I think the reason people crap on business ops co-founders, is because most of the time they don't want to be co-founders. Unlike the author of the articles, you see a lot of mba types who don't respect what coders do. So in the end, they don't want to give their 'technical co-founder' equity or sometimes even a fair wage. That's assuming we're even beyond the business dood's idea being making a 'facebook killer'
Its too bad this divide between technical and business folks exists. That's mainly what bugged me about the process and why I wrote about it. In the end I think it comes down to the personality or more importantly how personable the business or technical person are.
-Will
The problem I think is not so much a technical/business split, but the fact that the bar to be a 'technical' cofounder is a little higher, where anyone with an idea is an 'idea guy' or a business type. so while there are certainly just as many very bright business guys as there are very bright techies, there's a ton of not very bright people who end up being 'business people' who give the intelligent business people a bad name.
So I have a question here. What makes you 'a buisnes guy'? Your skills or that you majored in buisnes [1]? Or to ask in another way, would you have missed something if you had majored in engineering?
Great question, and I'm figuring this out as I go along. I majored in German and was a consultant for 12 years. Though I learned some coding skills I know that I can never be the technical person, unless we had a much longer time to build the product. An option that doesn't work financially and given the pace of things on the web.
I think the fact that you took the time to learn how to code sets you a field apart from other potential co-founders.
The situation is kind of a mirror of the whole designers that refuse to learn how to code thing. If you look, even if they don't do it, the designers who at least learn how html and css work turn out work that is leaps and bounds better web design. Likewise, business type people who learn how the technology they're building their business on, run companies that are leaps and bounds more efficient and potentially leaps and bounds more profitable. (not to mention that much better to work with)
i'd say that being a business guy means being good at strategic planning and keeping the company/startup on task. You can outsource things like legal, and hire for marketing skills, but you need to be a good manager to co-found a technology startup and not be one of the technical co-founders.
