StartUp Saturday Ahmedabad December Chapter : Technical Skills Non Technical Founder Should Know

Event Details

Event Name:  Startup Saturday Ahmedabad December Edition

Theme: What Technical Skills all Non Technical Founders should have?!

Date:  Saturday, 14th December 2013 – 5:30 PM to 8:00 PM

Event Coverage:

The topic for discussion was really interesting as many of the non technical people who are aspiring entrepreneurs are worried about what technical skills should they posses when they start up an technical company.

Among the presenters and moderators of the discussion were some of the known faces of Ahmedabad city like

Mr Sunny Goenka – Founder , Blynk

Mr Niraj Herlak – Founder , Digitaltangencyacademy.com

Mr Ravi Pathank – Founder of Tatvic

Mr Nirmit Parikh – Director , Data Analytics , Intel. Founder of Cruxbot ( acquired by Kno,Intel ),Global Shaper ,World Economic Forum

Mr Darshya Kuruwa – Founder Director Evantrix

Mr Rakesh Patel – CEO and Founder at Space-o-Technologies

Mr Smit Nebhwani – CEO and Founder at Orgizo Technologies Pvt ltd and CTO at Veritoz Media Pvt ltd

Mrs Sneha Thakker – CEO and Founder at Thakker Technologies Pvt Ltd

One of the most important point which presenters pointed out was everything is technical in non technical company also whether you are aware about it or not. Depending upon the usage of technology for respective companies it is defined whether it is a technology company or not.

For example a cloth manufacturing factory is also using technology for its end product however it is not termed as technology company because the end product of such companies are not technology.

This point makes it very clear that what is a technology company, now the point comes as what technical skills should a non technical founder know while starting up a technology company.

First and foremost make one thing very clear in your mind that you cannot be a techie from non techie in a very short period of time and at the same time you cannot wait for long to become acquainted with all technologies and than start your company.

So what one can do is to acquire basic knowledge of technologies your company will be using for developing your first product.  You can read articles , books and google it also about the basics and stick to it as if you will try to learn in deep you are going to waste a lot of time which is not ideal for any technology company.

Ideally you should develop a minimum viable product ( MVP) with the required set of features decided by you and your co-founder and launch it so that you can get real feedback from the users rather than waiting for 6 to 8 months for the final product and then getting the feedback – Sunny Goenka, Founder Blynk

10 Essential Skills for non technical founder according to Niraj ( Founder of Digitaltangencyacademy.com)

1. Search Skills
2. Technical Sites
3. Technical Blogs
4. Learning Sites
5. Quality Assessment Tools
6. Project Management
7. H.R. Tools
8. Discussion Forum
9. Networking Skills
10. Books

Make sure you know what is your end product because that will help you decide which kind of technology you need to build and how to have someone who knows that technology. One of the best way is to have a technical co-founder in your start up as you are non techie this can help solve lot of issues provided that the co-founder is having sound technical background

One can also outsource all technical work to companies as well as freelances on project basis and on going basis also. The advantages of outsourcing technical stuff is you are sure that things will be done no matter whatsoever will happen but at the same time if you fail to describe details specifications of how your product should work, outsourcing can be a big pain also.

At the end of the day , one should read and get to know basics of technology which is going to be used on building the product ( idea of yours ).

Which skills do you think are important for non technical person starting up a technology company ? Comments please…