Assume a solo tech founder has all the skills needed to complete a given Web application for a startup. What would be more valuable in a co-founder - additional tech skills to get to a prototype quicker or someone with seasoned startup experience to help seek funding, work on marketing, business plan, recruiting, etc?
Your best bet, from my experience, is someone with the startup experience, business connections, marketing knowledge, and general know-how to execute on a completely different side of the business while you concentrate on the prototype.<p>But for best results, and to avoid the pitfall davidw pointed out, get someone who knows the basics of hacking too so he/she doesn't ask you to build a website that can shoot lasers out of the screen.
"Assume a solo tech founder has all the skills needed to complete a given Web application for a startup."<p>A huge assumption.<p>If you're wrong about that and you get a non-tech co-founder, you're toast.<p>Personally, I'd hedge my bets with a second tech and worry about the non-tech stuff later.<p>I have been in the exact same situation twice before and here's what happened both times: I was working 100 hour weeks and my partner was bored. Then he went out and oversold what I could have delivered. A disaster. Twice. (You'd think I'd have learned.)<p>The problem isn't whether you have the <i>skills</i> for what is needed. It's whether you have the <i>time</i> to do it. I underestimated what it would take and didn't account for all kinds of stuff. It's a very easy trap to fall into, believe me. The stuff that bites you in the butt down the line will be technical; count on it.<p>I would have traded either non-technical partner for a fellow hacker in a heartbeat. If I had, who knows, you may have been reading this at Eddie News instead while I typed it from my yacht. Don't make the same mistake as me. Get another tech.
One big concern you should have is this: Can you recognize a talented and driven non-technical person?<p>Just as one great developer can do ten times the work as an average developer with far less problems, the same holds true with marketing, business, etc.<p>So, it may be more of a challenge than you expect finding someone, and determining their skill level.<p>I also catch myself minimizing the value of certain business issues and maximizing the value of technical issues. I think that is a natural tendancy, so make sure you keep that in check. Best of luck.
It's a double edged sword.<p>On the positive: they're good at marketing, getting in people's faces, getting the word out, getting people on board, etc. I just can't talk to advertisers so I'd end up with AdWords getting less revenue. I'd be bad at promoting the thing so there'd be fewer users.<p>On the negative: most of them have no f'in clue what makes any sense in technology. They don't use it enough. Their ideas will be something like, "maybe we should do something like eBay, but with a better rating system". They'll come up with a lot of nonsense that isn't useful - but they don't know that since they just don't use computers and the internet as much as we do. Of course, they're a bit arrogant (it's why they're good in part one) so they think you should be following their lead.<p>You need to find someone that can do part 1 without being so full of themselves that they think they know how to build a webapp and that you're just code in human form. It's hard because most of those types like to think of themselves as the "idea person" rather than doing the work of promoting, forming partnerships, etc. Their "idea" is crap and been done before. You need someone to do the non-code heavy lifting.
Totally totally totally depends on what you're building. B2C? B2B? A business with lots of bizdev ops or no? Investment required or not? Is the core problem (or the way you want to attack it) a technology problem or a sales/distribution problem? Heck, or a design problem?<p>With the general question, I'll give you my best shot at a general answer. Building something people want to use is the first order problem where virtually every startup fails. Select a co-founder who will help you solve that problem. If you don't, funding, marketing, business plans, and recruiting aren't going to help much.
Whoever you find first that meets your hiring criteria.<p>Also I would <i>not</i> put it as a tech vs. non tech co-founder; rather hire for complimentary skills so that as a team you can cover most of the functions.
Yes: they'll be able to cover things you aren't as comfortable with, and thus complement your own skills.<p>No: since you're 'looking', it'll be hard to find someone you trust thoroughly enough to really share the work with. It's easy for non-tech types to dream up lots of hard things to code.
Google: Larry Page + Sergey Brin (both technical)
EBay: Pierre Omidyar & Chris Agarpao (both technical)
Microsoft: Bill Gates & Marc McDonald (both technical)
Apple: Steve Jobs & Steve Wozniak (both technical)
PayPal: Max Levchin & Luke Nosek (both technical) (Yes, I know Peter Thiel is not technical, at least not on paper)
Amazon: Jeff Bezos (technical) and probably hired a technical person at first.<p>I'm not saying its not possible to grow a company with a non-tech person, there are many examples where this has worked (PayPal could count as one). My point is that two tech-founders can get a product out fast if you work well together.<p>Although finding a hacker co-founder, is a whole another ball game. You really need to find someone who will take ownership of your idea as their own and move forward. This is soooo hard to find...soo hard...Good Luck!
All of the skills you mention are valuable if you can find someone with "seasoned startup experience". They're not growing on trees (last I looked from my perch). A couple of questions for you to think about.<p>Do you have the experience in the space you are trying to attack? If not, you best be looking for someone, either technical or not, who does, who can speak to the market, and investors about the market (or angels FROM the market). Also, what's your next milestone? Is it your first paying customer, or is it a demo that will not be launch ready? What will his/her first milestone be? Is there enough work at present to keep a biz person busy in exchange for the equity? There will ALWAYS be enough todo's on the list of the developers... In short, are you sure you're ready for a non-technical founder?<p>BTW: my cofounder is non-technical (I'm sure he'd love to see me describe him as such). I asked him aboard before I'd written even a hundred lines of code. Why? Because he knows the market well and has professional experience / knowledge that I, or likely any other hacker, couldn't hope to pick up in any reasonable amount of time. If that's what you need - then get looking ... they are worth their weight in gold and very, very hard to find!
Get a Business Graduate with Hacking skills. They exist.<p>When hiring for a startup you can afford someone with A or B. In the worst case scenario you need someone with A and B. In the best case you need someone with A and B (assuming both are skills), and Passionated about what you are doing.<p>It turns out that the majority of talented people are not "willing" to startup, but you can find one if you look hard enough.
I had this question many times. I think is better to have a tech co-founder, because you need to tryout your product and make buzz on the market. Then, the right people for marketing and business plan will come to you.
Marketing and funding can be a connections game. in my opinion, it's best to substitute years of sitting on a project with no connection to funding with giving a cut to a connected person with previous startup funding experience. Saves time and headache...
From personal experience, I'm going to say no, don't get a non-tech cofounder (exception made for clones of Steve Jobs.)<p>There is a lot of nontechnical stuff to do in a startup but it doesn't make sense to start most of it until you actually have something working.
You'll need both soon enough, then the question is who becomes the CEO out of the tech founder and the business founder and when. If you can make the business founder a CEO comfortably then that would be a plus.