

How to find your cofounding partner? - fempreneur

There is no doubt that the best partnerships are made between people who have a diverse set of skills. The question is how do you go about to find your perfect technical partner, at a time when everyone is creating their own startups?
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anthony_franco
It's a matter between either being lucky or having a compelling enough
story/background that people gravitate toward you.

I've heard a lot from the other side as well, technical people asking how to
find the perfect business partner at a time when everyone has their own idea.

Ask yourself what qualities would a founder have to have that would make you
give up your idea and join theirs. Then strive toward having those qualities.

In my perspective, if I see anyone hustling either by getting together a
makeshift MVP or pre-selling to customers, then I know they have the drive to
succeed.

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fempreneur
I agree with your points. Hustle is key. That's where I am at at this point.
Putting together a prototype and working towards a MVP. The struggle is not
only finding someone who has the skill set, and the drive, but also someone
you want to build something with, and match personality wise. It's like a
marriage.

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anthony_franco
If your hustle muscle is developed enough you could power through without even
needing a technical cofounder. Sam Ovens is one great example (of many).

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alain94040
Best option: find someone you worked with before

Second best option: friends of friends

Last resort: some random developer who falls in love with your idea. Just
don't sign any paperwork until 1-3 months after you start working together (if
so, read [https://medium.com/@colunchers/founder-
vesting-c214e86c59b0](https://medium.com/@colunchers/founder-
vesting-c214e86c59b0)).

~~~
fempreneur
Great article! Thanks for sharing. Unfortunately, finding someone I have
worked with before and I think would be a good fit, isn't an option. I've been
asking friends of friends for referrals and starting to look into networking
with different developer groups. For now I'm outsourcing a prototype, and
hoping I can find someone before I put together an MVP so the developer
doesn't inherit someone else's code.

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LukeFitzpatrick
I found my partners in unlikely ways, but how I found them had one thing in
common, I had helped them before.

When I met my programmer, we were actual in a startup coworking space, he
looked stressed so I chatted to him a bit. He lost his iPad at the venue, so
naturally I tried to help him look for it. We exchanged business cards and
briefly chatted. Turns out the project that I was doing, was something that he
always wanted to do - and, the added bonus, our apartments are within ten
minutes driving distance. A perfect match.

On another note:

Does anyone have any suggestions to my team, we have a hustler, a growth
hacker and a programmer. All of have strong connections and experience.

We lack in two specific areas: social media marketing/ management and graphic
design. Would you look to adding on a 4th member to this team to take care of
these roles? Any advice will be appreciated. We will be launching March next
year.

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MalcolmDiggs
Angellist is a good place to start. Meetups are great (depending on your
area), coworking spaces (Like WeWork, etc), and even conferences for your
niche.

It's very unlikely that you'll personally meet the right person, but actually
fairly likely that someone you meet will _know_ the right person. So just talk
about your idea with everybody who will listen, get those business cards into
people's pockets and see what the universe brings your way.

You'll wanna get facetime with "connectors" (if you've read the Tipping Point,
you'll know what I mean). An email intro from one of them to the _right_
person is all you need.

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fempreneur
Great advice. Thank you. Angellist is on my list! And love Malcolm Gladwell.
I've been reaching out to my network. I'm in LA, and have signed up for a
bunch of Meet Ups, just hard to know which ones are worth attending in a city
that is so spread out. I noticed you are in LA too, let me know if you know of
any worth noting. Thank you!

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MalcolmDiggs
Oh cool, didn't realize you were in LA. It depends on what you're trying to
do, many of the meetups are highly specialized.

JSLA (www.js.la) is one of my favorites. NodeDTLA (meetup.com/NodeDTLA/) is
great, and those guys recently spun off a new one: called techDTLA
(meetup.com/techDTLA).

Joe Devon (@joedevon on twitter) is a good guy to know. He organizes CTO
events in the area, and a PHP meetup (meetup.com/laphpdev).

There are also hackernews meetups, PM meetups, DBA meetups, undirected coding
sessions, and lots of others.

Feel free to email me (my username @gmail) if you need anything.

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fempreneur
Wow thank you so much Malcolm! I will definitely reach out via email. I'm
pretty new to the city, good to meet and network with new people, and I'll
check out the ones you listed. Appreciate all your help.

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syed123
You can also start with going on a lunch with one person at a time and get to
know them while using all your 5 senses at a meal!
[http://LetsLunch.com](http://LetsLunch.com)

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jtfairbank
University and previous jobs.

