Opinion: Devs don't want an idea guy

Nathan Covey
6 replies
Non-technical founders have been getting torched lately online bc they seem to believe that devs are just going to line up to build their ideas. Well, here's the reality: 1. If you're non-technical, devs don't want an "idea guy." They want a BEAST at sales/marketing!!! 2. Ideas are a commodity. A study by Wharton last year showed that ChatGPT was significantly faster and better at coming up with business ideas than MBA students. 3. Nobody wants to build YOUR idea. The better approach is to convince a dev on why you should be long-term partners and then ideally come up with an idea TOGETHER. So, if you're non-technical and want to build something in tech: - Become a beast at sales/marketing - Pitch your skills/outcomes to devs, not your idea - Come up with an idea together Devs—anything I'm missing here?

Replies

Zane Ryan
If you're non-technical, devs don't want an "idea guy." They want a BEAST at sales/marketing!!! I completely agree that marketing is really hard for developers. Most of the time I don't even want to comment, but now I have to, I have to express my opinions and try to "harass" others.
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murph
3/3 @nathancovey . I'd extend #1 to include capital raising if that's the route you're going down, but that really distills back down to sales also. Otherwise, no notes!
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YanXu
I believe that what you said is correct in terms of the outcome. No developer wants someone who doesn't understand the technology to constantly propose various ideas to change the content or structure of the product, increasing their workload.
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