Pod Insights Y Combinator Podcast How To Build A Tech Startup With No Technical Skills | Dalton & Michael Podcast About this episode Based on the thousands of companies YC has funded over the years, the biggest common element between all successful startups is having technical talent on the founding team. But what do you do if you don't know how to code? You may think you can get by using no-code tools, part-time consultants, or dev shops to bring your startup idea to life. But that thinking is wrong.
In this episode of Dalton & Michael, we’ll discuss exactly why that is and why recruiting a technical co-founder is the single biggest way to create value as someone trying to start the next big thing.
Apply to Y Combinator: https://yc.link/DandM-apply
Work at a Startup: https://yc.link/DandM-jobs
Transcript 0:00 Speaker 00 You're offering adventure. You're offering the unknown.
0:04 Speaker 01 And adventure isn't, here's my idea for a social network for dogs. Will you build my website?
0:10 Speaker 00 No. Let's build a company together.
0:11 Speaker 01 Together.
0:12 Speaker 00 Yes.
0:15 Speaker 00 Welcome to Dalton Post Michael. Today, we're going to talk about why business folks need great technical co-founders.
0:27 Speaker 00 So who's this video for? Let's talk about the business folks we're talking to.
0:32 Speaker 01 Yeah, I think to set this up, Michael and I both talked to a lot of aspiring founders in any number of different venues, on the street, at conferences, in interviews, wherever. Like, they find us.
0:42 Speaker 00 They find us.
0:43 Speaker 01 And one of the more common opening lines is something like, well, I'm a really good business person.
0:51 Speaker 00 With a great idea.
0:51 Speaker 01 I have the best ideas.
0:54 Speaker 00 Yes.
0:54 Speaker 01 You know, do I need a technical founder? Or how do I find a technical co-founder? Or I can't find any good technical co-founders? Like, this is one of the number one opening questions we get when we meet people in the real world.
1:06 Speaker 00 Yes.
1:07 Speaker 01 And so this video is aimed at all of those people that ask all of these questions that we have met. And all the people that haven't met us.
1:13 Speaker 00 Yes.
1:13 Speaker 01 That might be thinking these questions.
1:15 Speaker 00 And what we want to do is give you the key secret to actually being the best business co-founder. And we're not going to hide it. We're going to put it right up front. The best business founders recruit amazing technical co-founders. And that is how they distinguish themselves. That is the number one distinction. So it's not what's on your resume, where you worked, the fact that you were some fancy executive, that you're tall, people like to go and have drinks with you, you've got amazing ideas. Unfortunately, there are a lot of folks like that.
1:52 Speaker 01 Yeah. Imagine the set of people, imagine the intersection. There's the set of people that are great business founders.
1:59 Speaker 00 Yes.
1:59 Speaker 01 And there's the set of people that can recruit amazing technical co-founders.
2:03 Speaker 00 Yes.
2:04 Speaker 01 You want to be in the intersection of those two sets. And there's not many people.
2:08 Speaker 00 No.
2:09 Speaker 01 That puts you in a very special class.
2:12 Speaker 00 Well, and I would argue, it is so distinguishing that you're given amazing opportunities.
2:21 Speaker 00 But what's tricky is not only do people not see this, or do people try and not get a technical founder?
2:29 Speaker 01 Or they just dismiss it out of hand. It's too hard. Like, they'll just kind of like shut this line of thinking down.
2:33 Speaker 00 That's what's even more common. It's just that like, well, I can't find this person, so I'm just gonna move along.
2:38 Speaker 01 Yeah, I don't know anyone. Okay, you know.
2:39 Speaker 00 And this is the crazy thing, because like, a lot of people will pitch this to me, it's like, but this is the true spirit of an entrepreneurialism. Like, no barrier can prevent me from getting my product to market, right? Like, I couldn't find a technical founder, so I just moved to the next challenge. I hired some engineers, or I got a dev shop, and like, nothing will keep me, will hold me back. And what's so sad about that way of thinking about it is that like, one, the percentage of chances of death just went through the roof, right? Like, you've just completely reduced your chances of success. But two, I bet if you would put the same amount of effort you put into getting a product to market without a great technical founder,
3:21 Speaker 00 into finding a great technical founder, at least half the people would be able to do it.
3:26 Speaker 01 Yeah.
3:27 Speaker 00 And so, it's just like, it's a shame because it's so much wasted talent.
3:31 Speaker 01 Yeah, I like to think about it this way. Again, we are, what we're talking about implicitly, let's make it explicit. We're talking about a company that uses software as a deep part of it.
3:42 Speaker 00 Tech software startup.
3:43 Speaker 01 If we're talking about a software startup, and you somehow don't have a technical co-founder, this would be like, I'm gonna build a rocket to the moon.
3:51 Speaker 00 Yes.
3:51 Speaker 01 But no one here knows anything about physics. We can, my, I have such a big heart, we can just like, like, I have such hustle, I'm Johnny Hustle. I'm going to the moon, Michael. Like, do you see how absurd that is?
4:04 Speaker 00 Yeah, yeah.
4:05 Speaker 01 And the asterisk is, okay, if you want to start a new clothing brand, or a liquor brand, okay, you don't need to tell your co-founder.
4:09 Speaker 00 Do it, do it, do it.
4:10 Speaker 01 This doesn't apply to you. But if you're, if you're saying, yeah, I'm gonna build a software company,
4:13 Speaker 00 Yes.
4:14 Speaker 01 and you don't have a software co-founder, it just, you're not even in the, in the ballgame. You're not even in the stadium.
4:20 Speaker 00 Well, and what's so sad for me is like, when I say that to people, sometimes they think I'm trying to discourage them.
4:25 Speaker 01 Yeah, they're like, I'm gonna prove you wrong, Michael. I'm gonna learn physics.
4:28 Speaker 00 Yeah, and I'm like, I am not trying to, like, I am trying to tell you the number, or like, I came to you for advice about my product, but you're telling me I need a co-founder.
4:39 Speaker 01 You're insulting me, Michael.
4:40 Speaker 00 Yeah, yeah, and it's just like, no, I'm trying to give you the most important thing I can tell you. And you know what was interesting is that like this is advice is informed by my personal experience, right? Like I was the single non-technical person on a four-person co-founding team at Justin TV and Twitch. And like, I'll just make it plain, without my three other co-founders, none of that shit happens. Like, ideas are a dime a dozen. And so, I think that more business people need to embrace the idea that great software companies are built by great software engineers.
5:17 Speaker 01 Yep.
5:18 Speaker 00 A common retort out here is like, Dalton, we're not building a software business.
5:22 Speaker 01 Software is in there, but it's not that important.
5:24 Speaker 00 It's a tech-enabled.
5:25 Speaker 01 Yeah.
5:25 Speaker 00 We're just building a simple marketplace, right? Like, we can just use edited marketplace software. It's just a copy of DoorDash with a little twist. Why do we need a great software engineer? What's your response?
5:38 Speaker 01 You know, it's hard to win that debate in theory. Like, it's hard to convince someone just in the debate. They'll be like, well, we're just gonna agree to disagree.
5:44 Speaker 00 Yes.
5:45 Speaker 01 But I think if you just look at the facts, of the companies we funded, like literally DoorDash, or literally Airbnb, or any of these folks.
5:52 Speaker 00 Yes.
5:53 Speaker 01 They lived and died by their speed of shipping software.
5:56 Speaker 00 Yes.
5:56 Speaker 01 And if they, what they did was buy white-label software, or have some dev shop in a foreign country, making edits to the website, there's a 0% chance those companies would have worked.
6:05 Speaker 00 Yeah.
6:05 Speaker 01 And so again, who am I to say there won't be some future company that maybe uses one of these things?
6:09 Speaker 00 Yes.
6:10 Speaker 01 But the more that, the more that we're exposed to seeing what these companies look like at their earliest stages, even if they don't look like strictly tech businesses, man, there's no way these things would have gotten off the ground without having a really great person who cared as much as a co-founder cares.
6:27 Speaker 00 Yes.
6:27 Speaker 01 Building this thing day in and day out, versus someone ripping you off, charging you $500 an hour to change some words on the website.
6:35 Speaker 00 And you don't even know.
6:36 Speaker 01 You're not even like ballgame. Like, it's not even...
6:39 Speaker 00 Well, what pisses me off is that like, I think in other areas, that are equally as hard as being successful tech founder, let's say athletics, I think more people are realistic about it, strangely. Like...
6:54 Speaker 00 The equivalent is, you know, a five foot four person who doesn't jump.
7:00 Speaker 01 I can't shoot.
7:01 Speaker 00 Yeah.
7:02 Speaker 01 Can't run.
7:02 Speaker 00 Yeah.
7:03 Speaker 01 And like they're just.
7:03 Speaker 00 I got a lot of heart wrinkles. Yeah, there are not that many of those people who are saying to the world, I want to be in the NBA. Right? Whereas we see the equivalent of that in startups all the time. And it's like, it's one thing if you're six, six and like, you're like a great high school basketball player. You probably won't make the NBA, but like, all right, at least you.
7:23 Speaker 01 You're in the stadium.
7:23 Speaker 00 In the stadium. You're amongst the million people who could.
7:27 Speaker 01 Yeah.
7:28 Speaker 00 And I think that people are not honest with themselves. And I think what we're trying to do is give you this secret, which is that like,
7:35 Speaker 00 you can almost get a ticket to being in the game and it requires recruiting one person.
7:41 Speaker 01 Yep.
7:42 Speaker 00 How cool is that? Like, this shouldn't be seen as a negative. It seems like an extreme positive. It's like a golden, what is it, Willy Wonka ticket?
7:50 Speaker 01 And, and even if you are technical yourself, or sometimes people are medium technical, like. So I, I was a technical CEO, but I still tremendously benefited by having an additional technical co-founder.
8:03 Speaker 00 Yes.
8:03 Speaker 01 And so this is also a thing where you're not like, okay, well, I, you know, I.
8:07 Speaker 00 I can kind of.
8:07 Speaker 01 I can kind of, like, okay, that doesn't count.
8:09 Speaker 00 No.
8:10 Speaker 01 There's actually tremendous benefits from having someone, again, who cares as much as a founder.
8:16 Speaker 00 Yes.
8:16 Speaker 01 Who's committed as much as a founder.
8:18 Speaker 00 Yes.
8:18 Speaker 01 And who's at, you know, at the top of the game, like a 10x engineer on a founder level. You're unstoppable.
8:26 Speaker 00 And what's weird is sometimes we had competitors in, in my startups, whose teams were constructed this way, horrible tech talent. And it was funny in hindsight, cause we never had to be worried. They could raise more money. They could have nicer office. They could have more employees. They could have cooler people using their, it didn't matter. Like, having better engineering is the gift that.
8:52 Speaker 00 Gives you more shots every day.
8:55 Speaker 01 Even if you need to pivot, no matter what, no matter what happens, good or bad.
8:58 Speaker 00 You're in a better position.
8:59 Speaker 01 You're in a better position to react to these changes.
9:01 Speaker 00 Yes. And I think the even scarier thing about this is that like when you start with a team of business people assessing engineers and they are naturally going to start by hammering worse engineers, all of your future engineers are hired by those people.
9:15 Speaker 01 Exactly. It compounds. Okay, so, all right, Michael, all right, you guys convinced me, I guess, whatever. But I don't, you know, sure.
9:23 Speaker 00 This is Dalton being a business guy.
9:25 Speaker 01 I guess that's a point you can make. I don't know. But, Michael, I don't know anyone. Where do I find these people?
9:32 Speaker 00 Yeah.
9:33 Speaker 01 Again, that's what they always say in these conversations.
9:35 Speaker 00 That's what they always say.
9:36 Speaker 01 So how, what is your response when they tell you that?
9:38 Speaker 00 So the first thing is that like, who are you disqualifying and why? I can't tell you how many business people told me, well, I obviously need a CTO with 10 years of experience and who've managed teams of at least 50 to 100. And I'm like, you're 23 years old with no years of experience. Why do you need that? And they're like, well, because, you know, when we launched, this thing's going to get big. And it's like, come on. So first, you might be disqualifying great people. Don't do that. And so let's say you don't know them. Sometimes the number one thing to do if you're in this position is to not start the company right now, is to go get a job at a startup, is to go change the people you know. And what's so interesting is that like
10:23 Speaker 00 sometimes taking that step sideways is the easiest and best path to starting startup journey with the highest likelihood of success.
10:31 Speaker 01 Well, here's the thought experiment I encourage people to do. Visualize the best person you have ever worked with, either in school or in your job, the best engineer that everyone knows is the best person.
10:44 Speaker 00 Yes.
10:44 Speaker 01 Can you visualize someone? Okay. Can you get that person to be your co-founder? And often people are like, oh, yeah, no, they would never, they would never work with me. What do you mean, man? Or like, they're making lots of money.
10:56 Speaker 00 Yeah.
10:56 Speaker 01 And again,
10:58 Speaker 01 I would just stop right there and be like, well, why? Have you talked to them? And they're like, no, they would just... Like, basically, folks put up the barriers
11:06 Speaker 00 Yes.
11:06 Speaker 01 to negotiate against themselves
11:08 Speaker 00 Yes.
11:09 Speaker 01 right out of the gate. And again, if we zoom all the way out.
11:11 Speaker 00 Yes.
11:12 Speaker 01 So you want to start a company. You want to do something big. But you won't actually even bother to try to recruit the most obvious person that's a candidate that you know.
11:22 Speaker 00 But what if they say no?
11:23 Speaker 01 Or you talk to them and they're like, no, I don't think so. What often happens, again, to go deep on this, is that the way they'll pitch the person is they'll pitch them their idea. They'll be like, I'm an idea guy. I've got a great idea. Do you want to be my, like, worker bee to go do all my ideas? And of course, the person that's the best person you've ever worked with does not want to sit in a cage
11:47 Speaker 00 No.
11:48 Speaker 01 and do all of the work that you give them.
11:50 Speaker 00 No.
11:50 Speaker 01 And instead, I'm like, well, have you asked them what... if they have startup ideas?
11:54 Speaker 00 Yeah.
11:54 Speaker 01 And then you sell yourself where you can come together, come up with the idea together
11:58 Speaker 00 Yeah.
11:59 Speaker 01 as co-owners. And it's shocking how often that appears to have never occurred to someone. Like, they think the idea of finding a co-founder is to find someone who will basically submit to their whims
12:10 Speaker 00 Yeah.
12:10 Speaker 01 and be like their, like, assistant.
12:12 Speaker 00 To find an employee.
12:14 Speaker 01 Yeah, and that's not the move, man.
12:16 Speaker 00 Trying to find a partner. You know, it's funny, because my dad would say this to me about my co-founder, Justin Khan. He was like, you know, Michael, Justin's an amazing recruiter. And I always thought, like, it's like... What's weird is, like, I think if you're recruited by a good recruiter, you don't even realize they're a good recruiter, right? But like, in hindsight, I'm like, alright, so we got me, Emmet, and Kyle to work for him... Well, not work for him, but to be his co-founders in a startup where he was wearing a camera in his head streaming his live 24/7.
12:47 Speaker 01 Named after him.
12:48 Speaker 00 Yes, named after Justin.
12:49 Speaker 01 Named Justin.TV. Do you want to work at my startup?
12:52 Speaker 00 Yes.
12:53 Speaker 01 It's me.
12:53 Speaker 00 Yes. And, and, and... He had raised $50,000.
13:00 Speaker 01 Seems like a great deal, Michael.
13:01 Speaker 00 Yeah, right. And so it's like, okay, well, like, how did he build that team? Like, you know, it comes back to, like, you understand yourself as a business person? Go do that.
13:13 Speaker 00 Like, people should be impressed.
13:15 Speaker 01 Are impressed.
13:19 Speaker 00 You're a great business.
13:20 Speaker 01 And hey, they're working on your idea?
13:22 Speaker 00 What did I promise you?
13:23 Speaker 01 I have no idea.
13:25 Speaker 00 Well, you know, I'll tell you what he promised me. It wasn't that the idea was gonna work. Like, it was the adventure.
13:30 Speaker 01 Okay.
13:31 Speaker 00 It was the adventure. And like, I think what's so interesting, when people like, don't ask their friend, and they assume, oh, but they work at this company, they're never gonna do it, dah dah dah dah. It's like, they don't realize, you're offering adventure. You're offering the unknown.
13:46 Speaker 01 And adventure isn't, here's my idea for a social network for dogs. Will you build my website?
13:52 Speaker 00 No. Let's build a company together.
13:54 Speaker 01 Together.
13:55 Speaker 00 Yes.
13:55 Speaker 01 That's adventure.
13:56 Speaker 00 Yes. And what's crazy is like, when you're pitching adventure, there aren't a lot of, there aren't a lot of alternatives. Most people don't have six adventures on the play.
14:07 Speaker 01 How often does any one person get pitched adventure?
14:10 Speaker 00 No. It's usually adventure, or like, eh. So, you know, it's a good pitch. It's a good pitch. So anyways, right, I think that we're trying, you know, I think that there's like, I'll say this, I'm a business guy, right? I think YC has a lot of messaging that's like, yeah, our business guy's important, dah dah dah dah. Like, you don't need them. I agree, you don't need them. But I will say this, there are a lot of very successful, non-technical people in our network that do amazing work. And I think one of the things that if you wanna learn from them, we're trying to give you one of the most important patterns we see from those folks.
14:44 Speaker 01 Yeah, they're great recruiters, and they, they do this thought experiment of who's the best person in the world?
14:49 Speaker 00 Yes.
14:49 Speaker 01 And they find a way to get that person to work with them. That's bending the universe to your will, is what that is.
14:54 Speaker 00 So you should hold yourself to their standard, and maybe you'll get their success.
14:59 Speaker 01 All right.
15:00 Speaker 00 Thanks, Dalton.
15:00 Speaker 01 Thanks.
Previous B2B Startup Metrics with Tom Blomfield | Startup School Next Should Your Startup Bootstrap or Raise Venture Capital? | Dalton & Michael Podcast Page updated October 12, 2026 · transcript and summary are machine-generated
