

Ask HN: What do you think when you hear "I just need a tech co-founder"? - xyfer

Specific to programmers and based of the Quora post - https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.quora.com&#x2F;Startups-and-How-Important-Are-Ideas&#x2F;Programmers-what-do-you-think-when-you-hear-I-just-need-a-tech-co-founder
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lsiebert
It depends.

If they only say that, then I hear that they have an idea, but haven't done
anything to bring it about. Because any business person should be able to tell
you what they have been doing to pursue their idea, and give me an elevator
pitch.

Did they look at the potential market? How big is it? How many buyers?
Consumer focused or business focused but consumer serving? Do they have
customers lined up? Investors? Do they have a budget and time table they can
show? How long until they are profitable, once they have a product? Do they
require network effects to grow and be successful? Who are they competing
with? Is there regulation in the industry? And they should be able to answer
questions that I, a developer, haven't even considered.

If they can talk about it, show how the market is there, and have buyers lined
up, that's like a technical founder having a program written and just needing
someone to sell it. It's still not an insignificant amount of work, but the
end is in sight.

But if it's just "I just need a tech co-founder for my idea", and they can't
talk about it, can't show how it would work, don't have anybody interested,
that's not having the program, or even not having written the program yet.
That's like not knowing how to program.

They are the business person, they need to be the one talking and selling
their product. They need to be able to show how if the idea is made into a
product, they can take that product and get money.

Ideas are great, but the old saying is 10% Inspiration, 90% Perspiration. So
the person who says that, his or her job is to show that the idea is
marketable and potentially profitable.

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emhs
"Please do all the work while I act like a diva about the vision."

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NonEUCitizen
"I have nothing to bring to the table, not even dumb money, but let me try to
fool an engineer."

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sideproject
"rrrruuuunnnnnnnnn"

