
Ask HN: How to be found as a technology co-founder? - dmitryame
There are tons of articles on the internet about how to find a technology co-founder. I believe, there is another problem that also exists. If you have strong technology skills, but no business connections or experience, it&#x27;s virtually impossible to be found as a technology co-founder, even if you&#x27;ve got a desire and ambitions.
Can anyone suggest an approach, what should one do in such situation?
Perhaps there is some matching service (read specialty social network), which helps to address this issue.
======
chillydawg
I'm a technical co founder. I'm CTO and the other co founder is CEO. We've
been working together for 6 years now. Before that we were aquaintaces at our
last job, where we met. I'd never get into the situation I'm in now with
someone I didn't know. I also wouldn't do it with my best friend. I dont have
any advice to be found, except to meet people and discuss ideas and get a feel
for how people are and work.

Non technical co founders, when working properly, have an enormous amount of
work to do, often much harder than a technical person, even though it may
never involve anything more complex than excel or a web browser.

You need to find someone who you can work with, work through problems with and
trust. No small task! I suspect most people find each other by pure luck.

~~~
ramtatatam
My story is incredibly similar to yours. So are my thoughts about it. The only
bit I would add is this - never underestimate your work mates, even if they
are doing simple jobs. Some people have extremely interesting bio and you will
not find out until they throw idea at you - and this is when you might (or
might not) be found.

------
wjossey
As someone who is the "technical" co-founder of a two person founding team, I
have a hard time imagine being matched with someone. My co-founder and I
worked together for 7 years prior to starting our business, and the dividends
from those shared experiences has paid out in our ability to not have to deal
with so many issues.

As an example, my co-founder is technical, but he's the CEO and is primarily
focused on sales & managing our investors. I've written every line of code of
our platform since day 0. We've had tons of situations over the last 18
months, since we started this company in earnest, where we've fought and
disagreed in significant ways. However, the reps we've built up in
communicating with one another have allowed us to move past these issues,
without sacrificing the necessary dialogue, but also not harboring resentment
or frustration with one another. Starting a company is so frustrating and
difficult, I have a hard time imagining a scenario where I could have done it
without deeply trusting my co-founder.

All that being said, everyone is unique. You may find you're more than happy
to be a technical co-founder with a stranger. But, my primary recommendation
would be to find someone in your circle that you trust that you'd want to work
with every day for the next decade (which probably isn't too many people).

Wish you all the best!

------
godot
You may not like to hear it since it's not a fast path, but the best way to
find a quality cofounder is probably to work in an established startup;
especially you start there early and get through its growth stages. You'll not
just meet brilliant coworkers, but also ones who specifically thrive in
startups; and when that company grows to a certain size, they'll itch for the
small startup days again and want to start something themselves.

This path would take you a good few years before you get to cofound your own
startup with partners, but it's probably one of the best paths.

------
kjksf
If you visit [https://www.indiehackers.com/](https://www.indiehackers.com/) or
[https://www.reddit.com/r/startups/](https://www.reddit.com/r/startups/)
you'll find plenty of people desperate for a technical co-founder.

Whether it's wise to pair with such people is another topic.

~~~
jamestimmins
As a developer, I would be extremely hesitant to partner with someone unless
they 1) either had deep domain experience and/or had already made sales of the
concept, and 2) had worked with technical folks before.

~~~
eldavido
Your suspicion is well-founded. Here are some thoughts on this topic--I wrote
an entire blog post on it:

[http://www.davidralbrecht.com/notes/2018/06/primus-inter-
par...](http://www.davidralbrecht.com/notes/2018/06/primus-inter-pares.html)

~~~
achow
_The other model I 've seen work is primus inter pares: first among equals.
Many professional services firms (law, accounting, architecture) operate this
way: a group of partners with one manager/leader whose decisions are final.
This model acknowledges that a group needs an identified final decision-maker,
but major decisions cannot be taken without support of the broader group._

This is interesting proposal but I think the ambiguity, fast changing
environment, need for making regular 'leaps of faith' in startup environment
is very different than the traditional centuries old business practices of
accounting, architectural firm, where 'primus inter pares' is working well.

------
isalmon
I'll share my personal story - maybe it will help.

I'm a technical guy, always wanted to start my own company. 6 years ago I
finally got my green card and started looking for a "business" co-founder.
Months went by, nothing happened. As many commented, it's usually not a good
idea to found a company with somebody who you have not known for at least a
few years.

Finally I decided to just go for it and learn "sales" myself. After achieving
some moderate success these business people started to knock on my door.
Finally I brought a "co-founder" for less than 10% equity. It really helped
long term to make sure we had a tie-breaker during disagreements.

6 years later it's a 60 person, multi-million-a-year SaaS company.

~~~
voidbip
Could you elaborate a bit on how you learned sales by your self? Did you just
start cold calling? I have no experience in this kind of thing what so ever
and I think advice from someone with a similar background who has done it
would be helpful.

~~~
badbug
I don't mean to be flippat, but what is there to learn? Certainly there are
tips and tricks, and salepeople do possess unique talents. But what is so
complicated about calling up potential customers and talking about how your
product solves a problem you have?

I think the first step is demystifying it. If you wanted to learn a new
programming language, you would just "do it": read books, read about the
language, practice writing code, etc.

~~~
DenisM
Your phone call will be answered by a person who has no decision making
authority. You will need to ask for someone else, and you will need whom to
ask. You will also need to know which companies to call. The calling itself
maybe not that complicated, but the prep work is arduous. And then you don’t
start with “buy my software” you start with “Problem X is a real drag, don’t
you wish it went away?”. A lot goes into it.

------
markbnj
"How to be found" sounds super passive to me. You have to make things happen,
one way or another.

~~~
paulcnichols
Word.

------
jwatte
You need to network.

Unfortunately, networking means talking to a lot of people not like you, and
giving a lot of yourself freely, which to a maker feels like both exploitation
and a water of time.

Gotta kiss 99 frogs, and suddenly, frog number 18 called a friend and said
friend turns into frog 100 that's actually a match.

This is fundamentally alien to makers, and wish I had been able to learn this
in my 20s or 30s, but I honestly don't know how I could have been receptive at
the time. (Now I'm receptive, just not very good at it.)

~~~
majc2
This worked for me - sure it took three years until I met the right person;
but you need to put the hours into meeting people.

------
liangzan
There're accelerators that take in applicants pre-idea, pre-team pioneered by
Entrepreneur First([https://www.joinef.com/](https://www.joinef.com/)) from
the UK. The cohort size is about 100, and the founders come from diverse
industries and backgrounds. It vastly increases the odds of finding a co-
founder - a person who has complementary skills, is committed, and wants to
start the company at the same time. Though the thought of starting a company
with a stranger can be hard to fathom, you have 3 months to test out the
working relationship with different people before committing.

Disclaimer: I found my co-founder from the EF program and completed the
program.

~~~
thicknavyrain
I'm currently in the process of applying for EF and have an interview in two
weeks. How would you say you've found the process and would you say it was
overall a positive experience?

~~~
liangzan
Overall it is positive. Be mentally prepared, the percentage that eventually
make it to demo day is not high. I came to EF to look for my co-founder. The
quality of the cohort is phenomenal(on paper that is), albeit most are first
time founders. There are researchers, engineers and domain experts all coming
from diverse industries/fields. As the cohort size is so big, there are many
possibilities. They will not so gently nudge you towards forming a team with
complementary strengths and great fit to the problem. The scary part - when
you look at teams that present on demo day, they look like a team tailor-made
for the problem. What is the probability of that happening organically in the
wild? Go for it, just the friendships cultivated with the cohort of great
people is worth it.

------
Doches
The only successful technical/non-technical cofounder pair I've ever been a
part of (as the technical half!) came out of a weekly meetup, and among folks
in similar-stage startups I’ve heard variations on that theme (met at a
conference, a meetup, a SIG, whatever) many, many times. Finding a co-founder
is, in so many ways, like finding a partner — and, weirdly, you’ll probably
find one the same way.

The time-tested rule of common interests and alcohol (in this case:
conferences and meetups!) applies here as well.

------
brianwawok
Why not start solo?

You can found a 1 man SaaS app... burn is halfed, and your code per day rate
is about the same as a pair with a business guy.

If you find business lacking down the road, you are in a position of power to
pull someone in.

~~~
tootie
I could crank out a SaaS product or whatever pretty confidently, but without a
marketing/sales expert I'd be spitting in the wind.

~~~
ian0
Marketing and sales can be learned. Seriously. As long as you are able to
_validate that people have this problem_ and solve it in a way that makes
sense the rest can be googled. If it kicks off, you can hire people with
expertise to help.

Along the way for sales you'll have to learn how to put yourself out there,
which can be challenging (it was for me). But its like speaking in front of
people. If you do it enough times you learn to get by.

If your a founder, regardless of whether you the "tech person" or not, you'll
probably have to learn all of this anyway.

Id second the "dont do it alone" part if its a full-time startup. Its tough
going and having someone to share the burden in incredibly helpful.

------
svennek
(This post is meant to be frank and only slightly provocative...)

As a builder of a company for more than a decade (a lifestyle, not Start-Up
(VC-fuelled)), the hard part about starting up is NOT the tech.

You might be a really good developer, but that definitely does not translate
into being a good CTO. Most common problem is being bogged down by technical
perfection and rewriting until the company dies. (I have seen that happen at
least ten times with companies in my network)

A CTO is a "chief officer", i.e. his/her focus should be on the survival and
growth of the company. That means choosing how to act in an environment, where
there is always to little money and too little time and past decisions
unfortunate to fix-up..

Add to that, that when the company grows, you need to heard cats as a lot of
devs are not really good at negotiating technical matters as equals..

I must admit that for me the "no business experience" would be a dealbreaker
for a CTO... Balancing the liquidity versus total cost is one of the hardest
problems I have ever encountered... (and that is going to be your problem even
if you get a big tank of jetfuel (VC-money), the burnrate will probably still
kill you if unmanaged).

Add to that, that your business partner is going to be the most influential
person in your life (even more than your spouse likely), just getting
"matched" is not that easy.

A family member of mine bought 50% of a company (not IT) and the other part
stayed there as CTO (he was the sole owner and CEO before). The ended up
almost-hating each other but being forced to stay together for most of another
decade (due to both having a lot of skin in the game). The day the sold the
company was the second last day they ever talked, the day the signed the final
corporate report for that year was the last...

Notice neither was a bad person, they we just badly matched (personality wise,
skill wise, vision wise...) and entered something they should have stayed out
of.. It didn't help that both had invested their whole livelihood in the
deal..

So to recap: \- to enter a co-owner/founder role, you really need to know the
other person, like the other person and trust the other person as much as a
family member... Otherwise you are likely doomed or unhappy for a lot of your
immediate future

\- being a CTO (especially as co-founder) is a vastly different that just
being a dev with better salary and the final say.

\- experience matters

\- so does 10+ years of preparation to your "overnight success".

\- business is hard, most fail...

------
DenisM
Look for well-connected or very visible people and do software things for
them. Next time someone asks them about a guy who’s good with X you will be on
top of their mind, provided you tell them you are good with X. Worked for me.

------
srepetti
Become active in your local startup community. Participate in hackathons. Join
Entrepreneurial Centers. Attend startup-related local activities. Participate
in the STARTUPBUS! Create your own networking. Put yourself out there and let
others know you are interested in opportunities.

------
cellis
No one has mentioned Loom ( [https://loom.co](https://loom.co) ), so I’ll
throw it out there. Its a freelancing platform that allows users to “pay with
equity” as well as cash. Disclaimer: I haven’t tried it, just remember seeing
it on Product Hunt.

------
BerislavLopac
First of all, there is nothing special about being a (co-)founder. The only
essential difference between a founder and an employee is that the former are
willing to forego solid salary and accept extra levels of work and stress in
the hopes that they will make up for it down the line in a much bigger payout.
For a success of a company it is important which people perform various roles,
and not how they're paid for it.

Therefore, the way to be "found" as a co-founder (technical or not) is in fact
all about finding the right product you are willing to be a co-founder for,
rather than "just" an employee. This is crucial, because if you don't truly
believe in the product it will simply not be worth the effort.

------
dchhugani
I'm looking for a technical partner. I think there's no secret recipe, but I
especially like the answers below that suggest to be methodical about finding
people and assume most won't work out due to life circumstances, timing, not
liking each other, and more.

I also have gotten some good traction from writing this post:
[https://blog.usejournal.com/im-looking-for-a-technical-
partn...](https://blog.usejournal.com/im-looking-for-a-technical-partner-cto-
vp-of-engineering-cofounder-chief-hacker-or-whatever-6f5e8c63fc46), maybe you
want to do something similar in the inverse?

------
autospot
To answer question directly: Angel.co has a few folks and I've connected with
at least one person on there who I really like.

More broadly: Plenty of non-technical founders out there - I think the
important thing to determine is what areas are weakest for you? Example: for
me, my weakness is coding, then finance. I can do those things myself but I'm
slow. Ergo I work best with hardcore engineers, I don't mind if they are a bit
slow on the "soft" side of things.

Source: am a sales guy with a technical background, so the "people" side is
something i have a lot of exposure to

------
jshan
Assuming your username on HN is the same across social media platforms, you
should make it easier for folks to contact you. i.e. do not require folks to
know your email address to reach out via LinkedIn. It may be annoying to get
random invites, but you never know where interesting opportunities might come
from.

------
pinkgodzilla
I am a non-technical co-founder who after a year of building product, has
acidentally become a full time software engineer (as our product was
horrendously complicated - not always a good thing). Now I am going back to
doing biz dev and market development.

At the begining, I literally crawled, begged and did anything and everything
under the sun to convince technical people to join me. The waterfall looked
like this:

\- Say I contacted through events/linkedin/accelerators/friend-of-
friends/facebook/CS-professors about 100 people (number was definitely larger
than this)

\- Something like 50 even bothered replying

\- Something like 20 bothered having lunch with me

\- Something like 10 sat down for a second meeting to look at whatever code I
already had

\- 5 I had maybe a week of work done together closely, discussed the
challenges and arrangements closely etc.

\- It didn't work out with 4 of them for various reasons - simply didn't click
in some way

\- 1 eventually quit their job and saved my ass. We are all full time now
though of course.

When I was presenting to technical people, I had a friend doing a PhD in CS
who cant quit his PhD but wrote some serious c++ code (as our work dealt with
large matrices) while I wrote a web python backend to serve the cpp code. And
I had a deep background in industrial engineering and finance. So I think the
50 evaluated our work and bothered replying took a reasonable guess that my
chops were "not bad".

Then 6 months later it was intern season and I did the same thing again. Then
I did the same thing to get funding. Then to get customers. Getting full time
staff that is proverbially "ninjas" is even harder than getting investors or
customers. One is committing their lives to you and another is just a
procedural budget decision. Then it follows that it should be even harder for
someone to co-found something with you.

After a while I started using a CRM and a systematic funneling for everything
that has a 80%+ fall off rate. Which is literally everything in a startup,
from newsletter opens to fundraising to good interns.

You should do all the things adviced in this thread, then assume that if there
is an 80% to 90% fall off, how many of them you should do (more accurately:
NEED TO DO) on a per week basis to hit your final target. Because of the last
10% who didn't fall off, you still have to reject the 9% who you can't work
with, don't like the business idea personally, don't think it is a viable idea
etc. If you use an accelerator's services to shortcut the process above,
remember you have to pay them 6% to 8% of your eventual company and its 50-50
whether they can perform the search service well - so its cost is
approximately 3% to 4% of equity.

Good luck!

~~~
DenisM
Which CRM are you using?

~~~
pinkgodzilla
I was talking about it in a proverbial manner - that the search for a co-
founder would have to be methodical and systematic akin to sales. It can be
excel, airtable, hubspot etc.

~~~
DenisM
Bummer. I've been contemplating a... connection management(?) system.
Something tuned to keeping track of my connections. Linkedin lists what people
think of themselves, not what I think of them.

------
gnicholas
There are meetups designed for this (finding cofounders), and in my
experience, they skew heavily toward non-technical people who are looking for
technical cofounder. I'm in the Palo Alto area, so it's possible YMMV.

------
tmpz22
Demonstrate strong skills and experience in building successful teams and
products. Bonus points to have experience in fundraising. Hiring is hard. Let
the VP E figure out the architecture and development incidentals.

------
wenbin
Another path:

Be a sole-founder. Learn whatever "business" skills on demand. If you can
learn programing, what else you can't learn?

It's more possible than ever for a sole technical person to build meaningful
business from ground up.

Think in a different way: what if a "business" person can't find a technical
cofounder? Can the business person pick up programming skills as fast as a
technical person picks up "business" skills?

What kind of "business" skills do you need? Talking? Writing English?
Marketing? Sales? It's 2018. There are tons of resources online that you can
use to learn these things.

Go to www.indiehackers.com to learn some inspiring stories. Be confident.

~~~
derefr
> What kind of "business" skills do you need?

Pre-existing connections in the entrenched industry you're trying to break
into? A rolodex of "people who went on to be potential channel partners" you
met while doing your Harvard MBA?

~~~
jwatte
This is so true! It sounds like a caricature, but it really isn't.

------
d0m
imho if you're involved in your startup community and work on fun side-
projects, you'll either find someone or someone will find you through friends
of friends.

------
mabynogy
I've just found you. Take a look at my profile if you wanna reach me.

As a founder, you don't to be found. You need to find people and solve
problems.

------
gesman
Become a founder. If idea/product is valuable - founders will flock to you
begging to become co-founder.

------
mychael
Real life is not a set intersection problem. You need to put yourself out
there.

