Your Startup Doesn't Have to Be Software

Instagram was acquired for a billion dollars with about a dozen employees. WhatsApp sold for $19 billion with around 55 people. These stories get repeated endlessly—in business media, on social platforms, by influencers selling courses on how to build the next big thing. The message is clear: software is where the money is. Build an app, get users, get acquired, change your life.

And so people who’ve never worked in technology, who have no background in software, who couldn’t explain how a database works if their life depended on it—these people decide that their idea needs to be a tech startup. They need an app. They need a platform. They need a CTO.

I think this is often a mistake.

The Lottery Mentality

There’s nothing wrong with buying a lottery ticket. The problem is when you don’t understand the odds.

The acquisitions that make headlines represent a vanishingly small fraction of startups. For every Instagram, there are thousands of failed apps you’ve never heard of. For every billion-dollar exit, there are countless founders who burned through their savings building something nobody wanted.

Chasing Windfall vs. Building a Life

Here’s something the acquisition headlines never tell you: running a business isn’t about moments of achievement. It’s not even about moments of failure.

It’s about what it’s like day after day, month after month, year after year.

The actual experience of building something. The Tuesday mornings. The customer emails. The problems that need solving. The decisions that need making. Over and over, for years.

If you’re building something just because you’re hoping for a windfall—if the daily reality of the business doesn’t appeal to you, only the imagined exit—you’re setting yourself up for misery. Because the exit might never come. And even if it does, you’ll have spent years doing something you didn’t actually want to do.

The founders I know who’ve built something meaningful aren’t the ones who chased prestige or dreamed of billion-dollar exits. They’re the ones who found something they wanted to work on, in an area they understood, for people they could genuinely help. The business itself was the reward, not a lottery ticket to something else.

The Restaurant Test

Here’s a thought experiment I use with founders who are convinced their idea needs to be software:

You wouldn’t open a restaurant if you’d never worked in a restaurant. You certainly shouldn’t open one if you’d never run a restaurant. The fact that you’ve eaten in restaurants—that you have opinions about what makes a good dining experience—doesn’t qualify you to operate one.

Yet people think they can build software companies without any background in software. They’ve used apps. They’re frustrated by how some apps work. They have an idea for how an app could be better.

When someone with no technology background says “I’ll just bring on a CTO to handle the technical stuff,” they’re revealing exactly this gap. They think the CTO will handle “the technical stuff” while they handle “the business stuff.” But in a software company, the technical stuff is the business. You can’t separate them.

The Simplest Path That Fits You

I’ve written about the question nobody asks—why are you the right person to build this? That question applies here too, but with a twist.

It’s not just “why you” but “why this way.”

If you have deep domain experience in healthcare but no technology background, why would you build a software company? You’re taking your strength (healthcare expertise) and yoking it to your weakness (technology). You’re competing against people who have both.

Maybe the answer is a consulting practice that leverages your expertise. Maybe it’s an agency or a service business. Maybe it’s a physical product. Maybe it’s content, training, or events. Maybe it’s a traditional business in your domain that uses technology as a tool rather than being a technology business.

These paths aren’t as sexy as “I’m building a startup.” They don’t generate the same buzz at networking events. But they leverage what you actually bring to the table instead of forcing you to compete in an arena where you have no natural advantages.

What Non-Technical Founders Actually Face

Let me be specific about what happens when someone with no technology background tries to build a software company:

I’ve watched non-technical founders spend months searching for technical cofounders who never materialize. I’ve watched them hire the wrong developers and waste thousands of dollars on unusable code. I’ve watched them build the wrong thing because they couldn’t have the right conversations about what to build.

This path is possible. But it’s hard mode. And if you have other options—options that leverage your actual expertise—why choose hard mode?

The Question to Ask Yourself

Before you decide your idea needs to be software, ask this:

Is software the simplest, most direct route to solve the problem I’m trying to solve, for the people I’m trying to solve it for, in a way that uniquely leverages my experience, talents, and capabilities?

That’s a lot of conditions. Let’s break it down:

If software doesn’t meet all these conditions, you’re not building the smartest business for you. You’re chasing a narrative that doesn’t fit your reality.

What Sustainability Actually Requires

Sustainable businesses—the kind that support lives, create value, and actually work over the long term—are built on fit. The business fits the founder. The solution fits the problem. The approach fits the capabilities.

When there’s misfit—when you’re forcing a software solution because that’s what startups are supposed to look like—you’re constantly fighting against yourself. Every day requires you to operate outside your competence. Every decision is made with incomplete understanding.

This isn’t a recipe for success. It’s a recipe for expensive learning about why fit matters.

The best businesses I’ve seen are the ones where the founder couldn’t not build them. Where the combination of who they are, what they know, and what they can do made this particular business almost inevitable. Not because they chased what was hot, but because they found the intersection of market need and personal capability.

Sometimes that intersection is software. Sometimes it’s not.

The Permission You Don’t Need

You don’t need anyone’s permission to build a business that isn’t a tech startup. You don’t need to apologize for choosing a path that leverages your actual strengths instead of forcing you to acquire new ones from scratch.

The startup ecosystem—the media, the influencers, the VCs, the accelerators—has a particular idea of what a valuable company looks like. That idea serves their purposes. It doesn’t have to serve yours.

Build something that fits you. Build something you can actually build. Build something where your experience and knowledge are assets rather than liabilities.

It might not make headlines. It might not generate buzz. But it might actually work—which is more than most software startups can say.

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The tech startup narrative is seductive: build an app, get users, change your life. But for founders without a technology background, this path is often the hardest one available—not the smartest. Before defaulting to software, ask whether it’s really the best vehicle for your idea, your skills, and the life you’re trying to build. The answer might surprise you.