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I am going to start a business of software development. But before that I am having some questions. There are two possibilities:

1- I gain experience developing softwares (especially programming skill) first (say for at least 7-8 years) and then think of starting any business.

2- I acquire sufficient knowledge and information about software development and programming knowledge. In this case I will be giving more time to understanding how softwares work and how to solve a problem, instead of coding. In this coding experience is only about 2-3 years. But about 4 yrs have been spent in research, and acquiring programming knowledge (which is different from programming skill).

In first case it is "actually having hands-on experience on specific stuff" while in second case it is "knowing how to solve a problem of much broader range(as compared to 1 above), and hiring a programmer."

In first case it is "skill" while in second case it is " Information and knowledge."

Can someone tell me which way is having more chances for success.

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3 Answers

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Definitely the second one. With the skills only you are no good for your own company. You have to have a broader knowledge, not just programming and solving problems. Business administration and marketing skills are sometimes critical when you start a highly competitive business like exactly in your case.

The other point is... spending 10 years acquiring programming skills, you (probably) will become such a great and well paid developer you would not like to risk with undertaking a business venture. Think about that as well :)

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I cannot comment on your answer unless I get more answers, but your last point is very good, and I agree with that. – gpuguy Sep 12 '12 at 15:04
glad to know I've been helpful somehow. – BetaSve Sep 13 '12 at 7:04
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If you want to start a business, the least valuable skill would be knowing how to do the work. You should learn how businesses work, how to sell (that is #1), how to market, networking with people, cashflow (cash is king), business administration and how to lead people. If you know those things, you can hire people who know how to do the work, you can lead them in the direction you want to go, you will be able to sell and market the product and you will know how to manage the cogs and gears of the business itself.

If you can't run a business, the rest of it doesn't matter.

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You might want to do a little research on people who have built giant software businesses. Most of the ones I can think of did not follow your options 1 or 2. They simply dove right in and started creating what they wanted. If they needed a special skill, they learned it by doing it.

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