Hootsuite’s Ryan Holmes on Why Founders Should Have a Tech Background

By Ryan Holmes

Just before the tech bubble burst, back in 2000, I worked as a developer at dotcoms. Big paydays were luring all kinds of entrepreneurs into tech then, including people who had no prior experience. The company I worked at was run by someone who had a big vision, but knew almost nothing about programming or the web.

A typical request to my team would be something like, “Build me the next Yahoo…and have it done by tomorrow!” We took on unrealistic projects, missed deadlines and left customers disappointed. Needless to say, the company tanked. (Silver lining: in the ensuing fire sale, I ended up buying a bunch of their computers, which I used to launch the agency that ultimately created Hootsuite.)

Read more.