Questions from our listeners, answered

Like in Radio Yerevan jokes, I am thinking about answering (if I know/if I have a clear opinion) some questions that come to me through various channels, in the hope that I can help people. The question for today is:

How important is it to know computer programming when you are in online/software entrepreneurship? In other words, is it essential to have coding knowledge or is it more important to have good ideas for products/services? Is it better to be a good marketer or a good programmer?

Entrepreneurship is something special. You need to know a lot of things and, in general, a little of everything. If I were to set an order of priorities, I would say that:

1. first of all, you need to know the industry you want to enter. Don’t tell me then that you need to know the online industry; I’m talking here about the specific niche that you want to enter. You need to know who the competition is, what is specific and unique to everyone, who the clients are, what they want, what they lack. And you need to have the vision of the product you want to create….
2. then you need to have an idea about how to build the product – either you know how to write code (which usually doesn’t happen), or you have an idea about where to get a good programmer, a friend etc… And, especially, you need to know what to ask of him.
3. and a very important thing is to have some idea of the financial part. How to make a budget, who is P & L and what they want from us etc.

Summarizing: you don’t need to know programming, but you do need to know where to get programmers and what to ask of them. It’s much more important to know the industry and the financial side.

(English version by Teodora Popescu)