

Ask HN: All about having/finding partner/cofounder - tarouter

First, little background about myself. I have been listening to HN community for some time now. I've come to love this community, it's spirit, contribution and great advice from entrepreneurs of all levels. Having 7-8 years of developing mostly enterprise web applications, I have realized that I should combine my drive, my proactive nature with my recent passion to create something of value. I should take risk, work for myself. Greater the risks, greater the rewards (I'm not leaving my day job any sooner, yet). I have a few ideas (I'm constantly thinking about new ones). I'm going to pick one (which I think has great potential in terms of creating value and viable business) and implement it. But I don't have any partner, yet. I have found a few like-minded people, mostly at work. They share my dream about being an entrepreneur and have shown some interest in partnering with me.<p>So my questions to you is all about having/finding partners/co-founders -<p>1) Why? - Everyone from Richard White in Entrepreneur's manual to many HN members strongly advice on getting a partner. Why is it so important to have a partner in your opinion? Can we do without having to have a partner at all?<p>2) Who? - Whom do you prefer to choose as a partner? What traits/characteristics/unique value propositions do you look in prospective partners? Should they be close friends or complete strangers would do? Do they have to bring something unique value to the table or it's ok if they are not much different than you? How do you know a person is a right partner ("your partner shares the same dream as you and likes you idea" is implicit here). In general, all advice about 'finding a right partner' is welcome.<p>3) How to decide terms of partnership? - How do you decide to split profits (if any, ever) between partners? How to decide the percentage of partnership? Does have to be equally split always? Of course not, but then what is the basis of deciding the percentage? Why would my partner be ready to accept anything less than 50%?<p>4) Can you please share you personal story about finding partners? I know there is no silver bullet. Each story is unique and cannot be applied to other situation as it is. But I always find personal stories inspirational and insightful, if I keep my eyes open.<p>Sorry for such a long question. And it demands even longer answers. I know you guys are all very busy. But I guess many budding entrepreneurs may have these questions. I'm hoping, in the good spirit of our HN community, all you experts would shade some light on these questions.<p>Thanks a lot in advance for your feedback and advice.
======
limist
Some initial thoughts and answers:

1) Why: You need and want someone who can at least give thoughtful comments
and critiques of ideas, plans, work, strategy, and tactics. Very, very few
people do their best work in the lone-genius style, even in highly cerebral
realms like academia; even Einstein had a few close friends to bounce ideas
off regularly. In business, which always involves other people, a business
simply can't scale without others.

2) Who: choose people with ability and ethics, and above all, a strong
interest/passion in the venture. I think the essence here is trust, then right
up there is ability to create/add value.

3) Terms: see Noam Wasserman's articles,
[http://founderresearch.blogspot.com/2007/01/topics-
covered-i...](http://founderresearch.blogspot.com/2007/01/topics-covered-in-
this-blog-so-far.html) where he discusses equity splits, founder
relationships, compensation, etc. in useful detail. Also use Frank Demmler's
Founder's Pie equity calculator, it's here with other relevant
content,<http://www.andrew.cmu.edu/user/fd0n/articles.htm>

4) Stories: in process, will report on this later. :)

------
seasoup
Read: <http://paulgraham.com/startupmistakes.html>
<http://paulgraham.com/mit.html>

Two very good articles that cover some of the importance of having co-
founders.

~~~
seasoup
Excerpts from the mit.html link above that are especially pertinent:

"Most of the questions people ask Y Combinator we have some kind of answer
for, but not the co-founder question. There is no good answer. Co-founders
really should be people you already know. And by far the best place to meet
them is school."

"If I were you I'd look for the people who are not just smart, but incurable
builders. Look for the people who keep starting projects, and finish at least
some of them. That's what we look for. Above all else, above academic
credentials and even the idea you apply with, we look for people who build
things."

"The other place co-founders meet is at work. Fewer do than at school, but
there are things you can do to improve the odds. The most important,
obviously, is to work somewhere that has a lot of smart, young people. Another
is to work for a company located in a startup hub. It will be easier to talk a
co-worker into quitting with you in a place where startups are happening all
around you."

Sorry for the double comment, but I love this article :)

------
dannyr
I'm a single founder. A lot of times, I wish it's not just me.

It's hard looking for a cofounder. Instead of waiting to find one, I went
ahead with my startup.

I continue to network and hopefully one day, I'll find one.

~~~
pedalpete
I second dannyr. I too am a solo founder. I believe that the challenges of
being solo are a combination of psychological and business.

From a psychological perspective. You'll have ups and downs in business. Good
days where you think you're the best, bad days when you wonder why you're
doing this at all, and of course, everything in between. A co-founder
understands the different stages, and you get to celebrate/commiserate and
continually motivate each other.

From a business perspective, I think it's easier to understand. Nobody can
know everything. Different angles of how to approach the business (and
sometimes but maybe to a lesser degree the technology). Is one an expert in
marketing while the other is a product person? If the partnership is a strong
symbiotic relationship, then you are clearly more than the sum of the parts.

Plus, two people can get more done in the same amount of time as one (not
always, but usually). Two people have 1.23xxx times more network (lots of
overlap), etc. etc.

------
phatbyte
Here's an idea, a social networking site for startups founders and people that
want to be involve with.

~~~
tarouter
Not social networking in traditional (read: face book style) sense, but check
this out - <http://programmermeetdesigner.com/> ,
<http://cofoundr.com/blog/show/6> ,
<https://www.partnerup.com/signup/?return=> , <http://collabfinder.com/>

