

Ask HN: How do you find a Business Partner? - thomasreggi

I am a graphic designer / programmer looking for a Business Partner and friend. I'm 20 and I live in New York City. I've had problem networking and I go to a crappy community college. I can't find any aspiring entrepreneurs, anyone who knows what a "startup" is or how they work. Why am I so alone?<p>Most rag tag groups of hacker / entrepreneurs meet in college, but what if thats not an option?<p>I'm interning now, and no one there is my age or has my mind set.<p>I'm just looking for someone my age and with basic computer / hacking / programming skills, why is that so hard to find?
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tkiley
I launched my company alone. My partner read about it in a magazine article.

If you have the gumption to go it alone, you may be able to attract a partner
more easily down the road; traction has a way of turning heads and opening
doors :)

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brandnewlow
This. I launched Windy Citizen alone. My partner's friend read about it on
Hacker news and put us in touch.

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agotterer
Theres a huge NYC startup scene that exists and continues to develop. You
should definitely come out to hackers and founders. During the summer we meet
up at shake shack in Madison Square Park around 6pm on the last Thursday of
every month. The crowd there is mainly people who have startups or want to be
involved with one. Really solid group of smart people. A healty mix of
business folks and developers. Almost never any media or sales people. I
personally have made excellent contacts there and even some friends.

<http://twitter.com/hackersfounders>

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MichaelApproved
Check out meetup.com for tech and entrepreneurship events. Don't worry if the
specific topics don't interest you 100% because the point is to network. Go to
as many as you can and introduce yourself to people, join conversations, take
their business cards, follow up the next day and get involved.

You don't want to partner with someone you haven't met so get out there and
say hello.

You can start with me if you like. My email is in my profile so feel free to
drop me an email and stay in touch.

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bsnss-mn-cdr
I don't think you can go searching for your –first- business partner in the
sense you are looking for. I would suggest putting together a few ideas (at
least 3 very different ideas) of what type of business you would like to
start. Once you have a good grasp of where you would like to go then figure
out what skill sets are needed to get there and the level of capital resources
it will take to do it on your own. After this you will be able to see what you
'bring to the table' and what is missing. Take this information and start
becoming a social butterfly at as many entrepreneur style events as possible.
To be frank, my first real 'business partner' and I met online many years ago
when we were both looking at doing similar things within a large online
community. We started chatting and realized that each party had the skills /
assets the other was lacking. Do not be afraid to share your ideas with others
as that will only help you find those who have similar interest. In the same
light do not take rejection, or the inability of one to understand your idea,
as a sign that what you believe is wrong.

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zds
Most of the comments here are completely right. Meetups are the best way to
meet people. Here are a few I'd suggest that I think are good for young people
/ college students involved in tech: * NY Tech Meetup's NY Tech Student Mingle
(posted individually on Anyvite each time; the first Tuesday of every month) *
Hackers and Founders NYC

Startup Digest (thestartupdigest.com) is a great rundown of events going on
weekly - if you're a student, I'd subscribe to the NYC, Tech@NYU, and Columbia
lists to get events that are relevant to students.

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adamilardi
Find someone that you can trust. I've worked with family in the past. They
tend to be more on the up and up. Friends can be good if you are both
committed to the same goal. As for finding a stranger I would attempt to
cultivate a relationship first before committing to becoming partners.

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gawker
On the flip side, I'm a developer looking for someone similar as well. So I'd
be interested to know the answer as well.

My luck has been fairly decent - my friends are in some form of graphic design
but I haven't truly found someone who can hack it up with me either.

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dpapathanasiou
You should probably attend this event in NYC later this month: "Find a co-
founder Night II" [http://www.eroundtable.net/2010/07/07/find-a-co-founder-
nigh...](http://www.eroundtable.net/2010/07/07/find-a-co-founder-night-ii/)

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Scott_MacGregor
Here are some of my random ideas:

On your reggi.com site, make it into a blog (Wordpress is simple) about
yourself and some aspect of tech that you are interested in.

Add some personal pics to the blog of your workspace, your pets and yourself
so people know who you are. Let people add comments to your blog. Maybe add a
short video of yourself to the blog.

Go to a tech conference in your area and just try to make friends with a
people. You never who will know who, but it never hurts to have people know
you.

We know you in here. Maybe if you were more visible online pics, etc..., maybe
you will find the business partner you're looking for in here.

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lleger
One I went to high school with, another I found at TechStars for a Day,
another was a designer I worked with on another and the final one I knew
through a blogging network from when I was like 12 and we recently connected
in the past few years.

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noahc
Does anyone live in a small town in the middle of no-where (Iowa)?

How do you find people who you can bounce ideas off of?

Is the best thing to do start a blog and build a reader base to bounce ideas
off of?

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levirosol
middle of no-where.... geez :)

I live in Iowa. Des Moines to be specific. And our start-up community, IMO, is
rock solid. We have a number of organizations who host regular events
(<http://www.technologyiowa.org/>, <http://smcdsm.ning.com/>, etc...) along
with a very good supply of technology user groups covering all of the major
techs (.Net, Ruby, Java, etc).

As for finding people to bounce ideas off of, attending those events, meeting
new people, and just talking about what you're doing has worked well for me.

We also have two (that I'm aware of) co-working locations. These are great
because it groups together like minded people who are always willing to listen
to ideas you want to bounce.

Starting a blog to bounce ideas off of your users doesn't sound like a very
good way to go to me. It would take a really long time, and would be a lot
more work. I'm not saying it can't, and shouldn't be done. I'm just saying
getting out and meeting people will be better.

We're also in close proximity to larger cities too, so we often get talent
coming in to work for start-ups here.

And we have a news site to keep tabs on all of this,
<http://www.siliconprairienews.com/>. This basically allows a one stop shop
for seeing what's going on, and where you might be able to meet new like-
minded people.

I guess this turned into more of a pro-Iowa post, but I think it gives you
some answers :)

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noahc
Awesome! This is just what I was looking for.

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brianmwang
There are enough NY tech-related events and meetups each week that you could
be networking just about every single day if you wanted to.

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c1sc0
Conferences. I found my current partner at a Barcamp. He was pitching an idea
I liked but which had many flaws. I explained him the flaws I saw, convinced
him to change & now we're building the product together. He's the hustler, I'm
the hacker.

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levirosol
I'm building a bootstrapped start-up, and we need a designer with a start-up
building mindset. I'm not in NY, but would be interested in at least chatting
and seeing what you can do.

contact me @ levi@scoreyard.com when you have time.

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levirosol
I should clarify that, if we find the right person, we are looking for a
graphic / UI designer to partner with. The option of revenue or equity sharing
is on the table for the right person.

Being able to write code is a step in the right direction.

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jdavid
you may not like this answer, but working in the tech industry is probably the
best way to meet great people. you need to be in a trust relationship with
people to start a company.

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petervandijck
You live in NYC? Go to hacker/startup meetups. Easy.

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known
Since you're designer / programmer, you need a great _salesman_ as your
business partner.

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thomasreggi
I like other people like me designers and programmers. I know enough business
to get by.

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sentinel
Any pointers for people who live in Europe?

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bgnm2000
builditwith.me

