How do you start a tech startup as a non-technical person?
Last Updated: 21.06.2025 04:30
I would suggest having this baseline coding / design / tech knowledge for a few reasons:
#2 - It’s hard to assess and hold technical co-founders accountable if you really have no tech skills / knowledge. For example, I had a non-technical friend who assumed that because his technical co-founder was a strong front-end engineer, he would be able to learn how to build AI models. This was wildly off-base and caused a lot of friction in their relationship.
Personally, even if you are not the technical co-founder, I would still suggest spending some time (e.g. 4–6 months) building up your technical and design expertise / know-how. In the past, my answer would have been different, but with tools like Figma and Canva, one can conceptualize and design product wireframes way faster than ever. These tools enable you to create a compelling product vision and then bring in an engineer to execute. With new AI coding tools like Github Copilot, Chat-GPT, and Cursor AI, it is much, much easier to code than ever before (you can state what you want in plain English and it will spit back code for you to implement). It’s not totally plug and play (you often need to iterate, experiment, and adjust your prompting), but with a few months of coding practice, you will be able to do a lot.
Aaron Judge's 469-Foot Home Run in Kansas City Left Baseball World in Disbelief - Sports Illustrated
If you have the time and money, a coding bootcamp can really level up your skills super, super fast (I did Hack Reactor in 2017 for about $25k and became a competent programmer in 3 months of very intense effort). If you want a more affordable option, there are plenty of Coursera / Udemy / YouTube courses and tutorials to help you gain solid coding skills. If you want something a bit higher-level, there are companies like Skip Level that help non-technical people learn how to think from a technical perspective.
-James
#1 - Many technical leaders or programmers won’t respect you or want to follow your lead in the business if you have literally zero technical knowledge. They may do so reluctantly, but you won’t have the same level of authority as if you really know what you’re talking about.
#3 - I have invested in closet to a dozen startups as an angel investor and a huge reason startups fail is because the technical founder leaves and the non-technical founder can’t easily find a new technical lead. If you have some baseline coding knowledge, you will be better equipped to find a replacement or to step in and fill the gaps as needed until you can find the right person.