Choosing A Minimally Viable Co-Founder. Please, please, please stop asking how to find a technical co-founder. Listen guys, I'm sorry. But, I just can't do it anymore. I can't keep having this conversation with every non-tech founder. It's just too painful. On you, on me, and everyone else that you've approached. But, seriously, Please stop. Back in the day, I remember going to my favorite startup mentor, Gregg Fairbrothers, and asking him for help finding a technical co-founder. I can't help you with that, but all the good entrepreneurs seem to figure it out. Man, I still love that answer. You don't find a technical cofounder, you earn one. And that right there is why I get so bored of this question.
When you meet people through all these various ways, realize that every technical person has one of three options: A.) How to Earn a Co-Founder Learn to CodeStop everything else that you're doing right now for your startup and learn to code. If you're a hacker in need of some startup advice, ping me anytime—we'll grab a beer and chat startups. Find discussion of this post on Hacker News.
Stop looking for a cofounder. Sacha Greif offers some tips about why you shouldn't look for a cofounder, and try using freelancers instead. Pull quote: Hiring a freelancer is not that expensive. You can hire someone for a month for a couple thousands dollars, and a month is plenty of time to build a prototype if that’s all you’re doing. If you say that you can’t manage to come up with even $3000 or $4000, that tells me two things: first, you don’t have any monetizable skills, so you don’t sound like a very good person to build a startup with.
Second, you’re not very resourceful, and that doesn’t play in your favor as a startup co-founder either. Sacha also goes into several reasons why freelancers are a better thing to look for, if you need help, rather than cofounders. I think Sacha is spot on about those reasons, but he's missed one that trumps them all: I don't think it's actually possible to "look for a cofounder", especially not if you already have a project under way. Update: Also relevant, via Slimy: Looking for a co-founder to partner with? Look hard! “A friendship founded on business is a good deal better than a business founded on friendship.” - John D. Rockefeller In the current world of startups, starting a new business venture with a partner—as opposed to on one’s own—continues to be a popular trend. Most people get into partnerships with friends, colleagues or classmates who are like-minded and who have skills that complement their own.
Starting a business with a partner offers multiple benefits, not the least of which is having someone to share the many responsibilities of running a business. But a partnership can quickly go bad if you don’t give it ample thought and planning. In our last MaRS Best Practices session, Jeff Dennis, a serial entrepreneur, lawyer, author and the entrepreneur-in-residence at Fasken Martineau, and Tracy Hooey, a partner at Fasken Martineau, addressed the issues that one should consider before “jumping into bed” with a partner. Tip number 1: Get to know your partner first. Vijender Trivedi. ProgrammerMeetDesigner - where web developers find web designers.
Stop Looking For A Technical Co-founder. Editor’s Note: Alexey Komissarouk is a CS senior at the University of Pennsylvania and founder of the PennApps Hackathon. This article is based on an earlier talk to the Wharton MBA Entrepreneurship Club. “How many of you want to start a company?” David Tisch asked. All hundred hands went up. That’s why we were there, crowded into a Wharton classroom to seek startup advice from an industry luminary.
“Keep your hand up if you are technical.” “Keep your hand up if you are looking for co-founders.” Most quality software engineers today have offers of amazing work environments and 6-figure salaries from the likes of Google and Facebook. Your odds are bad. Focus on building your company instead. 1) Learn to code Pre-dodgeball I went thru 3-4 years thinking I was going to meet some magical engineer who would build all the stuff I was thinking about. . [ . . . ] – Dennis Crowley, Foursquare Pick up coding. Really don’t want to learn to code? 2) Hire an external team. Warnings: 3) Simplify your MVP.