

Tech guy looking for business person co-founder - isalmon

Hi. 
I have quite unusual problem.<p>I've been a web developer for 5+ years and I can say that I became a PHP (and LAMP in general) guru.<p>I can build any kind of web application and I had experience handling website with thousands of visitors per hour.<p>On the other hand, I'm an 'entry-level entrepreneur'. I'm finishing my MBA at Babson College with concentration in Entrepreneurship and I'd like to start a company after graduation.<p>Right now I'm working on a prototype of one idea that I think is great (yeah, of course, everyone thinks his idea is great). My problem is that I can't implement it on my own. I can build the whole application from scratch, but I can't sell it neither to customers nor to VC's. I'm just not that kind of guy. So I need somebody to team up with, but I just don't know where to look for. My college is one of the options, but so far I had no luck...<p>Can anybody suggest the best strategy of finding a good BUSINESS co-founder? I know there are a lot of people looking for technical co-founder but where are they??<p>It's probably the biggest decision I have to make now and I want to do it right.<p>Thanks.
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alain94040
You'd be hugely popular at the co-founders meetup (<http://www.meetup.com/Co-
Founders-Wanted-Meetup/>)

The real question is how would you choose who to work with? How do you
separate the fake biz people from the genuine ones?

Here's the beginning of an answer: pitch your idea. Let the business person
tell you how to change it to make it better. Then decide if that advice is
sound or not.

PS: a business person who tells you your idea is great and offers _no_
improvement is just a consultant trying to steal your money.

~~~
isalmon
Thanks for the link. I think they are located somewhere in Silicon Valley
area, while I'm in Boston - I'll try to find something similar here.

As for your question - I think it's better to find somebody who you can really
work with rather than an excellent business person whom you will hate. So
personality does matter here. But it's a good question, I'll have to think
more about that. In any case it's a good problem to have - so far I have
nobody to choose from.

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minalecs
I don't understand why you can't do everything yourself, or at least learn or
try or why can't you sell it to customers or vc's. I am like you a single
founder on techside, and I am very much trying to put my self out of my
comfort zone, by talking to people, attending more events, and public
speaking. What I look for in a co founder is they had a previous startup/s or
has successfully raised money in the past. And really believes in the idea. In
the beginning of any tech startup, most of what needs to be done will fall on
your shoulders.

~~~
isalmon
I agree, but I think good co-founder will balance me in a good way. I hate
public speaking and all this networking stuff (that's might be the reason why
I'm in this position right now). On the other hand I like to work in a team.

Plus I'm not a native American, so for many VC's it's a red flag.

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eduardo_f
First of all fill your HN user profile! You are missing on potential
connections that you can make through this thread.

Oh and shoot me an email (address in my profile), I might be able to help.

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amirmc
I think you'll need to be a bit more specific with regards to _what_ you're
looking for in a biz co-founder. You've already got an MBA (pretty much) so
what d'you expect the biz guy to bring to the table that you won't already
know something about?

The only thing I can think of would be market experience i.e they've worked
somewhere in the industry you're targeting.

~~~
isalmon
Thanks for the comment, good point actually. Market experience is exactly what
I'm looking for. Plus some sales skills I guess. I cannot call potential
customers and ask to try my product - it's not my best suit. Also I think that
no one should start a business alone (especially his/her first business).

MBA itself does not give you the skills and most importantly experience.

~~~
amirmc
I think you're selling yourself short if you believe you "can't sell it
neither to customers nor to VC's".

I expect selling to VCs requires a certain amount of posturing and hubris but
doing some Customer Development should be possible for anyone. Customer
Development is _not_ sales. You might find it difficult at first but when you
realise you're offering something of value to someone it feels a lot better.

Unless you can reveal what market you're in, the advice you get here is going
to be pretty generic. If we knew that you were interested in $FOO then a few
folks might know about $FOO meetups or conferences that you could attend.
Also, bear in mind that you will still need some sales skills to convince a
someone to join you.

~~~
isalmon
The market I'm going to is e-commerce. The application would create some
certain benefits for e-commerce owners. So it's B2B.

I guess I could try doing everything on my own, but due to some circumstances
I really need a partner. I'd rather not convince anybody to join me. Maybe
it's naive, but I think if a person believes in the idea and the skills I have
- he/she will want to join me without any persuasion.

I'm also OK to join somebody if he/she has an idea I would be interested to
work on. I realize that my idea could be just a piece of crap and I did not
realize it yet.

~~~
cme
Isalmon..shoot me an email. I have some experience with B2B businesses and am
located in New England. (cpj1357@gmail.com) I've been looking for a technical
person to work on ideas with.

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Jlambert
I went down this path. After 9 years as a valley engineer I started building
companies. It's been a great run - 5 companies! And ive been lucky.

My advice - just do it.

You will find the right partners along the way, but even if you pull a partner
in, -all- the founders should sell.

~~~
isalmon
Thanks for the advice. Did you have all 5 companies at the same time or one
after another?

~~~
Jlambert
One after the other. Five companies at once would probably, finally, kill me.
;)

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bwb
Hey shoot me an email, I might be able to help and if not I can make a few
suggestions if you decide to go in alone too. (bwb@bweeb.com).

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hajiss
my question here is, why would you be thinking about vc's at this point? Start
small, look around familiar territory (family, friends, and fools...lol) for
raising a small Angel round and also potential biz partnership.

~~~
isalmon
I'm planning to bootstrap everything, but exit strategy will involve some VC's
for sure.

