
Ask HN: How to find a marketing co-founder? - mark_sz
I&#x27;m a developer, working on a (saas) project.<p>I know that at some point I will need help of marketing person, but I know only developers.<p>So how to find a marketing co-founder?<p>Any advice will be appreciated.
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PeterWhittaker
Talk to your developers, friends, etc. Tell them briefly what you are doing,
and what sort of help you think you need. Keep it general - you're working on
the technology side, you think you'd benefit from a trusted associate on the
business side. But try to lean people's thinking away from MBAs - and away
from sales or marketing communication - and more to market analysis.

Do you or your developer friends know people who have built businesses before?
Talk to them.

No matter who you talk to, get used to saying something like "I really
appreciate your time, who else do you think I should talk to? Do you have
their number? Can I use your name?"

Also try to talk to the people who might use your service. Give them a brief
overview of the problem you are trying to solve, let them tell you how it
might or does not fit in to their world. Listen, and listen between the lines.
Then do it again. If they seem interested, ask them how much such a service
would save them in time, effort, or other forms of money.

Do NOT change your service based on one or even ten conversations, not until
you understand the story between the lines. At least not right away.

If you need a sounding board, rather than a marketing associate, ask some of
your trusted friends, technical and non-technical, if you can buy them drinks
or dinner a couple of times a month and share what you've learned.

Practice duck testing (cf recent HN articles): You should be able to explain
the idea and what you've heard from others to a rubber duck.

~~~
mark_sz
thank you!

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asfa124sfaf
1\. It's great that you are asking this question. Marketing is an essential
part of any start up -- both from creating the product that the market wants
and also in promoting it. As a marketer, it's not something I see enough of.

2\. Try LinkedIn, startup networking events, social media (Twitter is great to
see who is in your area), blogs, etc. You can ask for recommendations as well.
Once you have money, start looking at public relations and marketing firms
because they often know the industry better, dealing with multiple clients and
a staff full of marketers.

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jamilv
Linkedin, go to local startup meetups or look on meetup for marketing groups
that do meetups (there are TONS!).

If you have the connections ask your friends/colleagues/acquaintances for a
referral to a marketer they know.

I'm a marketer and I focus on these channels heavily.

If you are able to manage well and are up for the challenge of negotiating,
try one of the online co-founder matching sites. They match people from all
over but the main issue is always finding someone that shares your passion and
will work hard to make the startup live.

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me_bx
To whom is your product addressed? Might be good to find a co-founder
connected to the market you're targetting. As a co-founder, even technical,
you need to understand your users and you'll have to sell your product, so
networking in your target segment is something you have to do. Double benefit
if you find your marketing co founder while doing customer development.

Edit: grammar

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amac
Frequent marketing communities like moz.org, inbound.org, warriorforum etc and
find a talented marketer. Reaching out is often a difficult but necessary
thing to do.

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bennesvig
I'm a marketer who is interested in learning about your SEO tool. At the very
least I can give you feedback and ideas from a marketing perspective.

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amorphid
What do you want your marketing cofounder to do?

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mark_sz
Focus on customers/networking/blog/social media etc.

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mc_hammer
well, one way would be to pick someone from the many blogs that end up here.
choose someone that has successful projects in their past, and did their own
marketing. choose someone that has projects that you like, and you are happy
with their writing style and the way the present the project and themselves.

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webstartupper
Could you give us some more information on your saas project? That might help
figure out where to look.

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mark_sz
It's (another!) on page SEO tool with few unique features. Not a revolution,
just a tool to solve few issues.

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webstartupper
One thing you could do is ask for marketing help at various forums. For e.g.
you could post it here as another Ask HN - "Ask HN: Help me market xyz.com".
Apart from getting plenty of good marketing ideas, you might find your
business co-founder.

Other forums I would look at are the ones focused on SEO like inbound.org,
growthhackers, trafficplanet, BHW, WF etc

Also, put your email ID and the link to your tool in your HN profile. I'm sure
there are plenty of people in SEO here who will be happy to help.

~~~
mark_sz
good advice, thank you!

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musgrove
It depends. What kind of marketing help do you need for your project at this
point?

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mark_sz
Someone who could focus on everything (blog, landing pages, twitter etc.)
except development, which is my thing.

~~~
musgrove
Do you already have a marketing plan prepared? (And a business plan?)

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mark_sz
Sort of - yes.

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musgrove
The reason I ask is to see where you are with the project. If you're serious
about it, you'll need more than some ideas jotted on the back of a napkin, and
starting from that point is considerably more work than if the business and
marketing plans already existed.

I can recommend a few things, depending on what your plans and goals are and,
at the very least, some direction. If you'd like to shoot me an email for
privacy purposes, I'm at musgrove<at>webdesignpopd0tc0m.

