

How do I find the right technical development partner? - paddikelly

My name is Patrick Kelly and I am leaving my amazing job at a Goodby, Silverstein and Partners, (www.goodbysilverstein.com) an advertising agency in San Francisco, to pursue an idea and start a web based company. I have been running a department that I founded -  but think the idea that I am playing with has some pretty fantastic potential - and I want to find out.<p>I have been vetting the idea with a number of people already and have gotten amazing feedback and it is time to try and build a company around it.<p>The rub is that while I have worked on building more than a dozen sites over my career, I have no real technical skill and definitely no ability to code or architect the designs and functionality that I think will make the company great.<p>As I head out and start to try and find the right technical person to help me in the process, I am working my network very hard but am afraid that I don’t know exactly where to find the right technical person/team to get everything off on the right foot.<p>Does anyone have suggestions of where to find, meet, source, scour, bribe, convince and/or kidnap someone amazing?<p>I have begun the process of signing up for meet up groups and will continue to network like crazy but would love any advice or leads that people suggest.<p>Thanks in advance<p>PK
======
jackbean
I'd start off by assuring people that you're not just an idea/business guy
looking for code monkey to do all the technical work for 1% of the company.

~~~
steventruong
I'd add to this even if it wasn't 1%. Even if you're willing to give 50% or
more and actually are looking for a real cofounder, make sure you provide REAL
value proposition beyond just the idea. Someone posted a pretty offensive but
highly accurate post recently about something like this. Might be something to
look into: [http://throwawayhn.wordpress.com/2011/06/10/business-
cofound...](http://throwawayhn.wordpress.com/2011/06/10/business-cofounders-
go-fuck-yourselves/)

That said, I have no clue where you're from but the best places to meet a
potential cofounder is usually through your own friends first, friends of
friends, and then everything else. Meetup.com is a good resource,
eventbrite.com is another. If you're in the bay area, there are also specific
events for cofounder meetups/dating. As a disclaimer, I've never done any of
the cofounder meetups/dating events or anything but its worth a shot.

~~~
jackbean
I've done one of those things and its true what they say "All the good ones
are taken." Most people I met didn't seem qualified to run a business.

~~~
steventruong
Were you the business guy or the tech guy? Which one did you go to and which
type were you looking for?

