Is undertaking a good option for computer scientists?

By Inaki Arriaga (former student and Co-founder of accumbail)

I studied at the Higher School of Computer Science for five years and, during this time, I met dozens of people. Of all of them, I can count on the fingers of one hand those who have decided to set up their own business.

I guess one of the reasons is that computing is currently one of the best paid professions with the least unemployment. But I think there are also other biases that make techies do not decide for this type of career. Logically, one of them is that it is a path that, in many cases, is quite tortuous. Nothing to object to this: setting up a company can be overwhelming and, in many cases, a waste of time and money. I will not be the one to sell the venture like a bed of roses.

Having said that, I consider that technical profiles, specifically developers, have characteristics that are especially good for managing a company. Engineering basically deals with resource management at all levels (memory, object, table, equipment management), which is the greatest need when it comes to being a good manager.

Many back down because they have the impression that they need a person who understands "business". In the case of the sale of software, which is the business in which we are dedicated in Acumbamail, the necessary knowledge about how the business works is quite basic and easy to acquire. In our case, all the founders were engineers and we have not missed someone with an MBA in our ranks.

Facebook, Netflix, Salesforce, Microsoft or Tesla were founded by engineers. But since the founding binomial of Apple, which was the most mediatic, was made up of a technician and a "business" person, we consider this to be a requirement.

In addition, people with technical training have more tools to deal with complex problems. Knowledge of technology allows us to develop better and more innovative solutions than if we only followed the steps provided by a non-technical profile.

Logically setting up a company is not the only valid path but, if you are a developer, having certain knowledge at the level of business processes, finance or marketing will allow you to do your job better. The proximity between the business and development teams allows the creation of better solutions, better understanding of the requirements and avoiding communication problems.

In short, there are many resources that can be used to get a little closer to the business world:

• Lost and Founders This book tells the story of Moz and its founder and provides down-to-earth insights into starting and running a business.
• behind the cloud by Marc Benioff, founder of Salesforce, pioneers of software as a service.
• The long, slow. SaaS Ramp of Death If you are more of an audiovisual format, this video tells the story of how GetResponse, one of the most used marketing software, was born and grew.