Distributing tasks on tech Startups

So what’s better? To have Phil coding the cloud, Peter coding the database, and Jim getting the design finished? Or maybe we should switch them around?

The common situation is to have technical founders, with studies in computer science or some charisma to learn to code. So it’s not really difficult to distribute tasks.

But then the nontechnical wanted to make his idea happen too. Teamwork is one of the most important things. I don’t mean nontechnical as someone who has studied philosophy, I’m including all engineers who don’t code in web languages.

For example, in our company we’re two. I’m studying Aerospace Engineering and my friend Biotechnology. We’re learning to code Roby on Rails through Michael Hartl’s book, but as we run into the book we find it’s fun the fact you’re creating a twitter clone, but if you want afterwards to create something accepting payments and applying big data, maybe going all to the same hill is not the best idea.

Do you think it’s better so specialize so one works with the design and the database for example and the other the rest?

What is the best distribution for 2-3 founders? What helped you the most when starting your business?

Thanks from Spain!!

Frank