Book Review: The Non-Technical founder

Book Author: Josh MacDonald

This was a fascinating biographical account of someone who started a six figure business in high school with no technical background.

My takeaway is that the biggest barrier to starting a company is stories we tell ourselves. If children can do it, there is no reason a half way capable adult couldn’t as well.

Engaging with something and going into the weeds on it and then building solutions to fill in the gaps of working in that area… it’s a natural way to start a business. This is exactly what the founder did. He got into SEO and was doing SEO as a service and then ended up building tools for SEO.

Interestingly enough this is exactly the approach that YC Combinator, one of the most successful early stage venture funds in the world advocates. Work at the edge of a field, looks for gaps, launch a business that fills those gaps.

That’s it!