

How to Meet Your Next Cofounder - mojombo
http://tom.preston-werner.com/2008/11/03/how-to-meet-your-next-cofounder.html

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habs
"The second biggest danger with going solo is the loss of motivation."

I found this to be true, a few weeks a go I mentioned my idea to an old friend
of mine and he was sold.

I have found a cofonder and now things are back on track. I was lucky, the guy
I'm now working with is my best friend from grad school. So I already knew I
wouldn't have a problem with him.

I do think that having somebody else working with you makes a huge impact. Not
only on the product itself but also on your mentality.

~~~
cperciva
_"The second biggest danger with going solo is the loss of motivation."_

I agree with this... however, there are ways to get motivation other than
adding a co-founder.

For example, I find that living in my parents' basement and having them ask me
every few weeks when I'm going to start making money is very good motivation.
:-)

~~~
babul
...better still, they should give you a deadline upon which they will throw
you out (in a nice way, of course) or charge rent :-)

For most people (atleast that I have observed), becoming independent really
focused them and helped raise thier game and productivity^.

Nothing is as motivating as neccessity?

^n.b. not applicable to Putnam winners ;-)

~~~
aneesh
Being a Putnam winner doesn't automatically mean you're productive, just that
you're damn smart ;-)

~~~
cperciva
I think you're more right here than you realize.

The Putnam competition, in spite of being six hours long, is severely time
limited: Each year, there are probably hundreds of people who could solve all
12 questions if only they had enough time, but only six people who manage to
answer more than 8 or 9 questions within the time limit.

If you're going to solve Putnam questions in an average of 30 minutes or less
(including carefully writing out the solutions) the only way to do it is by
having flashes of insight. Working hard doesn't help, because there isn't
enough time to work hard. Putnam winners are people who successfully apply
Feynman's algorithm for problem solving: 1. Write down the problem. 2. Think
hard. 3. Write down the answer. (Feynman, incidentally, was one of the first
Putnam fellows.)

For a competition which is theoretically about mathematics, a shockingly large
number of Putnam Fellows end up moving to a different field. I think this is
the reason why: Mathematics is a very old field, where it's very hard to do
anything without working hard. Putnam fellows by their nature tend to seek the
instant gratification of finding simple and beautiful solutions to problems --
and so we're drawn away from mathematics and into more immature fields like
computing.

Yes, Putnam fellows are smart -- but we're no more disposed towards hard work
than anyone else.

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kleneway
This is great advice. I go to as many local startup meetings as I can. Besides
being a great place to meet people, they're almost universally a lot of fun.

~~~
tocomment
Any good ones in the NYC area?

~~~
Alex3917
<http://www.garysguide.org/events>

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teej
What if you're not looking for a technical co-founder? If I could find someone
who (a) had a good idea of the Real Estate Technology landscape and (b) has
relationships with local Brokers, I would drop everything and start my "next
big thing" tomorrow.

~~~
apsurd
"if only", "maybe i could", "well i would but"...

~~~
teej
I'm being honest. While I'm hoping to meet anyone that resembles a co-founder
for that idea, I'm already working to build a business in a different
industry. I'm not waiting for "just the right time", I just have some ideas in
my mental queue that necessitate competent industry partners, and some that
don't.

~~~
elai
Goto the real estate parties and meets and what not?

~~~
teej
They can't afford parties anymore :-(

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DaniFong
I found my cofounder when he tried to hire me. :-)

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kalvin
I was looking for someone interested / with background in both "social
entrepreneurship" (/nonprofits) and "consumer internet startups", which isn't
exactly a huge intersection... I ended up finding a match through
younoodle.com (it's a "social network for startup types", as far as I can
tell). Still looking though...

It'd be great if there were a better way to find people with X set of skills
and Y set of passions.

------
PStamatiou
I met my cofounder at a Startup Weekend event here in Atlanta.

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elai
Yes, a way to find a co-founder that doesn't involve university.

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ram1024
>IS< stealth-mode really bullshit?

no one has convinced me yet :(

~~~
mojombo
My experience, while obviously not universally true, is that "release early,
release often" is critical to web applications.

One big mistake we made at Powerset was to keep everything secret and fuel the
hype machine. I think that in the end this was harmful to the company image.
It would have been better to get the tool out in front of people, show them
what we could do, and let them see the progress. That way you can get people
behind you, cheering you on, instead of having them get bored with all the
unproven claims you keep making.

Ideas are cheap. Implementations are what make or break a business.

~~~
ram1024
so stealth mode until you have a product? or don't stealthmode at all, just
come out and say "we're building THIS, get ready for the storm" ?

heh, i'm just afraid of saying we're going to build something, then having to
say "woops, we changed our minds, building this other thing makes more sense
to us, sorry about that thing before..."

~~~
babul
I have exactly the same thoughts but also think stealth-mode _is_ bullshit.

Having just started on my first tech startup about a month ago, I am trying to
go for the "be open and honest about everything" meets "release early, release
often" approach on the basis that if the idea is crap, I would rather hear
about it earlier and fail quickly (so I can change direction or reset and move
on with the next idea).

I am also going with a hardware-based product and am still building the site
(what you will see was put together yesterday afternoon as a quick draft as we
work through the "presenting the idea" stage of things and refine and
streamline the concept), which is very likely to change over the next month
which is also a reason I haven't done a "Ask HN: Is my startup crap?" post.

"we're building this <http://www.httbox.com>, get ready for the storm^"

^hopefully.

~~~
cmos
I've been in this industry for many years.. there are a bunch of people
throwing software onto a hushpc. They come and go every year.

The consumer marketplace for infrastructure hardware is fickle indeed.. the
customers who could actually hook everything up with your box often fall into
the 'experimenter' market.. they are putting their own boxes together.

The 'enthusiast' market for these devices is pretty good, but often it's like
the 'audiophile' market in the 80's. No matter what you sell, it's never good
enough. So even though they are willing to pay a premium, it only takes a
couple of them with a ground hum problem to eat up all of your profits in
technical support.

The 'rich guy' market is tough to access. They are happy with the DVR from
their cable company.

But whatever market you get into you need fat margins on the hardware to have
a chance of making it.

~~~
babul
Thanks. Its still early days yet (<1mth). I am having a go at building one
device that can access digital, terrestrial, satellite, and iPTV from one
device, with a simple interface and full recording fetures.

I expect to fail (being such a crowded market with big players with deep
pockets) ;) but am interested to see how far I can go. It also has a few other
features akin to what picwing is doing but for video. Especially nice is the
"virtual living room" function that allows no-fuss video conferencing while
sharing a video/home-movie.

The forums/feedback sections will be up on the weekend, so I'd really welcome
any thoughts insights you may have.

Thanks :)

