Are Founders made of different stuff from the rest of us?

I got recruited for my first coding job last week.

I’ve worked in tech startups since 2018, but I’m not a software engineer.

I did an online coding boot camp in 2020, but no one would call me a developer.

I can hold my own in a conversation about product development or software architecture, but I’m not “technical.”

I’ve met a lot of those geniuses who “taught themselves to code” and went on to build great things, but that’s not me.

Right?

But last week, when I described what I was working on, someone offered to connect me to a founder who was "looking for developers."

We were washing our hands in the bathroom. "What do you do?" she asked through the mirror.

“I’m working on something sort of in the HR/legal space," I said, repeating the narrative that was beginning to feel less like a lie. "It started as a side project, but now I’m hundreds of hours into it. I’m learning to code and everything.”

Not "vibe coding" -- "coding."

“HR tech. That’s a crowded space. With Workday, Rippling...”

“Oh. My thing isn’t venture scale,” I said. Because it’s not.

See, I’m in impostor. Couldn’t she tell I didn’t know what I was talking about?

Except that I did. I’m working on a project now that required a deep dive into Rippling and Workday’s software architecture, UX, and business models.

“... It’s a bootstrapped kind of product,” I heard myself say. “The best-case scenario would be a teeny, tiny acquisition.”

Except in this room, I knew that “teeny, tiny” meant seven zeros and two commas. It was the best case, but as I heard myself say it, I realized I believed it.

“My friend is building something in the legal space right now," she said as we walked out of the bathroom. "She’s looking for developers. You should talk to her.”

“Oh I’m not...” I started to say. Instead I said, “Thanks.”

For my whole career I’ve been surrounded by brilliant people with access to capital who know how to turn ideas into money. I always thought there was some magic to it. That they knew something I didn’t.

But these days, I’m discovering something. If I don’t tell these brilliant people that I’m not their peer, they don’t notice. When I participate in the conversation, they respond like I’ve said something worthy of responding to.

It’s almost like I belong.

...Nah!

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👋 I’m Claire. I live on the ground floor and taught myself to code. Does that make me a basement hacker?

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