As a CEO, one should focus on matters beyond technology.
Because, things outside of tech are more complex than imagined.
Like the significance of Sam Altman. 😂

Look if I had a rock-solid CEO who could bring:

- Really great sales, marketing and management skills

- Ability to raise funds if needed

- Domain expertise and contacts

- Was a blast to hang out with

I’d love it. Give me the tech to build and I’ll follow you into the abyss and get it done.

I had a similar problem on one of my early startups. I was trying to save the equity and outsource the tech side. Some of the angels and VC’s didn’t like it and wanted me to bring on a tech cofounder. Focus on the biz dev side and bring on a tech guy.

I am a non-technical co-founder CEO with a good understanding of technical lingo. I know a little bit of code (I could code super simple apps myself before GPT :)). I understand how stuff works. I can have a decent conversation with our developers, I can identify the flaws in the specifications and understand restrictions with certain ways of doing things.

As a co-founder of a tech startup, this was an extremely useful skill to have, because we never had a technical co-founder and did most of our development with an outsourced agency. (Yes, I’d change that, if I could find a good partner at the time.) This helped us move faster and give suggestions on what things to test, how to shorten dev time (making MVPs of features), which was crucial with an outsourced team.

But what helped the most were my sales and business development skills. You can always find a great developer (cofounder or an employee). It’s much harder to find a great sales person when you’re very early stage. You don’t know who your true customer is, you don’t know what your product is going to look like in couple of months, you’re sometimes not even sure if you’re solving the right problem.

You can always hire development. But nothing beats founder sales in the beginning.

So if you’re doing some preliminary research right now and trying to set yourself up with the best chances of success, I’d work on understanding the basics of product development and user experience design (even just learning the basics of what’s frontend, backend, how databases work, what languages can do what, can help you have a much better conversations with your potential partners).

But mostly I’d work on:

- learning how to test ideas quickly & iterate (read Lean Startup)
- learning how to talk to customers (read The Mom Test)- learning how to sell & negotiate (read Never split the difference)
- learning how to manage your time (just practice)
- learning how to manage people (Extreme ownership, radical candor)
- learning how to price products/bizdev (monetizing innovation is a good book for that)

Really resonates with me, this question. As someone with a background in software, I’ve often found myself in a similar spot.

When scouting for co-founders in the past, my main focus was always on finding someone who really understood what the customers wanted, and who had strong skills in marketing and sales. I felt confident handling the tech side, but having a partner who excelled in those other areas made a world of difference.

One piece of advice I often share, especially for those looking to launch an MVP, is to consider using a no-code tool or an AI-powered product development platform. These can be incredibly helpful for getting your first 50-100 users. They not only provide a quick way to build something functional but also offer valuable insights into customer behavior and the potential business model around your product.

For no-code development, Softr and Glide are some of the platforms I’ve seen people have success with. They’re pretty user-friendly and a great starting point for non-tech founders to bring their ideas to life without getting too deep into coding