
PG on finding cofounders and being a strong team - dirtyaura
http://garrysub.posterous.com/pg-on-finding-cofounders-and-being-a-strong-t
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ricksta
Summary of PG's response:

\- Founder is more important than the idea

\- He likes people who have been friends for a while.

\- people who worked together before, so they know each others working
capacity

\- don't like people who came together for the purpose of doing this startup
(nothing else holding them together)

\- almost every startup, at some point the startup is doomed and worthless

\- friends will work on the startup even if it's worthless in order not to let
each other down, will often result in over coming the rough days and succeed
in the end.

\- It's really bad if they can't figure which one of the founder is the leader
is (needs to have a more "forceful" leader)

\- "it's good if there one who pushes the other out a little bit, but not too
much"

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evincarofautumn
And yet, knowing all this, I still applied alone.

Had the perfect co-founder, too: lifelong friend, smart, capable, diligent,
with whom I’ve worked on a number of projects. He just couldn’t get his act
together for the application.

Still, if my ice cube’s chance in hell of getting accepted pans out, I’ll
probably drag him into it anyway; it’s not really about the money. I applied
with some truly insane ideas, so even though I _could_ go it alone, it’d be
way nicer to have someone on board!

Fingers crossed, anyway. Anyone in a similar boat?

~~~
dgallagher
Not in the same boat, but in the initial beginning, I'd make sure you give
them as many opportunities to quit as possible. It'll weed out those who
aren't truly dedicated, and may jump ship anyway 3-24 months from now.

I'm not sure how common dropouts are among YC founders, but it's a pattern
I've noticed in real life. If something is going to take a long time to
accomplish, requiring lots of dedication and persistence, you've got to be
100% certain all parties involved are all-in or they have a high probability
of flaking out.

~~~
evincarofautumn
I absolutely agree; you need a persistent “go big or go home” attitude if
you’re going to make it as a startup business. I once took on a rather large
game project with another good friend of mine, an artist. Though he was
pessimistic from the beginning, I insisted we keep at it. In retrospect, it
would’ve been much better to reevaluate the scope of the project early on,
rather than burn ourselves out and not finish anything.

Of course, I don’t actually see my erstwhile cofounder quitting on me—he’s as
dedicated as I am. We were just going to miss the deadline to apply together,
so I said “Screw it—I’ll apply alone and hire him immediately, if by some
magic I get in”.

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jerryji
But for single founders (like me) who don't have such a friend, what do you
do? Even if you go around looking for one now, by definition your relationship
won't be considered good enough until at least a few years later.

~~~
pg
If you've been friends for a year that's probably enough. And since a
successful startup is going to take at least 3-5 years (more if you're really
successful), you're thus turning 3-5 years into 4-6, which is not much
different.

~~~
Rayzar
What if you have a friend whom you've known for about 12 years, has stuck with
you through some dicey times, you've worked with on a few things and trust and
respect completely, is keen on the idea of a start-up and has a pretty good
business sense and gets things done, But he's not passionate about technology.
What would you advice?

~~~
martythemaniak
I think there's a big difference between being passionate about technology
itself and being passionate about getting a business/product off the ground
using technology. The latter, along with your relationship, sounds pretty
good.

YC companies are quite diverse these days and many require as much, if not
more, non-tech work and understanding as deeply technical work.

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sayemm
"A friendship founded on business is better than a business founded on
friendship." - John D. Rockefeller

~~~
WiseWeasel
Sounds like someone who didn't have any friends.

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rbreve
I find it hard to work or do business with close friends, whenever there is a
problem or discussion I worry that the relationship will be damaged.
Separating business and friendship is hard.

~~~
jshintaku
If you are friends though shouldn't you be able to work through some really
hard problems together and go through the ups and downs as a team? I find that
friendship is an added bonus that helps you push through tough challenges that
would otherwise make you want to quit. You can't let your friends down when
the going gets tough...

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ramy_d
How are "project-less" applications going btw?

~~~
kenrikm
Applications in general, I think they have a ton to wade through. It's got to
be a mind bending task to go through thousands of applications. On a personal
note, Every time my iPhone gets an email my wife asks "is it from
ycombinator?" ;)

~~~
dmvaldman
It's written that they will get back to us on the Monday, the 16th.

