Anthony Thomas tells us how he made the leap from manufacturing to starting a tech team at Sticker Mule. He explains why your first developer is so critical to your founding team.

Here's what to listen for:

• 00:51 What was your background prior to starting Sticker Mule?
• 01:39 What was the drive to go from manufacturing into starting Sticker Mule?
• 03:13 Did you see other companies doing what you wanted to do?
• 04:02 What was your co-founder’s background?
• 06:09 Did you start your company as a non-technical founder?
• 07:42 Should a non-technical person learn how to code?
• 10:35 Did you build any basic background in tech?
• 11:40 Are you able to empathize more with developers having learned something about software?
• 15:09 How did you build a technical team as a non-technical person?
• 16:56 What interested you about open source?
• 20:47 What do you think led your first developer to work with you?
• 22:39 Why did you think the first developer was so critical?
• 27:42 How are you able to evaluate a developer as a non-technical person?
• 29:41 How do you guide the roadmap for your team?
• 34:15 What’s an example of a time you wanted to do feature polish?
• 35:19 What are some of the biggest productivity killers for your development team?
• 36:16 What do you mean by incomplete and changing specs?
• 37:18 What has helped make your specs more concrete?
• 43:24 What challenges have you faced as you scaled your team?
• 46:27 What advice would you give Anthony prior to starting Sticker Mule?