

Finding (and keeping) Woz - sargent

[This is a question about cofounder dynamics. I had a cofounder but he is soon departing, so out of respect for him I'll try to keep things anonymous.]<p>Question: Is it realistic to expect to find (or retain) a Wozniak-caliber cofounder for my web startup before the technical work becomes challenging and interesting? For my startup this could be 6-12 months after launch.<p>Background: I'm mid-20's, have liberal arts degree, been part of startup scene in major US city for 2.5 years; been failing "quickly and often" while bootstrapping. This January I finally attracted a Woz-caliber technical cofounder (50/50 split). We were same age, single, shared same values, both had part-time jobs to cover expenses, and I thought were both passionate about the vision and building this company into the next Apple or Google or whatever. All was good for 4 months. // Then he says he's bored out of his mind and can't finish the 2-3 weeks of work for the alpha launch. He can't imagine building features for a year while waiting for the big problems to emerge. So he's left to find a startup that, in his own words, "would make me want to pour my soul into it at the cost of something else."<p>So if he can't see past the "boring" work, is there anyone of his caliber who would? Or should I just expect not to find a proper cofounder until the work gets interesting for someone like him?
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zimbabwe
Woz was working on interesting stuff from day 1. He also _didn't_ view his
start-up as a business. He and Jobs were fucking around to see what they could
do, having a good time, and it happened to be an incredible business
opportunity.

You talk about "Woz-caliber" people like they're a commodity, or like you can
track who's brilliant and who isn't. Fact is, if Woz didn't work for Apple, he
probably wouldn't have gone on to be a huge celebrity icon. Certainly his
later work never got that much attention. And the traits Woz had going for him
- a strong technical mind and a rabid curiosity - are common traits. What
makes Woz unique is that he worked on something cool.

If your thing isn't interesting enough to attract a programmer, then hire one.
Don't expect magic to happen because it shouldn't. When I worked on boring
projects, I had to deal with incompetent people who didn't care about my
ideas. Once I began working on cool things, I got access to the cool
programmers, and they were as into the work as I was, because it really was
cool work.

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sargent
Well I don't have money so I'm going to have to make the work cool. Right now
the project is like Facebook in that it solves cool human problems but is
simple (and thus boring) to build, so I don't know where to start other than
use some cool new language I've never heard of (it's currently in Django).

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zimbabwe
What cool human problem is it solving in particular? If it's a biggie then you
should have no problem finding an excited programmer.

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CyberFonic
Well I'm surprised that a "Woz caliber" person would even consider doing a
FaceBook-like program in Django. That is light years from what Apple-II /
Macintosh were in their day.

I'm no Woz, but if you asked me to code something in Django I'd chew my arm
off to get out of the trap.

If there really is challenging work down the track, why does it have to wait?
And if you do have compelling reasons for holding it off. Why not hire someone
who is a whizz at Django and loves working in it to get your web site stuff
happening? Let your Woz-like guy go walk-about or whatever and call him back
when there really is challenging work to be done. If you truly value your co-
founder, then you'll bend over backwards to keep him on-board and keep him
very engaged.

BTW: do you describe yourself as a Steve-Jobs-caliber co-founder?

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noonespecial
You don't find Woz, he finds you. If what you're doing is cool enough, he
quits HP and stays. Anyone who tells you different is likely selling
something.

The advice part is to hang out at hacker gatherings and demonstrate in the
least poser way possible what you've got going on.

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sargent
Right now the project is like Facebook in that it solves cool human problems
but is simple (and thus boring) to build, so I don't know where to start to
talk about what I'm doing that would be interesting technically. I can't show
anything b/c its not finished yet. It's currently in Django... I guess one
option is finding someone who really wants to learn Django to take the project
over?

