
Why finding a partner is hard! - amichail

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omarish
Despite the fact that we're coders, we're not necessarily smart.

But at the same time, I think that what makes us capable of pursuing startups
is our potential to learn quickly. That's one of the best traits to search for
in a partner. Running a startup is difficult. Having somebody who can adapt
quickly is more important than someone who's smart and static.

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amichail
A major motivation to pursue your own startup is to be your own boss. This
makes finding a partner really hard. What is the likelihood that you would
have two very strong willed people who can work together and compromise?

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volida
thats not my motivation! thats a mistake if its your only motivation behind
starting up...

and your argument reveals selfishness, something I would avoid when searching
for a cofounder.

Mutual vision, trust and willing to work hard together, support and help each
other is amongs the secrets when peeking cofounders. Other than that, its
obvious you are searching for employees.

~~~
juwo
well said, volida!

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jwecker
My fortune cookie advice on the subject: _Never_ partner with someone who is
not as technically literate as you (= not a programmer), even if they have the
money. _Especially_ if they have the money.

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nostrademons
I'd amend that to "Never partner with someone who is not technically literate
as you, *if* they think they are as technically literate as you or believe
that technical literacy is not important."

It can often be very productive to partner with someone with people skills, or
business skills, or finance skills. Those things *are* important, and yet you
won't have spare brain cycles for them if you're doing hardcore programming.
That person just needs to realize that *you* call the shots when it comes to
technical decisions.

Warren Buffett's advice applies, as always. "It's not how much you know that
matters. It's how realistically you assess what you *don't* know."

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jwecker
I could live with that definition, but I've had 2 partnerships now in 2
different companies where I felt the person had qualified on those grounds and
while they are still great friends etc., I was a bit disappointed. If it is a
tech company, I really think they both have to have real tech expertise. It
has little to do with just having someone else to do the programming- in both
of those partnerships the partner was more than willing to defer to me on all
technical matters that they perceived to be technical matters.

In a tech company, though, _everything_ is a technical matter- for example-
marketing. Early adopters for 99% of tech products are geeks- if you are not
one then you do not understand the market (hence all those MBA lead failures
of the late 90's). Finance for a tech startup usually has to tie into the
product / subscriptions, etc- and is thus a tech problem. PR is to fellow
geeks, etc. etc. Then there's the fact that the bulk of the work to be done is
technical- if you're going to be having allnighters for the next 3 months
getting a product out- there is a _big_ difference between having a partner
who is right there with you in the trenches coding across the room, and a
partner who comes by every day and says "well, uh, how's it going?"- you spend
the next hour trying to explain the latest hangup etc. and then they say
"well, let me know if the schedule changes- I've got some great customers
lined up..." or whatever.

Sometimes that situation is unavoidable, but I guarantee it is not optimal.

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Alex3917
The only thing I disagree with is your idea that technically literate means
being a programmer.

Jesse James Garret, the guy who coined the term AJAX and came up with the
design philosophy around it, isn't a programmer. But if I were a great
programmer then he'd certainly be someone I'd want to partner with. Literacy
just means the understanding of a certain discourse. Once you've taken a
couple college level programming courses then you can pretty much understand
everything a programmer is doing, but that doesn't mean you always know enough
to do it yourself.

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mynameishere
If one Steve is rare, two Steves are rarer. Maybe someone could do the math,
but it's pretty obvious.

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juwo
I think one factor is ego. Another is how much to give up?

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danielha
Ego can go, but confidence stays.

Compromise is a complicated matter. Don't compromise on your good ideas. There
will undoubtedly be conflict among founders regarding vision and method, but
the best relationships will work through those.

If you don't disagree with your team at some point, you're not contributing
enough.

