I’m 25 and have spent most of my life working in traditional businesses. I currently run my own company, but the startup world has always fascinated me. I’d love to build something tech-focused and I’m starting to look for a technical cofounder.
My question is: how do you see non-technical founders today? Are they still valuable? Or are startups better off with purely technical teams in the early stages?
I’m tech-savvy and not afraid to learn to code if it’s essential, but I’m unsure whether that’s the best use of my time if I eventually find a strong technical partner. I’m just dipping my toes into this world and would love honest opinions from people who’ve been through it what would you look for in a non-technical cofounder?
25, business background, no coding skills, can I still be a strong startup cofounder?
byu/Cheap_Philosophy_472 inEntrepreneur
Posted by Cheap_Philosophy_472
11 Comments
x
Learn everything and become the founder. If you don’t want to code do something else to make money. Trying to become a cofounder sounds like you want to ride on someone else’s success and that’s gay
I’m a non-technical co-founder. I sell stuff, do marketing, manage finances, manage partners. Basically all the stuff that isn’t writing code. Hell, even today I gave some UI feedback.
What do you offer? What can you do with a business background.
you gotta either be passionate about the people, or the problem you’re trying to solve
in my opinion, you’re going at it backwards; asking for problems to come to you so that you can make a few bucks
nothing wrong with it per-se, but you still need a shift of mentality if you want to build something people would love paying for
best of luck to you
Frequently, a small startup consists 2 ppl: the business person and the tech/ideas person.
In your case, software, ideally you would find a good all-rounder engineer who can write+ manage both the datacenter backend and the mobile app frontend.
Once you have version1 working, it’s time for some angel investment+ hopefully hire a couple more ppl
Honestly, non-technical founders can be incredibly valuable.
Startups aren’t just about code they’re about vision, execution, and the ability to understand customers.
A strong cofounder brings clarity, resilience, and the drive to keep things moving when challenges hit. Technical skills are important, but so are leadership, communication, and building trust.
If you’re willing to learn, adapt, and put in the work, you’re far from “worthless.” In fact, many successful startups were built by teams where one founder focused on product/tech and the other on business/strategy.
The key is showing that you can deliver value beyond the code.
Anybody can be a founder. At some point, you have some technical questions but you can start with AI and then bring in someone technical when you need them.
Yes,
But do you have a problem to solve and anything to sell?
Go for it
Just my 2 cents, but you should at least learn some code. You become way more likely to succeed in tech if you know anything about programming. And it depends on your timeline, but why not take a year or 2 and really learn to program?
Absolutely, it depends on your partner though, if they are a technical founder as long as you have skills like marketing, some financial management, sales, you will be an amazing co- founder