

Gabor is looking for a technical cofounder - immad
http://www.gaborcselle.com/blog/2008/10/whats-in-cofounder.html

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bk
Gabor, it would be helpful if you could outline what stack/technologies you
have in mind for hacking to give people a better idea of their suitability.

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strlen
Quick point, he's looking for a co-founder rather than an employee - which
means that if (Gabor really means it) you'll have both the freedom and burden
of choosing the right tool for the job.

Freedom as in you'll be able to make your case for it; burden as in the right
tool for the job may not be tool you've liked using or have the experience
using (in this case joining, as an employee, a company that uses the stack
you'd like to work with may be a better idea).

Example: a big enterprise co may force you to use Java to parse text files
(because they're by decision a Java shop) even if Java isn't the framework you
like for this test. On the other hand, as a co-founder doing a mobile app you
may have no choice but to use Java. If you're very determined to only work
with certain tools or avoid certain tools altogether (or would like more
experience with specific tools) you'd be better being an employee at a company
which makes use of these tools (or doing a project of your own with those
tools).

Of course I've also seen posts that say "I am looking for a co-founder with
Python/Rails/MySQL/Oracle/etc... experience" - which seem to be more of "I
want the first employee". Founders should be the ones making the decision
which stack to use (and using a heuristic other than familiarity or personal
like/dislike) - not following a decision that's already been made.

~~~
gaborcselle
Great point. This is the case, and a major reason why I'm not listing specific
technologies. Cofounder, not employee.

A superstar cofounder + myself should together have the technical judgement to
choose the right stack to work with.

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presty
Gabor, am I right to think that you're going for the Integrated Communication
System?

If you want a name, call it gics (read geeks) - global integrated
communication system. It will even fit if Google buys it. :p

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prakash
_I'd like to chat, hang out, and work with potential cofounders for four days
to a week. That should give us enough time to see if we gel._

That's a less than ideal, but a fairly decent way of _recruiting_ co-founders.

Good luck, Gabor!

~~~
jamiequint
This is exactly what I did when I met my co-founders. I actually flew out to
London (from Portland) to work with them for a week. We worked on some random
projects and did one all nighter. I think its a great way of quickly testing
whether someone is a fit or not.

Actually, some of my friends do this at their company for potential employees
as well. After deciding they probably want to hire a candidate, they fly them
out (if they are not local), pay them consulting fees to work for a week, and
if it works out then they hire them.

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wheels
Do you really want to end up interviewing a co-founder? Like, they show up,
you spend a few hours / days with them and then you know if you want to live
and work and spend most of your time every day with them for the next few
years?

Have you really tried to think though everyone you've known for longer?

Make sure you discuss with this person what happens when and if you start not
getting along a couple months in. I've made analogies between co-founding and
marriage before. I wouldn't get married with somebody after a good week. ;-)

~~~
gaborcselle
I have no illusions about knowing someone down to the bone after a week. Yet,
I think that you can get a good feel for people after a week, if you do the
right things and ask the right questions, get references.

This is a pretty good related post:
[http://onstartups.com/home/tabid/3339/bid/99/Important-
Quest...](http://onstartups.com/home/tabid/3339/bid/99/Important-Questions-
Startup-Co-Founders-Should-Ask-Each-Other.aspx)

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randomwalker
Have you tried living with a co-founder before? It doesn't seem like a good
idea at all to me. You A friend of a friend tried it and reportedly they all
got sick of each other six months in and quit.

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edw519
_4\. Enthusiastic about email and messaging._

Ah, you had me until #4.

Actually, I imagine quite a few of us have our own ideas that we _have_ to
work on.

I love the idea of this post and I'm wondering if I'll ever end up doing one
of my own. I wish you the best of luck, Gabor.

For those of us interested in this process, please keep us posted and let us
know how it works out. If you can find the ideal co-founder like this, maybe
others can too.

~~~
gaborcselle
I encourage you to write that post - this community is full of smart,
technically competent people. And connecting them is what it's all about. :-)

Will definitely keep you posted.

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okeumeni
I hope Gabor is not going to compete with Xobni.

~~~
prakash
I am sure he won't for multiple reasons:

1\. There are multiple interesting, challenging, lucrative problems to be
solved in the email field. Why would he want to try & solve what Xobni is
doing?

2^. He probably had to sign some sort of document that says he can't compete
directly with Xobni for X no of years

3^. He seems like a nice guy, and probably left the company on great terms
with the co-founders

^ 2, 3 are pure speculation excluding the nice guy part

~~~
gaborcselle
Thanks man ...

I think the most important thing is to solve relevant problems for real users.

There are lots of email problems out there, and lots of people suffer from
them. Most people I talk to can relate to this and can rattle off their top 5
frustrations with email. Plus, there are billions of people using email. Thus,
there are many profitable companies to be built here.

~~~
okeumeni
Good to hear Gabor, I raised the issue because it is unfortunately a common
problem among startups. I can tell that you mean no harm. Good luck on your
new projects.

