The Tech Guy Vs. The Biz Dev Guy
Posted on May 6, 2008
Filed Under Uncategorized |
Who Has The Greatest Battle to Fight
In the last few weeks, I’ve been meeting quite a few people in the process of starting startups and perhaps this is because I’m in the DC area…but I’ve been running in a lot more of the biz dev types who are the originators of the ideas. I’m actually starting to wonder if that’s different in other areas and what the ratios are, but that’s another post…
Lets for the sake of this post agree that 99.9% (aka the majority) of the people who start web based startups are either tech guys or business development type guys (and by guys I mean guys and gals) and that the truth is, you need both types to have a successful startup.
Now, lets look at the idea and concept phase, at the onset and the earliest of all the stages – Who do you think has the greatest battle to fight and who is best setup for success? The Tech Guy or the Biz Dev Guy??
Questions to Consider in this Battle (neither candidate is personally wealthy):
- Who is capable of building/developing the product?
- Who had a better grasp of the market possibilities?
- Who can best lay the initial foundation?
- Who is more likely to ensure the startup will get off the ground?
- Who is best qualified to get the startup off the ground?
- What challenges do both our candidate face?
- How do those challenges differ?
- Which of the challenges are easiest to overcome?
I’d love to know. What are your thoughts?
Which one are you? Do you think you are in the best position or fighting the greatest battle?
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5 Responses to “The Tech Guy Vs. The Biz Dev Guy”
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I’m predisposed to the biz dev guy myself. You need a vision-caster and someone who has, as you suggest, a “grasp of the market possibilities.” That’s not to undersell the importance of the tech guy/gal. It’s just been my experience that they are mainly focused on product development. You need a big picture person. Of course, Jason Fried may beg to differ.
The answer, as you might have guessed, is it depends. Talking strictly operationally the role of IT is to support the business..not the other way around. Yes, this is even true for tech start-ups. That said, the ability for a “techie” to help with product development, marketing, etc depends on their ability to learn those things and apply them but doing so with discipline.
If you have a techie that brings some business savy to the table then they must be able to take the “tech” hat off in order to wear the “bidness” hat. Blurring of those lines can be dangerous as it can lead to the technology dictating how the business should run.
In my experience few techies bring all the business development skills to the table (yes, myself included) so they are best to augmented with one ore more people who focus solely on business/operational needs.
Great discussion topic, Ann!
I’m an hybrid biz dev/tech guy. I’m probably 70/30 though.
Anyway, the answer is that collaboration between these two types of people is one of the best ways to found a successful startup.
In my view, the answers to your questions are:
1. Who is capable of building/developing the product?
-Clearly the tech guy. However, an iterative development process (the best kind?) requires someone who is constantly talking about the product and gaining insights from users/influencers/key stakeholders. The Biz Dev guy tends to be best in that role (they are usually ’soft selling’ during this process as well which is good).
2. Who had a better grasp of the market possibilities?
-Probably the Biz Dev guy because he talks to everyone all the time and understands the wants, needs and desires of the target audience best. However, a technology gap/white space is probably going to be identified by a tech guy or hybrid.
3. Who can best lay the initial foundation?
-Depends on what you consider a foundation. If it’s a business model, then the biz dev guy. If it’s a prototype, then it’s the tech guy. Better yet, it should be them together (see above).
4. Who is more likely to ensure the startup will get off the ground?
-You need both. Neither in isolation will succeed.
5. Who is best qualified to get the startup off the ground?
-You need both. Neither in isolation will succeed.
6. What challenges do both our candidate face?
-Tech Guys might are generally incredibly focused on the product. Biz dev guys are incredibility focused on the customer. By fusing product and customer focus the team is more likely to succeed. This is evident in the current business environment where customer service/feedback has become primary for startups.
7. How do those challenges differ?
-See above.
8. Which of the challenges are easiest to overcome?
-I think the Tech Guy’s challenge is easier to overcome. I’ll quote Bill Gates on Donny Deutsch’s show The Big Idea when Donny said Gates was a Biz guy first: “I’m not a business guy first. That’s the easy part. The science is the hard part.” I don’t think many biz dev guys can quickly acquire deep technical knowledge rapidly (if you find one….grab him!). I’ve spent my entire career spanning that gap so as to be most effective in what i do. The Tech guy can learn to be listen and therefore be customer centric, but the tech guy may never be able to sell/evangelize the way the biz dev guy can.
Great post. Great questions!
Wow, some excellent comments here, especially Peter’s. I’ll add a couple quick thoughts:
- Often times, I think that this question is colored by the market that you’re going after. If the developer is very close to the market (i.e. they’re developing products for very like-minded folks) then they might not really need a “business” guy. Conversely, if they’re very “far” from the market, they’re going to need a lot of assistance in figuring out what needs to built and how to get it out to the market.
- Something that your commenters touch on, but I’d like to put in a different way: If you want to build an exceptional company that grows to be wildly successful, what you really need are people who will trust and value one another’s additions to the team. A strong team of two, where the “business” and “building” partners respect and help one another out is a big predictor of future success.
- I’m seeing dynamics similar to you out here in SF. I run into lots of idea/vision/business guys and not that many who can actually build. I suspect that this is a pretty universal phenomenon for us business-y folks (I’m teaching myself some CS - I’m relatively weak on the coding front at the moment). But, part of it happens to be that we hang out with similarly-skilled folks. I’m spending more time going to places where developers hang out and meet up and that’s proving to be pretty fruitful. Maybe you should try the same :)?
-In the end, I don’t think that the challenges are comparable in a useful way. Rather, each person has to be able to identify where they fall in the range of skill sets (tech or biz dev guy, for example) and how they can utilize those skills to become successful. Often, that means they have to recognize the need to partner up with someone else or even a team of people. That, really, is the challenge that we all face.
-Robi
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