October 2010
Beginner
352 pages
6h 11m
English
Content preview from Do More Faster: TechStars Lessons to Accelerate Your Startup
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O’Reilly covers everything we've got, with content to help us build a world-class technology community, upgrade the capabilities and competencies of our teams, and improve overall team performance as well as their engagement.I wanted to learn C and C++, but it didn't click for me until I picked up an O'Reilly book. When I went on the O’Reilly platform, I was astonished to find all the books there, plus live events and sandboxes so you could play around with the technology.I’ve been on the O’Reilly platform for more than eight years. I use a couple of learning platforms, but I'm on O'Reilly more than anybody else. When you're there, you start learning. I'm never disappointed.I'm always learning. So when I got on to O'Reilly, I was like a kid in a candy store. There are playlists. There are answers. There's on-demand training. It's worth its weight in gold, in terms of what it allows me to do.
Chapter 21. Build a Balanced Team
Alex White
Alex is the founder and CEO of Next Big Sound, a company that provides online music analytics and insights, which raised about $1 million from Foundry Group, Alsop-Louie Partners, and SoftTechVC after completing TechStars in 2009.
I wish I were good at programming but I'm not. If I put the time in I could probably be good at it, but I don't enjoy it at all. Instead, I handle the business side of things for Next Big Sound. Before coming to TechStars, I always seemed to find myself surrounded by really smart people with great ideas and no way to execute them.
From my experience, interaction between technical and non-technical entrepreneurs is often minimal. When I showed up at TechStars, I found the tables completely turned as I was one of the least competent developers out of 30 founders—they had me surrounded!
I think that at the earliest stages of a company it's foolish to have more than one non-technical co-founder. For an example, think about a non-technical small business such as an auto mechanic, sandwich shop, or tailor. On one side of the equation is the actual product or service that makes money such as fixing engines, making sandwiches, or sewing clothes. On the other side is everything else that gets in the way of making money but still needs to be done; things like renting a garage, keeping the counter clean, and purchasing thread ...
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O’Reilly covers everything we've got, with content to help us build a world-class technology community, upgrade the capabilities and competencies of our teams, and improve overall team performance as well as their engagement.Julian F.
I wanted to learn C and C++, but it didn't click for me until I picked up an O'Reilly book. When I went on the O’Reilly platform, I was astonished to find all the books there, plus live events and sandboxes so you could play around with the technology.Addison B.
I’ve been on the O’Reilly platform for more than eight years. I use a couple of learning platforms, but I'm on O'Reilly more than anybody else. When you're there, you start learning. I'm never disappointed.Amir M.
I'm always learning. So when I got on to O'Reilly, I was like a kid in a candy store. There are playlists. There are answers. There's on-demand training. It's worth its weight in gold, in terms of what it allows me to do.