Phil Morle, CEO/Founder of Pollenizer says you don't need a tech co-founder for your startup.

He says on the Pollenizer blog:

"Engineers are either going to spend your startup’s limited financial resources or they are going to be an investor like you, sacrificing income for the opportunity."

I reckon he is on the money.

In the process of creating a startup I spent a large chunk of money upfront on things I actually needed later, that were operational and into the detail of the enterprise.

Looking back, I could have gone a lot further, faster, with a website mockup and some simple graphics without buying into the actual data or platform. As it turns out, an infographic I commissioned has been the single most effective communication tool in getting the vision of the enterprise across to potential partners and customers.

My strongest piece of advice for anyone with a startup is to get sketching and drawing and mockup very simply for as long as you can before you commit to the big dollars. This gives you something to validate with your potential customer base - like Phil says:

"Customer development helps me to validate my assumptions. It is amazing what can be created if I ‘build on the shoulders of giants’ re-using existing software and doing a load of manual work myself behind the scenes."

He suggests "using the illusion of a platform through mashing up existing tools" so that you can get your concept across quickly without significant investment in the 'real thing' and get it in front of customers quickly.

It will save you a significant amount of time and money and will get you in front of your stakeholders with a far clearer vision.