

Recruiting Technical Co-Founders - SparksZilla
http://andysparks.co/post/28923167943/recruiting-technical-co-founders

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kyt
Vision is a word I don't like and gets thrown around a lot. It's not
quantifiable. If you are a non technical co-founder you need to be able to
bring in the money. That means you're either 1) Able to raise VC/Angel and
probably have a track record, 2) Have serious connections/customers in the
space you're starting a business in, or 3) Putting your own cash in.

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7402
Makes sense. So if the proposition is that a technical co-founder is to work
for equity but no salary, perhaps that already shows the non-technical founder
has failed the test of bringing in enough money to start the business.

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camwiese
How would you propose the non-technical founder raising funding without a
product? Personally, I can sell the vision all day long, but people want to
see a product. Any advice for non-technical founders who want to raise "idea"
funding to pay a developers salary?

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joshglick
There are two options and they both sound kind of cliched. 1)

1) The first is two find some way to "hack" together a product yourself. This
can be as simple as a "demo" in keynote/powerpoint or something that you can
show off to investors as the product initially. Or if you are in a service
business, perform the service manually for a few customers (run it from a
spreadsheet) and prove the need before plunging into full fledged development.
Both of those will most likely also reduce the time-footprint of your
development

2) A lot of accelerators seem to be accepting pre-product companies these days
and I think this is the strength of a lot of the accelerators is to get you
into the product stage. These could be a viable option if you have one in your
area

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isalmon
I am a 'technical co-founder' and I can't say how many times I'm approached by
people who want me to build some application for them in exchange for 10-20%
of equity. What do they bring to the table? In most cases it's just their
'idea'. So usually my question to them is - why can't I just take this idea
and execute it on my own?

If you want to find a good technical co-founder - be good at sales. Business
is successful when you can 1) build a product 2) sell it. Well, part 2 is the
hardest one in 99% of cases. If some biz co-founder can nail it - he/she will
have no problem finding a tech co-founder.

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EternalFury
LOL, I get that a lot too. "The first version is 90% done.", they say. "I just
need to delegate it to a tech co-founder so I can focus on business.", they
add. "You'll get double-digit equity, up-to 13%, even.", they conclude. For
me, "co-founder" starts at (100 / n)%, where "n" is the number of co-founders.

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dkersten
Exactly, equal share[1] and then dilute (again, equally) as other non-founder
shareholders come on board.

[1] and equal equity share means everyone needs to bring an equal amount of
value to the company. If they want me to build the entire thing and they sit
back and watch the money roll in, then they are not adding equal value, so why
would this be worth equal (or, god forbid, less than equal) equity to me?

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ahmedsiddiqui
Getting technical cofounders is pretty tough if you don't know much about
tech. Too many non-technical founders are interested in technical cofounders
to "Build their idea for them". I don't think this arrangement is a co-founder
arrangement as much as it is a work-for-hire agreement. The key with getting a
technical co-founder is that you actually "co-found" the idea together. It is
just as much as his idea as it is yours. If you keep this in mind, finding the
right technical co-founder will become easier.

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joshglick
I completely agree. People need to approach with "What do you think about this
idea" not "I've got an idea and now I just need someone to build it". Thats a
quick way for me to decide rather there will be a follow-up conversation when
I'm being "courted" by someone with an idea.

~~~
SparksZilla
I like this approach, Josh. Lots of us non-designer non-dev. types need honest
and brutal feedback on ideas/product more than anything else.

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dkersten
But you have to make sure to ask the right questions[1]! For examble, asking
feel-good questions (questions that give positive answers and make you feel
good about your idea, rather than questions that give you actionable feedback)
doesn't add any value and at worst could even be harmful.

[1] [http://hackfwd.tumblr.com/post/23669383330/rob-
fitzpatrick-h...](http://hackfwd.tumblr.com/post/23669383330/rob-fitzpatrick-
how-to-do-early-customer-development)

~~~
SparksZilla
That's a really good point. Adding this point into my next post.

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yourapostasy
My tactic for winnowing non-technical potential founders who respect what you
bring to the table versus those who likely do not is the following. I point
out to them I am already engaged in my own company using my extensive
technical background to successfully market and sell on my own, and am quite
busy and happily successful, but could carve out the 10 or so hours per month
to provide my expertise guiding their technical decisions as a board member,
even helping them find technical founders who have the time to implement. I
give them a quick "taste" by describing what kinds of technologies and APIs
someone implementing their idea would need to be involved in, and after some
quick Googling, their top 2-3 potential competitors in either the same or
adjacent spaces, and key decisions that straddle the business-technical
spectrums they will need to make that they haven't thought of yet that can
dramatically impact the technical architectural decisions an implementor would
have to subsequently make. If some numbers are available, I give them a
development budget and time line "rough sketch", and tell them I can work up a
set of potential MIRRs for their implemented product/service if they have some
available numbers from potential customers. I describe that board members with
this much due diligence before board meetings typically receive a 2% stake
pre-seed, then step back.

In every case so far, they have gone radio silent, and months later I always
find out that their ideas still go unimplemented, which does not surprise me.
I believe an authentic counteroffer for a genuine board position (if you
already have a track record that aligns with the counteroffer) is a positive
and non-combative response. If they genuinely appreciate what you bring to a
potential team, they would believe it fair to exchange 2% for that value, or
at least they will start dickering. If on the other hand they are just looking
for Work For Hire on the cheap, they'll move their pitch onto the next
technical persone they run into.

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AdamNMalone
I've yet to start my own company, but you better believe I have a working list
of "co-founder" candidates in mind. I've been building the list for years and
I believe the opportunity, and the components necessary to execute, will drive
my choice when the time comes.

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osuburger
Agree 100% with the college entrepreneurship club comment. The connections I
made with entrepreneurial-minded, passionate people while still in school have
been hugely beneficial.

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Nemisis7654
That's definitely something I wish I had joined. It's definitely one of the
major things I regret not doing while in college.

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silverlake
I would be willing to work w/ a non-technical founder if the product is in a
niche that few people have access to. Like medical, financial, business
operations, etc. The reason technical people focus on consumer apps is because
we don't have insight or access to niches with paying customers.

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hkmurakami
_> we’ve known each other for between four and five years_

Probably the most important line for me. This one line wraps up all the jargon
about liking, trusting, respecting, etc. No, you don't _actually_ have to know
a cofounder for many years, but I do think that it should _feel_ like you're
long time friends / colleagues by the time you're making the plunge.

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dkersten
I completely agree with this. I've only known my cofounders for ~five months
(we formed during the previous local startup weekend; never met before that)
but it sure feels like we've known each other a lot longer. People have even
been telling us that from watching us interact, if they hadn't known
different, they'd have assumed we'd known each other for many years.

This really makes a huge difference. It makes working together easy.

Interestingly enough, I'm the technical cofounder and they're the non-
technical (using the usual definition, not the one in the article) cofounders,
but they bring a lot of value to the table. Between them, they bring a massive
network (both in the industry and in the startup scene in general), many years
of experience in their areas and a track record. I've also (obviously) seen
them work and its impressive. Before I teamed up with them, I was squarely in
the only-technical-founders camp, but now I couldn't imagine starting a
company without them.

