The Insider: Terrified Of Being Non-Technical Cofounders In A Technology-Driven World

It was the morning of May 14, 2012 and I took a pre-dawn flight from Philadelphia to Denver where I began my 13-week journey through the TechStars Business Accelerator program in Boulder, Colorado.

Last night, I graduated with my MBA from The Wharton School at The University of Pennsylvania. My parents, sister and girlfriend came to Philadelphia for the commencement ceremony and we had time for a quick dinner before I headed back to the apartment to finish packing. While many classmates were busy celebrating and planning for a summer of travel and leisure before commencing work in the corporate world, I was mentally and physically preparing for the rigors associated with scaling our startup, VerbalizeIt.

Long hours and intense-focus, all driven by my desire to see our company succeed and justify my pursuit of an entrepreneurial career in place of a steadier financial services job.

Adding fuel to my fire was the sight of my girlfriend crying upon my departure. My participation in TechStars represented another three-months of long-distance dating after she had already stuck with me while I pursued my MBA in a different city.

I would be lying if I didn’t admit that I’m absolutely terrified of not capitalizing on the TechStars experience. My business partner, Kunal, and I arrived as the only team of two people. Neither of us have any technical talent, despite being immersed in a tech-oriented business accelerator.

Really smart, guys!

I rationalize that the program coordinators would not have admitted us into a program with a less than 1% acceptance rate if they didn’t believe in us . . . right?

Just after lunch, David Cohen and Nicole Glaros, who run the TechStars Boulder program, introduced themselves to the eleven other incubated companies.

Nicole jokingly (I hope) provides us with a rule of thumb for valuing a TechStars-incubated company: (I) Start with $500,000. (II) Add $500,000 for each founder. Great, so we’re worth $1.5 million. I look around the room and a team of six high-five each other. Evidently, they’re worth $3 million already. Then Nicole drops a bomb. Step (III) subtract $1 million for each MBA on the team. Everyone stops and points at us, the only two MBA alumni both wearing our black Wharton fleeces because we’re freezing - Boulder in May is not like Philadelphia in May. All of a sudden, I’ve just landed in a foreign town, we’re immersed in a technical incubator without any technical talent and our company is now worth less than zero, if that’s even possible! We smile politely, unsure of how serious to make of this presumed joke although we both realize that in order to accelerate quickly throughout the program, we will need to solicit the help of those more technically inclined than we are.

We take comfort in the fact that finding talented and technically-oriented team-members is a well-known challenge in today's technology-driven business world.

In a follow-up post, I'll share our approach for turning this challenge into a real opportunity.

For now, how have you scaled your technology business in an environment with more demand for than supply of technology professionals?