
Finding Your Co-Founders - terpua
http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/10/11/finding-your-co-founders/
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akkartik
To everyone pointing out sites for networking with potential co-founders: I
find them disappointing. They're great places to chat with interesting folks,
but if you're like me you've been to them for months without actually getting
to first base with anyone.

First base isn't exchanging bodily fluids. It's hacking together on a project.
Why's it so hard to find people to actually hack with for an evening? We all
know the hacking is important, and yet I don't see anybody out there
networking with hacking in mind. I'm starting to suspect 'networking' is the
wrong word for what we're trying to do. Perhaps we need to focus deeply on a
few leads rather than a bunch of shallow ones.

Have you found a co-founder by networking? Tell me how wrong I am.

~~~
catch23
Go find a cofounder through hacking!

I met my cofounder at a hacking party: <http://superhappydevhouse.org>

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akkartik
Yes, shdh used to be awesome! But it seems every iteration diverges further
from what I'd like to get out of it. More people attending, more aimless
talking and partying, less hacking. And the hackers are all going it alone,
being anti-social.

You need to go there and hack. But it needs to be with someone else.

~~~
catch23
Yeah, that's why you should come to the casual hacking sessions at the Hacker
Dojo. There's less partying here because the hack sessions recur every week.
I've done a bit of pairing with random people that show up and want to hack.

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skmurphy
Two other events in Silicon Valley that are good for serious conversation
among entrepreneurs are Bootstrapper Breakfast
<http://www.bootstrapperbreakfast.com/> and Hackers and Founders
<http://www.hackersandfounders.com/>

~~~
catch23
If you just want to meet entrepreneurs, I suggest hanging out at the Hacker
Dojo (<http://www.hackerdojo.com>) There's a physical job corkboard in the
lobby if you're interested in finding cofounders, however getting the
information will require you to be physically present.

There are people there from 10am to 5am daily (yes, we are open that late).
There are around 8 YC companies that frequent the hangout. I've also met 4
other mini teams there who are applying for the next YC round.

I suggest anyone in Silicon Valley looking for cofounders to come to the
Founder Institute mixer meetup event held at the Hacker Dojo this Tuesday.
Details here: <http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=158007268648>

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sachinag
In the last three months, the weekend guest posts on TechCrunch have
completely reinvigorated the site.

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adityakothadiya
The post is really great! Very practical advice. But this is not really new
advice. I've read this before at different places, may be in bits and pieces.
But unfortunately I'm not very successful at it.

I think not looking within your close friends is probably a good advice. So I
tried attending different events, met different people, but the problem is
building that trust in few meetings that you have with friends.

I completely understand that it's not the right strategy to do it alone, and
I'm actively looking for a co-founder, but still not getting luck.

I think I'll try to follow this advice again, and will see if I find any luck.

Your advice is welcome too...

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wheels
Reading this, I feel like it may be more relevant to business people starting
startups than hackers starting startups.

It's hard for a startup that's all business people to get very far. A startup
that's all hackers has a decent chance. You need some versatility in your
hackers -- and it may well make sense to have a business person onboard at the
get-go, but I don't know if having one on average produces better results.

I think the confusing thing when you read stuff like this is that it's
tempting to assume that this is _the_ way, not _a_ way to find co-founders.
Viaweb, for instance, was founded by three Harvard CS PhDs.

~~~
ABrandt
Although I can't argue whether this article is aimed at the technically
inclined or not, I do believe that the advice is equally applicable for both
parties.

Just because "business people" can't put together a brilliantly coded working
product, does not mean that they can't do anything to get their venture
started. Who is to say that setting up a legal entity, researching market
trends, and securing sales channels is any less productive activity than
programming?

I know that this is not a popular view, but in my eyes there are two distinct
sets of tasks in a startup. Yes, one is the tech side and the other is the
business side. Both pieces need to be in place to maximize chances for success
though. Is a heavily tech-centric startup with a beautiful beta and no
business model in any better of a position than a non-tech startup with a well
thought out sales strategy and a static landing page as a minimum viable
product?

As important as having complimentary skill sets is, I also believe that having
some overlap isn't a bad idea either. A hacker who can read a statement of
cash flows paired with an MBA who knows an 'if' statement from a 'while' loop
will ultimately be able to work better together.

~~~
wheels
Oh, usually I'm the person that's out defending that business folks can
contribute quite a lot to a startup. I'm just questioning the logic that you
_need_ to do things that way, as the article implies, and not based on some
fuzzy notion of utility, but just looking at the history of successful
startups. Some have business people on the founding team; a lot don't.

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DenisM
What are the good networking events in Seattle? I know plenty of engineers but
would like to meet some business and designer folks.

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hedgehog
OpenCoffee Seattle is good. I've only been once (two weeks ago) but it was
valuable, good group of people and I met one of the best possible
investor/advisors for the startup I'm working on.

<http://upcoming.yahoo.com/event/190147/>

~~~
DenisM
Thanks hedgehog, the mentor-y types is exactly what I was looking for. I'll
check out the Thursday's Redmond meeting and then the next Seattle meeting as
well.

What's your startup by the way?

~~~
hedgehog
No problem. Shoot me an e-mail, I have a couple other ideas for you.

My startup isn't open for business yet but I'll definitely post here when we
get to beta.

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vaksel
I think you already failed if you have to actually go looking for a co-
founder. You are getting into a major endeavor, the co-founder should be
someone who you've known for a while, not someone you just met playing
ultimate frisbee. + at that point, you'll be just another "business guy" with
an idea, so chances are you won't find anyone anyways

p.s. I'm assuming that this is advice for the non-programmer entrepreneurs,
since programmers can just start building, without needing anyone else.

~~~
chaosprophet
Not true. At times you just bump into a guy who happens to be exactly what
you're looking for. This has happened to me more than once, so I would not
make "looking for co-founder" a point of failure.

That said, I still think getting to know a person you will be closely involved
with well enough before starting out.

~~~
vaksel
how many programmers go out looking for a "business guy with an idea",
programmers get pitched the whole "yeah man, I have this idea, it's ultra
secret, so I'll need you to sign an NDA first, but basically it's like
faceb...."

the only way for a "business guy with an idea" to hookup with a programmer,
without being lifelong friends, is to bring a crapload of money to the table.

~~~
mediaman
Only true for a narrow spectrum of startups.

There are many highly lucrative niche opportunities (that can still scale to
$10mm+ revs) that would be impossible to identify or execute on without an
inside industry expert who knows the big players, potential customers, and
precise pain points.

When referring to "business people with an idea" with some degree of derision,
it's productive for us to remember this mostly applies to the MBA grads with
generic consulting/banking background and little industry-specific expertise.

~~~
vaksel
really? many lucrative niche opportunities? Then surely we'd have heard at
least some examples of that on techcrunch. Hell if their other coverage is any
indication, they would have made it seem like the norm by now. But hey if your
version is correct, then you can find plenty of success stories where a niche
business guy, got a programmer partner without having to pay thousands of
dollars in the process.

I just don't buy that. Looking for a programmer partner as a biz guy with just
an idea, is the equivalent of looking for VC funding with an idea...it might
happen, but chances are it's a huge waste of time.

~~~
ig1
Michael Arrington, Anne Wojcicki, Guy Kawasaki, Seth Godin. All were business
co-founders.

You see business guy founder's companies regularly on techcrunch, how often do
you bother to look into the background of founders on news stories ?

~~~
vaksel
none of those examples involved people getting a programmer cofounder.

Arrington is the sole founder, and his "startup" was just a wordpress install.

Anne Wojcicki doesn't have a programmer co founder.

Guy Kawasaki paid thousands to build alltop, so doesn't apply.

Seth Godin is a marketer/blogger, so once again, no technical cofounder.

~~~
ig1
Arrington co-founded Achex a epayment system prior to techcrunch with a
technical co-founder.

Kawasaki co-founded (and sold) Fog City Software with programmer cofounders.

Godin has founded a number of startups including with programmers I believe.

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holdenc
I've never understood the purpose of co-founders. If you are a hacker, create
your product. Then figure out were you need help and find it.

It's hard to overstate the amount that one additional person can dilute the
efficiency of a one-person business.

~~~
robdor
I find "reality checks" to be a great benefit of having a co-founder. The best
of us spend time pursuing ideas and tangents for our startups that really
don't matter. A co-founder can help identify and keep those incidents to a
minimum. Of course this works both ways.

~~~
felipe
Reality checks are best provided by customers, or potential customers.

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jlees
I think one unraised question is: what do you do once you have a potential
cofounder?

Do you interview them? How do you figure out if this is going to work? Is it
all on instinct?

In my case it's been the latter, mostly, but I think it would have been better
in retrospect to work on something together - these hack
days/weekends/Launch48 etc sound ideal - before bringing him into a business
I'd founded. Then I would have had more of an idea how to establish the
relationship formally within the business too; doing it casually has its
downsides, especially if you're not in the lifelong friends situation.

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jmtame
I built hndir.com to help solve the challenge of finding technical cofounders
at universities. everyone in there is verified and has probably signed up from
this site.

~~~
alexandros
your site does not accept .ac.uk e-mails. Is this by design?

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JCThoughtscream
Sometimes you luck out and your friends don't actually have your skillsets, or
vice versa. I've known the guys I'm working with for years before we started
on the startup venture - one's a cinematographer, another's a programmer, and
I'm an editor.

Or maybe it isn't that lucky. I highly suspect I'm /not/ unique in having a
diverse social circle. Sternberg is probably overplaying the like-attracts-
like effect by quite a bit.

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j_baker
Sigh... The minute I read the word synergistic, I had "Promote synergy! Like a
boss!" go through my head. Needless to say, I couldn't finish the article
after that.

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quizbiz
I found one in looking for a college dorm room mate. I got a bit lucky but in
talking a bit about what I love to do, I have met more potential co founders
on campus.

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arihelgason
On a related note, where did you meet your co-founder?

~~~
jack7890
College

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zackattack
my goal is to be the business cofounder, yet with a strong technical
background (i.e. i code). probably want to get a m.s. in cs before my mba.

