The tech startup roadmap for non-technical entrepreneurs

People from all walks of life come to learn coding at Codementor, including aspiring startup entrepreneurs. Many first-time founders are experienced in business roles such as finance, sales, or marketing, but they often feel the need to become “more technical” before officially launching their tech startups.

For this group, I have a bit of advice: you don’t need to wait to start your startup. Yes, coding is a valuable skill for a tech startup founder, but trying to gain the expertise beforehand can cause ruinous delays.

I discussed this topic with Adeo Ressi – the CEO of the Founder Institute – at a recent discussion. To expand on our talking points, I’ve created the following roadmap for turning an idea into a tech startup, even if you’re non-technical at the outset.

Getting ready: idea and skills assessments

For any business idea to grow, it needs to solve a problem or pain point. As an example, Codementor was started because we saw many aspiring entrepreneurs and developers were constantly stuck whenever they’re trying to learn how to code. Our idea of a two-sided developer marketplace aimed to address a set of very particular issues.

Tip: Non-technical founders can use several techniques to vet an idea, including:

• Keyword Popularity in Google Adwords
• Facebook ad testing even before a product exists
• A survey through Ask Your Target Market
• A crowdfunding campaign to test popularity
• Creating a basic landing page to bait for bites

An honest skills assessment should accompany your idea vetting. How non-technical are you? In our talk, Adeo said: “Everyone today…is a little bit technical and a little bit non-technical.”

Do you have the skills to demonstrate your idea to a user? The answer may surprise you. Several online services enable non-technical users to create responsive landing pages and measure their traffic, even if they’ve never written in HTML. Examples include:

• Launchrock
• Unbounce
• WordPress

This assessment phase derails many non-technical founders. They stop to learn code first, shelve the idea altogether, or pause to find a technical co-founder. These hesitations can destroy a business before it starts. However, if you seek out the right tools to present your idea – even if it isn’t the “right” way initially – you can advance to the next map marker: developing a minimum viable product (MVP).

From an idea to a MVP

Road work: early user testing

The fast lane: expanding your dev team

Driving away from your MVP

Tips to reach the final destination: a growing startup

Conclusion