

Ask HN: How to find a co-founder online? - olalonde

I'm currently located in China + studying + traveling every few months, making it extremely hard to find potential co-founders offline. I have a few technical friends from university and previous jobs but for various reasons, I consider none of them to be co-founder material.<p>The approach that works for me right now is to explore ideas (including ambitious ones), launch quick-and-dirty MVPs, and see what sticks. I do this approximately full time, albeit not on a typical work schedule.<p>In the process, I'd like to meet and collaborate with potential co-founders. I believe that passed a certain threshold of competence, the relationship you have with a co-founder is a lot more important than the co-founder itself: might as well build some solid relationships now for when the big opportunity comes knocking. In fact, I just realized that the term "co-founder" might not be appropriate here. Just like you don't go out meeting women and telling them you are looking for a wife, the word I should be using is "people that want to build MVPs and have a strong interest in startups", but it would be a bit long to type.<p>That being said, here are some problems I have encountered with regards to online interactions:<p>1) It's hard to judge one's personality (emotional stability, honesty, trustworthiness, maturity, etc.) without the cues one would get from offline interactions (i.e. nonverbal cues).<p>2) It's hard to judge one's level of interest and commitment without the costs involved in real life interactions. A two hour face to face meeting is much more costly than a two hour online conversation.<p>3) I admit I'm susceptible to some kind of "dating site" bias. I can't help thinking to myself: "If this person is trying to meet a co-founder online, they must be desperate and most likely for the bad reasons." Yet, I am in this exact position and don't consider myself to be an undesirable co-founder (I'm probably biased here as well, hopefully not!).<p>So, back to the original question.<p>What are ways to find potential co-founders online? How to avoid the above pitfalls? What are the key questions to ask a potential co-founder? How to quickly gauge someone's level of interest/commitment?<p>Try to keep your advice as actionable as possible.
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kappaknight
The honest truth is that it's not them, but it's you. Like you said, gauging a
potential great technical co-founder is not hard if you have a chance to work
with them on various projects. However, that is close to impossible if 1) You
are located in China. 2) Going to school there full time. 3) Traveling every
few months for fun.

As an entrepreneur, I would never seek out a co-founder who isn't local, isn't
always available, and wouldn't sacrifice entertainment/travel/fun for some
serious hard work. I have worked with those people in the past and none of
them are co-founder material. Working 18 hours a day off of Ramen is simply
not something they'd do to realize the bigger dream.

While you have ambition, you are definitely biased. If you want to create
something great, you need to chase after your dream with reckless abandon.
That could mean a number of things including moving, finishing school,
networking, or picking something you can do from China that isn't necessarily
coding related.

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olalonde
First, thanks for your candor.

I share your feeling: if I had a clear startup idea in mind and the ability to
go full time, I would be looking for a local co-founder that is willing to go
full-time as well. Furthermore, I'd try my best to find someone I know _well_
and _trust_. I would never jump in full time and give my 200% with a co-
founder that I have only met a few times over a cup of coffee. I made that
mistake in the past and it resulted in a miserably failed venture (actually,
that's what initially brought me to China).

I came up with the approach described in my post (collaborating online on
small projects in order to identify potential co-founders) specifically to
avoid that. Eventually, when I find a good co-founder match and a good startup
idea, I'll move wherever makes most sense and give my 200%. In fact, I think
more people ought give consideration to this strategy. Why risk everything
(including choosing the wrong co-founder) on an hypothetical startup before
validating your idea/market through an MVP that can in most cases be done "on
the side"? A lot of famous startups were started that way.

On another note, why do you think it is necessarily a bad idea to do a
software startup in China?

For the record, I study part-time in Hong Kong and the travelling bit refers
to the fact that I've been alternating between living in Canada and China over
the past few years.

In any case, thanks for sharing your advice.

~~~
kappaknight
I'm not saying doing a software related startup in China is necessarily a bad
idea - but China does censor certain websites and that stifles creativity to
some degree. China is also known for other strengths so if you're there, you
may as well take advantage to your unique opportunities and play to those
strengths.

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helen842000
Perhaps speak more about the ideas that you want to work on, industries, types
of customers etc. People can contact you because they then know they have
something in common with you.

For example, I'm interested in designing, building and selling creative
products. I'd rather build several small things that create regular income and
then move onto a larger project full time.

Here are examples of things I'd like to create work on or have already started
working on :-

A review site

A browser app/add-on

A clothing site

A range of notebooks

A site selling a product subscription

An iOS game for charity

A software application specific to personal trainers.

A Wedding Directory

From these things I can see that my best type of co-founder would be a graphic
or web designer.

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Akram
You can try this <http://www.techcofounder.com/>

However, I don't this it would be easy to find someone online and build a
startup as co-founders.

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boolean
Check out the slides here: <http://www.jenniferturliuk.com/?p=255>

