[Cross-posted on Built in Chicago]

Last night, Corey Haines and I hosted our first ever "Dinner with Techies" event. As we've talked about in previous posts, we're starting a series of conversations to offer technical advice to non- or less- technical startup founders in Chicago.  Each month through the end of the 2011 we're doing one day of "Office Hours" -- 45 minute one-on-one talk sessions between a founder and us on the technical topic of their choice; and one "Dinner with Techies" -- a group dinner focused around similar topics.  

We worked with Tricia at GrubWithUs to set up the dinner, and while there are things I can do to improve the next one (e.g. order more vegetarian options) I was very happy with the GrubWithUs and with the restaurant.  We met at Uncommon Ground on Devon and were seated at a large table, served platters of delicious food (bacon-wrapped meatloaf, for example), and finished off with a series of (chocolate) cakes and (buttery apple) pies.  Yum!

The group was eight people: us, and six others.  We just guessed at this for a good size, and I think it was: there were enough people for a spirited discussion, but it was intimate enough that everyone could get focused attention without a sense of rushing. It turned out that this first dinner had 4 MBA students from Booth, one former Booth student, and the business partner of one of the students.  So the group that had a lot of overlap in terms of personal connections and community and I think this worked well for a first dinner. 

The conversation focused around some common problems and questions, including:  

• How do you best manage a remote technology team? 
• What are ways to incentivize developers to join your team if you no longer have equity to offer? 
• How do you avoid making significant architectural mistakes early on in your product cycle because you don't yet know enough about what you're building and don't want to end up locked into the wrong platform for your  business? 
• When you have a limited budget and can't afford a company that practices an agile iterative approach to development, what are some smart ways you can get similar value out of the team and budget that you have? 
• What are common pitfalls in working with less-experienced developers and how can  you maximize value for both parties in these situations? 
• How do you tell if you have the right developer for your project? 
• What are some common differences between Computer Science professionals and Software Development professionals, and when does each skill set come in handy? 
• Why do we recommend certain development practices over others and what specific value do those practices bring you, as a business owner? 
• The role of communication, writing, and showing code in a building process
• What are free tools you can use to prototype your product before investing money in developers

It was a great dinner because not only were Corey and I able to speak to many of the topics, but people at the table were able to help each other from their own past experiences, so group learning and networking took place. As I have learned again and again from my own experiences as a developer, so much of a successful development process revolves around good communication, and so many costly and painful mistakes stem from a lack thereof.  Of course, "good communication" is a vague phrase, and when you are dealing with people from two different worlds, with different vocabularies, expectations and stereotypes (on both sides) it is no surprise that product building processes can jam up over failed communications. One of the things I am going to be building in the next few weeks is a couple of "cheat sheets" that can help non- or less- technical people navigate and get value out of a development process.  But more on those later.

As with our first Office Hours, I came away very impressed with the community here in Chicago. "Blown away" is almost a better phrase. There are so many smart, passionate people here who are committed to building companies and products to make the world a better place, and we got to have dinner with six of them last night. While there is currently a large divide between the technical and business-oriented communities, we live in a rich ecosystem and there is tremendous opportunity for overlap and growth in both communities. Corey and I spent an hour or so last night hatching the seeds of great plans for future building in these areas, and I think it's fair to say we have a couple ideas twinkling in our eyes :) 

In the meantime, keep your eyes out for our October Office Hours and Dinner with Techies. And please feel free to send us any feedback -- public or private -- if you've been to these events and have suggestions moving forward. And if you have attended, thanks for sharing your stories and questions with us, and being a part of moving our communities closer together.

[Cross-posted on builtinchicago.org]

Yesterday, Corey Haines and I hosted our first ever Technical Advocates "Office Hours" session, and it went great. Corey wrote about this last week in the initial announcement. 

A little background. Corey & I are both programmers, and we are also active in the startup community, both as first-time entrepreneurs and technical advisors to non-technical founders. About a year ago we started attending events for the startup community in order to stretch ourselves, join the community, and learn about the business (as opposed to the development) side of creating a startup.  

In the process, we found a couple things we hadn't bargained for: A large divide between the "entrepreneur" and "developer" communities here in Chicago (both words in quotes because the divide is not as clear as it may seem); and a number of non- or less- technical folks starting companies who had had negative experiences with developers that cost them time, money, or both. 

This was eye-opening, and often avoidable with a little education, so we started talking to folks. This led to setting up coffee-meetings with people where we'd sit for an hour or so and give technical advice. This advice ranged from code-audits ("do I need to re-do this codebase?"), to talking about a healthy software development process, to identifying simple technical features for an MVP, and more. This was great, but our schedules started to get out of control based on our enthusiasm, so we decided to do a day a month and do open "office hours" -- 45 minute slots where anyone can sign up and come talk to us about whatever technical matter they were wrestling with right now. Yesterday was our first day, and it was very exciting. 

We had the event at the Obtiva offices, who were nice enough to let us use an empty conference room. We had four slots, because it was our first time and we wanted to test the waters.  We met with four startup founders, and one dog (who came along with his idea-generating master). Three of the founders had some level of product in the market, and one wanted to talk about how to translate an idea into the earliest provable tech-driven prototype. The dog just wanted to listen :)

From my point of view, it was a great success. We were able to give advice as well as give a few early-warnings for people to look out for. We met people who are out in the world dreaming up ideas and making them happen. Everyone who showed up has amazing energy and passion for their ideas. And by having these conversations we're creating more and more openings for the "developer" community and the "entrepreneur" communities to cross over. 

We had some trouble with Doodle, the mechanism we used for online scheduling. Two folks were told they had different times than we were told they had, so we learned that next time we need to do email confirmations before the event. Both folks showed great patience as we worked around this glitch, and we thank them for it. 

As with almost every entrepreneurial event I attend in Chicago, I came away inspired by the people in this community, and the ideas they are generating.  To get to sit across the table from people who are actively moving an idea into a reality is one of the most energizing things anyone can do, and I encourage everyone to do more of it -- it's contagious, and with the tools and support available right now, anyone can become a Maker. 

What's next for us? Next Tuesday (9/20) we're going to have our first monthly Dinner with Techies. We're working with GrubWithUs to arrange the event, and I can tell you now it's going to be great. It will be 6 people, me and Corey, raspberry framboise, bacon, and a chance to network and get focused technical advice at a great Chicago restaurant, Uncommon Ground. Sign up here :)

And next month we'll be doing 7 office hours slots at the Excelerate offices, as well as another dinner. So keep us in mind if you need technical advice. And in the meantime, keep on making awesome stuff! 

We started Technical Advocates in order to help non-technical startup founders get the best value from their software development process.

We are both software developers with combined 25 years of professional development experience. As we started spending more time in the startup community we found that there is a knowledge gap that often results in lost time, money, and morale when non-technical founders end up with a development process that doesn't suit their needs.

We help answer questions such as: What does a good software development process look like? What are the values I should look for when hiring developers? How do good software values translate into coding practices? What can I expect from my ongoing software development process? How can I best identify the core feature set of my minimal viable product (mvp)? What do I need to bring to the development processes to be the most effective client?

We also offer: code audits to assess whether you need a rewrite or simply rework; help screening technical candidates; and help understanding and designing a development process that works for your project.