A couple of months ago I wrote a post titled Do You Need to be a Programmer to Found a Startup?, where I argued that yes, you do need to know how to code and some other technical stuff to be able to found a tech startup, be it a website, a mobile or a web application.
That being said, the technical skills you need to have are not that hard to develop. In fact I am not saying you need a Computer Science degree (though one wouldn’t hurt), what I am saying is that you need enough technical know-how to be able to create the MVP of your idea, at least.
MVP stands for minimum viable product, and it’s a version of your product/service with the bare minimum of features you need to be able to launch and test it on the market. For instance, the an MVP of Facebook could be a website where people can signup, upload their photos and connect with friends.
Here’s a story that illustrates the points:
Back in 2008 Andrew Mason came up with an idea: to build a website that would offer deals to customers, as long as enough of them would make the purchase. Andrew had a BA in Music, so he wasn’t a hardcore coder. He did have some web design skills, though. That’s why he decided to install WordPress on the website and hack it a bit to display the offers, the first one being a pizza from a nearby store. The first deal was a success, and so was the following ones. Once the concept was proved Andrew hired professional programmers to evolve the project, and it became what we know as Groupon.
The key point is that the MVP will prove your concept. It will prove that your idea might actually work. Once you have that you’ll be in a better position to evaluate how much money you can actually make, and therefore how much money you should invest to get it off the ground. And the money could either be yours or from investors, as once you have an MVP going it will be much easier to find people willing to invest in it.
Bottom line: your MVP could be as simple as Groupon’s first version, which was a hacked WordPress install. It could be a simple PHP application, an HTML page with some JavaScript and so on. But you need to be able to develop it yourself, cause relying on other people to build your MVP is a nightmare. Once you prove the concept then you’ll be able to hire professional coders to take care of the technical part.
On a future post I’ll mention some places and strategies you can use to develop enough technical skills to be able to create your MVP.
Original Post:
You Need to Be Able to Create Your MVP 
