In a previous post I argued that coding is not “the new literacy”. However, for anyone who is starting a software company, knowing how to code is about as essential as knowing how to read. Startups are at the heart of a modern day renaissance that is fundamentally changing the world we live in. The people that work at startups are the creators of our generation. They spend every day dreaming of and building a new reality.
The founders of a tech startup should have a firm grasp on both the industry that they are in and the ability to use computers to change that industry. Without knowing what to do in the real world, it doesn’t matter how well you can code. However, without knowing how to code, you don’t really have a firm grasp of what you are building, which undermines your ability to actually change how your industry works.
Without knowing how to code, you also don’t know which engineers to hire, how to conduct a technical interview, how to gauge the progress of your engineering team, how to determine the interaction between your engineering restrictions and your business objectives, how to identify market opportunities from a technical perspective, and a whole host of other things.
Furthermore, when building a technology company without being able to work with technology hands on, you’ll have a much harder time gaining credibility with both investors and engineers -- two essential components of successful startups.
Three years ago I started my own software company. At the time I didn’t know how to code, and as a result spent my time frantically recruiting engineers while attempting to learn how to code myself on the side. This was not a good formula, and it took us over a year to launch a beta product to customers. While some amount of foolishness is necessary to dilude yourslef into starting a company, if I had known how to code this process could have taken a fraction of the time. This is critical, because time is a huge killer of startups. Market conditions change, people leave, the economy can crash - a million things can happen that make you want to quit. Launching in 1-2 months instead of a year would make the likelyhood of quiting substantially smaller, and thus your chances of success substantially higher.
Now, I’m no quitter, and so beyond all logic I was able to see my company through to a product with customers and investors. However my success was more of an exception than the rule. In general you really should have a firm mastery of your industry as well as the ability to code if you plan to be successful. Now that I know how to code, my next startup will be a comparative cake walk.
For entrepreneurs, if you want to actually see your vision made real and to create a new future, you really do need to learn how to code.