

How did you find your cofounder? - limeade

I'm a grad student at Stanford looking for a cofounder but haven't had any luck yet. All my friends are extremely busy working in lab.  Should we organize some kind of a meetup?
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pg
I strongly recommend finding a friend you've known for a while who's willing
to start a startup with you. You want to have more holding you together than
just the company. Isn't there someone you know from college?

~~~
limeade
Yeah, maybe I should give this a shot. The problem is that almost all of my
college friends are also in grad school, so it would take some serious
convincing....if only we didn't love science so much...

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nostrademons
You could wait a couple years, when it's a good bet that 90% of your college
friends will want to _leave_ grad school. They'll take much less convincing
then.

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german
In a couple of years that business idea will surely be done by someone else. I
think that the best time for doing something is now.

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andrewfong
I found my cofounder (or more accurately, he found me) via weekly video game
sessions in college. Since our startup deals with games, it seemed like a
natural fit.

More broadly speaking, I suggest starting with "what kind of person do I
need?" and go from there. For example, if your idea is to build a social
networking site for environmentalists, I would see if I had any friends
studying Environmental Science. Or if you're a business guy in need of a
coder, I would hang around the Computer Science department.

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electric
Have you got a product idea? If so then start building something right-away
and talking to people about it -- promote it, attend barcamps, democamps,
etc.. Eventually you will find someone who believes in it and will want to
work with you on it and refine it, i.e. a co-founder.

My present founding team consists of people I knew, trusted and was friends
with prior to starting work on my product. But they did not start working with
me at the same time I started out.

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steve____
I assume you've googled around a bit and found there is no simple answer to
this question. I'd say posting site like this is your best bet. Do you know
what you're looking for? I ran a successful startup/small company and this is
my advise - YMMV.

1) you're looking for someone who has similar values yet contrasting
/knowledge/skills/abilities (KSA) The similar values makes them a 'potential
friend' and that's the best you can aim for. In the past I made the mistake
like so many co-founder do, of connecting with ppl because of our common KSA.
At first it's very easy to get along with someone who is equally passionate
about, say, linux. Over time your conflicting philosophies will lead to a
poopy_work_environment(tm)... at which point you'll mostly like start the "why
I hate this person" list to help validate breaking apart the company. I assume
it's very similar to a marriage/divorce.

2) Understand that _nothing_ is more important than the 'who' The person/ppl
you choose to build a company with will make you who you're going to become.
If your values are similar you'll agree quickly on possible problems and get
up into a high level of creativity when brainstorming solutions. The process
will be rapid and you'll alter your ideas with nothing more than an "um" from
the other person/co-founder... You'll know exactly what they're thinking.
You're a product of your environment so nothing is more important to you than
the 'who'.

3) filtering Let's say you get 100 ppl interested in working with you, how do
you choose? I recommend tracking down someone who's studied Industrial and
Organizational Psychology. I was lucky to find two post-grads from a local
university (UW) here in Waterloo and they suggested I read the textbook "Human
Resource Selection, 5th ed., by R.D. Gatewood and H.S. Field). They also
assisted with a few filters. The best I'd say is to create a 'structured
interview'. This will help you interpret a persons values.

4) pick a small 'what' Once you've gathered your 'potential friends', choose a
small problem/project to work on -- even if it's for free. Make sure the
project is meaty enough (6months?). The purpose is to alpha-test your startup.
Especially watch how/if you all resolve conflict. I suggest agreeing before
hand on the most pragmatic approach possible... something like, if we reach an
impass than we'll flip a coin... watch how the person who didn't get his/her
way responds (especially if that's you).

5) try find someone who has already run the race -- successfully! Imagine this
'potential friend' was someone like pg. Their insight will handicap your odds
of success.

6) Do not rush it. At worst get a job at Burger King and wait.

I hope that's coherent. I apologize for the length of this post, it wasn't
intended. If you have further questions, you can email me at
dollarsignfoo@gmail.com -steve

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jsjenkins168
I would just focus on finding good friends who are hackers.

The co-founder relationship will form naturally when/if both of you are ready
to start a company. You are in a great place to meet good hackers. Who knows,
maybe some of the friends you are meeting now will become future business
partners.

One of my co-founders was just a friend in school who I worked together with
on projects. After school, we began working at the same company before
starting to talk about leaving to do a startup. But if I would have asked him
in school I'm sure he would have said "are you crazy".. Some people just need
some convincing :)

Another co-founder is a cousin but we've been talking about this stuff for
over 10 years so that choice was obvious.

------
Shepherd
In a chat room, eight years ago. Full story here:
<http://www.dnjournal.com/cover/2007/may.htm> Cheers Sahar
<http://www.conceptualist.com>

~~~
nanijoe
All I can say is Wow!!

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senthil
I worked with Dinesh, my co-founder in RailsFactory, on two occassions and I
used to be his boss.

I knew his technical skills, but he was more than that, a great guy and a
family friend.

Though there were over 20 developers whom I managed, but he was the chosen one
:)

only after a 2 year period, we went on to start our company.

my suggestion, get someone whom you dont mind meeting at anytime of the day,
any place in the world, with whom you share many things in common.

startups are stressful, dont get someone who has financial and personal
problems( more than you).someone who can commit minimum one year of his/her
life for the Idea and you

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imperator
On Craigslist. I put an ad up about my current company and that I was looking
for a cofounder. I was contacted by two people. I contacted the first, but he
never messaged me back. I corresponded with the second for a bit, and after a
few emails we realized we had met before at a hacker party called Super Happy
Dev House. We met for lunch, and the rest is history.

You should come to the next Devhouse
<http://superhappydevhouse.org/SuperHappyDevHouse21>. It's on Nov 10th in SF.

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ALee
I went to a small liberal arts college, so I knew my co-founders through class
and other social circles. I had an idea, one co-founder said "I think it could
be done." The other guy, we asked to join when we saw him walking back from
class because we were talking about getting someone who was a good hacker.

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shayan
I also think you need to find someone that is as dedicated as you are, and if
not they make it clear and you will be compensated appropriately... the worst
thing is to find yourself working with someone that is not as enthusiastic or
committed about the project as you are ... for instance, if you work full-time
on the project and your partner decides that he needs to have a job and work
part time with you, there would eventually be problems ...

Also try to find someone that can complement you, i.e. if you know your
weaknesses then find someone that is strong at those (of course things that
matter to your business)

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davidw
Ever since that night we've been together.

Cofounders at first sight, incorporated forever.

It turned out so right,

For strangers in the night.

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masherrill
One of my co-founders and I have been friends since high school and later
ended up working at Atari together. He ended up leaving Atari for another game
development company where he met our third co-founder.

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shayan
@limeade -- I don't live in SF ... but if everything makes sense I would move
down there to work on something good ... I also have some ideas myself :) you
can find my email address on my profile ...

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RyanGWU82
limeade -- I'm a grad student at Stanford too. Drop me an email, I'd love to
chat about this and other topics. My email address is on my user page.

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mattmaroon
I recommend homeless shelters. They're surprisingly good hackers and are
willing to work for very little equity.

~~~
mattmaroon
Is -8 a record?

~~~
pg
Not even close: <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=71155>

Seems like we have a fairly prim audience here...

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dood
I wonder if it's not so much primness as a desire to steer threads away from
the sort of boring/crude one-liners that reddit can often devolve into.

~~~
pg
Probably partly. But readers here also seem to pounce on some comments that
are politically incorrect.

~~~
jkush
Yes, I think poor juwo would agree with that statement.

