Leading Without Coding: A How-To Guide For Non-Technical CoFounders & Product Leaders

Summary

To those people who take on the bold challenge of creating a technical company without technical expertise on their founding team, I have written an article of guidance.

I hope that this piece is also helpful, by extension, to any non-technical people who work closely with engineers. And though it is not written toengineers, for those of you who decide to read this piece I hope it helps you get inside the heads of the smart, non-technical leaders and managers around you, so you can help them work effectively with you and other engineers to build wonderful things.

The background: In 2009, Brian Schechter and I decided to create an internet company (@howaboutwe). At that point, we didn’t know how to get the printer working, no less how to build and lead a world class tech organization. I learned on-the-job, largely through my work with the team of amazingly talented people we ultimately hired (after deciding that those freelance Belarusians weren’t the ideal solution). We grew HowAboutWe to about 100 people—and ultimately sold it to IAC. Hopefully, through this piece, I can help a few founders skip some of the ridiculous arduousness of my own learning curve (which continues to arc upwards to this day.)