

How to find a technical co-founder - jefftala
http://www.jeffreytalajic.com/2011/02/how-to-find-a-technical-co-founder/

======
RiderOfGiraffes
Taken from <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2270834>, here are a few
previous HN threads about this question:

<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2073239> Guide to Finding a Technical Co-
Founder

<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2056630> Can't Find a Technical Co-
Founder? Do It Yourself

<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2018618> Non-programmer founders: learn
code first, find tech co-founder(s) after?

<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1983569> Finding co-founders, where and
how

<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1882090> How to Find a Technical Co-
Founder

<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1872960> Finding a Technical Co-Founder

<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1866516> Dont look for a co-founder. Find
a Right Hand Man

<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1823724> Find Co-Founders, Don't Get
Screwed

<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1820875> Not in the Valley? How do you
find co-founders?

<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1779750> How To REALLY Find A Technical
Co-Founder

<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1779092> How find co-founder online?

<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1778191> Ask HN: Finding a Co-Founder at
a Hackerspace

<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1689751> Can't Find a Technical Co-
Founder? Do It Yourself

<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1677066> Network Launches to Help
Entrepreneurs Find Co-founders

<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1576186> Last Call: Pitch to find a Co-
Founder at The Founder Conference

<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1575105> Does "finding co-founders" ever
work?

<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1567469> Ask HN: Where is the best place
to find a co-founder?

<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1512715> How to find a co-founder

<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1511965> Ask HN: How do you find/meet
tech co-founders outside of the hotspots?

<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1509775> Finding the Right Co-Founder for
Your Startup

<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1373858> Strategies for Finding the Co-
Founder of Your Dreams

<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1367637> FoodSpotting founder on finding
co-founder, marketing & female entrepreneurs

<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1347723> Ask HN: How do I find the right
co-founder?

<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1307167> Help a Startup Out - Get
feedback, find co-founders, find advisors, etc.

<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1297382> Ask HN: Where To Find Design
Founders

<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1294713> Vokle founder: how to find great
programmers & making the most from events

<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1238947> Ask HN: I'd like to find Co-
Founder(s) / Developers

<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1086852> How to Find the Ideal Co-
founder: A Seattle Startup Experiment

<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=912667> Find a co-founder with this new
MeetUp

<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=876010> Finding Your Co-Founders

<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=849737> Ask HN: Finding
Developer/Engineer Co-Founder?

~~~
swombat
There is no old wisdom, only old people ;-)

------
yannickmahe
Valuable advice, but being technical myself, I'd like to see a post about how
to find a business/marketing co-founder.

~~~
imack
I actually figure that's harder. There are no shortage of people who "talk the
talk", but its hard to see who'd be good at raising money, getting customers,
and biz dev based on interviews. At least with techies, you can see if they
can build things or not.

~~~
il
It seems that, whether you're looking for a tech or business cofounder, you
need to find someone who can get things done. It's really easy to evaluate
marketing cofounders for a web startup: You just need to determine if they
have a track record of driving traffic. Get the ones who can drive traffic and
convert it into sales. Everyone else is a bullshit artist an isn't worth your
time.

------
btilly
About a year ago WePay had an excellent blog entry that discussed this exact
problem. Look to item 2 in
[http://www.wepay.com/blog/2010/03/11/5-things-i-%E2%80%9Ckne...](http://www.wepay.com/blog/2010/03/11/5-things-i-%E2%80%9Cknew%E2%80%9D-or-
should-have-known-before-starting-a-company-but-didnt-fully-understand-until-
now/q) to see what it says about finding a technical co-founder.

The biggest takeaway if you're a non-technical person is that you're facing an
uphill battle, and it explains why this is.

~~~
avree
Does that link throw a 404 for anyone else?

~~~
dwc
Yes. This should work:
[http://www.wepay.com/blog/2010/03/11/5-things-i-%E2%80%9Ckne...](http://www.wepay.com/blog/2010/03/11/5-things-i-%E2%80%9Cknew%E2%80%9D-or-
should-have-known-before-starting-a-company-but-didnt-fully-understand-until-
now/)

------
ericxtang
I think it different in each city. I live in New York, and this city is in
dying need for more engineering talents to feed its fast-growing startup
scene.

Being a hacker, the last thing you wanna hear is some finance dude pitching
you an idea they had when they were crunching numbers on an excel spreadsheet
at their 2nd year analyst job.

You have be product-savvy, you have to have respect for the hacker
community/culture, and you have to be super persistent.

~~~
iheartmemcache
For those who are real risk-adverse, charging an hourly rate to build out
someones idea is a win/win (the business guy keeps his company stake, and you
get the capital necessary to work on your own projects once the contract is
over). If you're not entirely sold on someone's startup but feel like you
could do a good job building out their idea, there's really no better place to
be than NYC right now. I split my time 25% NYC/75% Boston, and NYC is orders
of magnitude hotter (at least from what I've witnessed).

Watch out though, it's real easy to end up billing 40 hours/week, then
spending another 30 on unbilled hours on client management on top of that.
More than once I've checked my SCM log, wonder why I haven't made a commit in
3 months and realized at the end of the day I just want to knock a beer or two
back and watch some basketball.

------
techcofounder
This is exactly the problem we're trying to solve at Techcofounder.com. We've
found that there are a ton of entrepreneurs with great ideas but who might
lack a large network of developers. This is especially true for entrepreneurs
who don't live in large tech hubs like SF, NYC, Boston, Denver, or Houston.

~~~
onan_barbarian
This is like saying that there are also a ton of old, poor, ugly guys who lack
a large network of beautiful 18-year-olds to have sex with.

Oddly, self-described "great ideas" are more common than people actually
willing to do the work.

------
bmr
Three months into my own (exhilarating) journey, I think the best answer may
be to become one yourself.

~~~
aaronblohowiak
You earn a lot more cred with developers if you've started hacking to make
your idea come to life.

~~~
rickmb
More than just cred. I've learned to simply not trust founders who weren't
motivated enough by their own vision to not at least take a shot at it, if
only to get some understanding of what building it actually entails.

------
prpatel
At the recent StartAtlanta event, I met the founder of TripLingo and we went
from concept to prototype in a weekend. We ended up "winning" that event, and
have kept moving forward. The great thing about StartAtlanta or similar events
is that you get to feel everyone out and decide if you want to pursue the
idea, and conversely, keep team members moving forward. It helped greatly that
the TripLingo founder and "business dude", Jesse Maddox, was well prepared. He
had mockups of the app, spreadsheets with sample data, and a business plan. He
had put in 6 months of effort researching, was tech savvy (though not a
programmer), and was organized. The point here is that if you're the non-tech-
co-founder, putting effort into the things I just mentioned show, and you'll
have no problem attracting top geeks to work on your startup.

-p

------
ashishg
This is a super common question and there are many events in each city that
facilitates this connection. However, Don't go to these events with the sole
purpose of 'finding' a technical co-founder. Just build relationships with
everyone and anyone. Get involved in non-profit organizations, or just other
activities. Heck, even try organizing the events yourself.

