engineering Team

There is often a classic struggle that happens between business people and engineering. I’ve met countless teams that depict this clear divide:

Business People: Our competitors have this simple chat feature for customer success and we need it in order to compete and nurture more sales. We need this feature in pronto!

Engineering: Business people don’t understand! They think x feature is so easy, but it will take at least a month! I could have written better code earlier, which would have cut this timeline down, but it was because every previous feature needed to be done with an unreasonable deadline! This cycle never ends!

Neither party is wrong. But for small teams to function at a high level, there needs to be some level of understanding for each respective field. Without this, teams will lose focus on the company’s main goalpost, and focus more of their energy on making sure the other party validates their concerns.

This is where knowing some code comes in handy. Engineers respect other engineers because they can establish some level of common ground. They know you’ve gone through the same coding tribulations, how easily bugs can sneak into code, and what may seem easy on the surface could actually be a tangled web of complex algorithms. Your team will know you understand what obstacles may lie ahead, and will have confidence that you have taken their concerns into account.

Which brings us to #3!

3 — Better informed decisions

Armed with some level of coding knowledge, you’ll be able to understand (on some fundamental level), what obstacles engineering might face with any product related changes. This could be from new features on the product roadmap, to refactoring code to reduce crashes and bugs. The biggest upside in understanding both sides of the equation is the ability to better analyze risk, and to creatively solve problems and communicate them effectively.

Often times when engineering gives pushback on a timeline, non technical founders might default to:

• How do we speed up this process?
• Are there any features on the roadmap we are willing to swap out?
• Maybe we should re-evaluate what features are important since this one seems like it might take a while

These are definitely great questions to ask, and most likely should be addressed at some point, but for an individual with some level of technical prowess they might approach it differently.

• What metric of success are we using for this feature?
• Is there a simpler technical solution to test this feature while still tracking if we’re successful?
• How can we do this within the allotted timeline?

Since the more technical person better understands the parameters in which they’re working with, they might attack the problem from a different angle. They may be able to offer up solutions, or better yet — work with engineering to fabricate the best solution.

This also helps founders properly assess risk and ask questions such as:

• Am I putting too many technical resources into this feature?
• Am I technically putting all my eggs in one basket?
• Will this be a healthy move for our technical stack in the long term?
• If not, what are the pros and cons and what might we need to fix by what timeframe?

While having technical experience might help you avoid coding landmines in your business, it also offers a more inspiring outlook, which leads me to #4.

4 — Helps you understand what’s possible

As a founder or CEO, understanding the technology at your disposal should fire off your idea muscle like crazy. There is a reason why you set out to create the company you are building, and most likely it was to solve a pain point that you have felt, or understand intimately. Every single day there are new frameworks being released, new technologies to be discovered, and new solutions being hacked together. Understanding these, and more importantly how they can compliment, propel, and grow your business will give you a competitive edge and may lead to something great. In this rapidly changing world, never underestimate how fast the adoption of a new technology can propel you to the top.

5 — Do things yourself

Lastly, knowing a bit of code will help you automate some of your mundane tasks, allowing you to spend more time analyzing the data to steer the ship. Even by being able to do something as simple as writing your own scripts, or a macro in excel, you’ll be able to save hours off your day and won’t have to pester engineering for help! Even the smallest analysis’ that are bred out of curiosity can be administered with some technical know-how, and might lead you to find hidden gems in your data you may have not discovered otherwise. There’s never been a better time to learn to code. Play the long game, so as technology grows you can ride the wave along with it.

If you want to learn more about iOS, Android, Front and Back End, or Blockchain development, head over to www.devslopes.com and enroll in our courses where you’ll learn everything you need to know to develop and release your own app. ❤️