Any examples of web business's spawned from a business person's idea and put into action by a technical cofounder?
While many people talk about the new paradigm of outsourcing technical skills to India or China, there is much derision among technical blogs and people about business people getting into the job of ideas.
So I just wanted to know if anyone could give a successful example of a website started by a business person's idea and put into action by someone with technical expertise.
Website Technical Web Services
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Thanks. Those examples are really useful. There really seem to be a lot of haughty technical bloggers that think VC's are incompetent and business school is a waste of time. And, as a South Indian without a technical background, I'm somewhat of an anomaly and have trouble soliciting advice from my super-technical family. – Seth 15 years ago
2 Answers
One example that jumps to mind is FreshBooks. Michael McDerment (the founder/CEO) is not a developer, but a business person (with some design experience). The company is doing well.
Having said that, most of the web startups that I know had a technical co-founder in the original team and contributed to the formation of the idea.
Sure it happens all the time.
There are really popular blogs which make money with no technical knowledge. There are consulting shops where the CEO gets the clients and others implement the product.
I know lots of companies where the non-technical founder had the domain expertise for inventing and selling a product, but just couldn't build the product.
You want examples? You won't have heard of these, but just off the top of my head: NetBotz, ITWatchDogs, DataCert, Bazaarvoice.
It sounds like the real question is: Is this possible? Yes of course. Don't worry about haughty technical bloggers who despise those who aren't technical.
Just know your limits and trust in your CTO -- you won't be able to argue the technical points anyway. People get miffed with others overstep their abilities.
