Software engineers make terrible entrepreneurs.
(I know it because I've been one of them...)
Everyone loves to throw around the Zuckerberg, Musk, or Drew Houston examples like they're average. Newsflash:
Those are outliers. Statistically irrelevant.
Here’s what 95% of “engineer-founders” actually do:
↳ Spend 6 months locked in a code cave, building something nobody asked for
↳ Obsess over backend frameworks, patterns, and micro-optimizations that no user will EVER care about
↳ Launch to crickets, then realize: oh right, no go-to-market plan, no distribution, no strategy
↳ Default to the “if we just add more features, users will magically arrive” fallacy
↳ Watch their motivation bleed out as the only graph moving up is their AWS bill
But let’s not kid ourselves.
Of course, there are exceptions.
Respect to those who broke the rules:
Musk. Zuck. Patrick Collison. But if you think you’re them, spoiler: you’re not.
Here’s why most software engineers suck at entrepreneurship:
1/ They treat building product like passing a code review, not running a business.
2/ They validate architecture, not the market.
3/ They optimistically hope “build it and they will come”, then get smoked by a founder who launches a janky Google Sheet but actually talks to customers.
And it gets worse:
4/ 99% of engineers never even write their first sales email.
5/ They burn months “perfecting,” avoiding the only real validation that matters: cash.
You want to play business?
Talk to a customer today.
Ship ugly. Sell before you’re ready.
Distribute harder than you code.
That’s how we built BuddiesHR into a real company.
No feature-chasing. No “framework of the week.”
Just relentless feedback, sales, and uncomfortable conversations.
It took my co-founder and I years (and plenty of scars) to figure this out.
If you’re an engineer and you think I’m wrong:
Stop reading this.
Pick up the phone.
Ask five humans with wallets if they’ll pay for what you’re building.
If not, congrats: you’re one feature away from burning out.
Brutal?
Yes.
The only way out? Sell, don’t ship.
Go prove me wrong. I’ll wait.
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👋 Hey, I'm J.Y!
I'm the co-founder of BuddiesHR, the #1 Employee Engagement Software that lives in Slack.
I post 1x a day about my journey and share what I've learned along the way.
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