Business owner must learn programming?

Programming seems to have become a fashionable thing. New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg once said he is also going to learn programming. And the Estonian government announced a project that hopes to have all 6-year-old children in the country learn to program.

To benefit from this demand, many start-up companies have begun to provide programming courses. The Gneral Assembly, which specializes in off-line programming training, runs in London, recruiting staff and preparing for the Berlin branch. Codecademy, an online education site, also started financing $ 10 million in expansion. Zch Simms, 22, the company's co-founder, said in an interview that not everyone should learn programming, but everyone "should learn the idea of ​​algorithms and understand that they can be used What to program to do. "

Is that true? The founders of non-technical digital start-ups have to learn programming? Also understand the concept of the code is more important than learning how to sell products and promotional services? The answer given by the European entrepreneurs In fact, incomprehensible.

Ryan Gallagher, CEO of London-based voice platform Lovox, insists. "Programming is a must," he said. "If you're building a tech company, you know what's possible. If you do not know cooking, you can open a restaurant, but if you're the first and only person in the shop People, that's impossible. "

But others may not be so firm. While supporting programming for children, Nick Halstead, a CTO for a big data startup near London, said: "Some people think that 'all' should learn programming because of programming It's very popular now. "

"Adding a bunch of bad programmers is not a good thing, and it educates a bunch of under-aged people, and going to be a true programmer requires ten years of tempering," he said.

Taavet Hinrikus, a co-founder of TransferWise Estonian Technology, believes management really needs some code understanding. "As organizations become more digital, it becomes important for the founding and managing teams to understand and grasp the digital world, otherwise you will fail because of a slow response," he said.

Although this understanding may mean "no comment," it can still give entrepreneurs some sense of authority. Benoit Curdy of Vocalytics, a developer of voice applications in Dublin, said: "In my experience, software engineers find it hard to communicate with people who do not know how to program." If a startup's CEO does not understand Programming, we must rely on the CTO, this is by no means the best solution. "

But does he or she have to be programmed just because an entrepreneur knows programming? Thibauld Favre, a software engineer at AllmyApps, the Parisian Windows app store, does not agree. "In the early years of entrepreneurship, it was helpful because of the need to quickly translate ideas into products, but then your programming skills became less important and your energy shifted to other areas, including hiring, selling, Marketing, planning, etc. The hardest part for anyone who understands programming is to decide when to stop programming, "he said.

But if entrepreneurs do not program, should they learn? For all non-programmer-born entrepreneurs, the answer is the same: no need. William Heath, co-founder of Mydex, a personal data storage startup in London, says he has been "trying to learn programming, but that" thinking "is like trying to" lose weight. " "It's sometimes misleading to understand programming, you can control your own code, but most things in the business are out of your control and you have to adapt."

Cognizant, a start-up in Barcelona, ​​can use artificial intelligence to help companies deal with customer complaints, and Sindhu Joseph, founder of the company, believes it's "not practical" to learn what other people are better at. She added: "If I started a company today but did not understand programming, I would focus on my leadership skills and sales and marketing."

"The two most important skills for any entrepreneur are optimizing scarce labor and money and creating a founding team with complementary skills." Catherine Buken, co-founder and CEO of Travelmenu, a travel-booking service in Moscow, Katrin Buckenmaier said. Alexandru Chong, CEO of social network Luluvise, believes hiring is also an important skill. "Entrepreneurs should spend their time on what they are good at and wisely choose the talent to fill the gap." Recruitment is the most important thing, and programming, which is tricky, "he said.

So, where should entrepreneurs spend their time? Kadri Ugand, co-founder of GameFounders in Estonia, gives a clear answer: "What should they do?"

(Ding Hong)