Ask HN: What would it take to convince a tech cofounder to join your startup? - GhiliaWeld
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zinxq
This answers the question: [http://paultyma.blogspot.com/2016/06/how-to-get-
hired-as-tec...](http://paultyma.blogspot.com/2016/06/how-to-get-hired-as-
technical-co-founder.html?m=1)

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OrionSeven
That sums it up nearly perfectly for me.

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brianwawok
Ditto.

At this point in my career I can literally build anything that can be built. I
have 100s of ideas. Why do I tech cofound with you for 25% equity vs just
building my own idea for 100%?

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tehlike
why haven't you already?

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brianwawok
who says I haven't?

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allfou
At this point you'd be looking to take %50 of the company just by having an
idea. The rest (%99 of the job at that point) will have to be handled by your
tech co-founder. Plus, you'd be in charge of telling him/her when to deliver
and how.

My best recommendation is to start your "CEO" job earlier and to land an
appointment with an investor willing to invest in your idea and to include
your potential co-founder in that meeting. That would make you worth %50
easily.

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wslh
If I were that technical (and mature) co-founder, I would look at strong
traction, real profits, and no bullshit. I care more about traction and
bootstrapping than having investors, except if those investors are top VCs.
Very improbable without a technical co-founder.

If the project didn't start yet, I would only take the bet if you have real
experience and real companies/champions [1] waiting for your solution.

My company had a lot of startups as customer. Many of them with strong
business and technical teams. almost all died. Full stop.

[1]
[http://www.businessdictionary.com/definition/champion.html](http://www.businessdictionary.com/definition/champion.html)

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throwbsidbdk
50% at least. I've worked at a few startups and all you need at the beginning
is engineers. To be honest I probably wouldn't take the position at all unless
you already had funding.

Would you start a restaurant without ever working in one? A bank with no
finance knowledge? If you're not a tech cofounder become one. The reality is
that a company with a handful of people needs to have every one of those
working on their product or they will be at a massive disadvantage to anyone
else that does.

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snadal
Unless you have good funding or a customer with a pre-sales signed contract, I
myself would be very reluctant to even think about it. If your idea is so good
to worth it, just hire it.

Sorry but I've received too many promising proposals, and even in some cases,
I was asked to sign an NDA that forbid to compete with the "idea" even without
knowing what the project was about.

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bobyscaph
At the beginning what matters are the initial vision / intuition & the ability
to deliver the MVP. MVP will be the tech cofounder role. Tech cofounders have
numerous opportunities to work for. They have their own ideas and tens of non
tech people who want to partner with them. They will join your project if they
both think that the vision is interesting and that you as their cofounder have
an unfair advantage to turn this project into success. It can be a strong
market knowledge, a solid network in this area, a demonstrate ability to
launch a project from zero, a strong competence in customer acquisition /
marketing, a strong leadership or something else. The idea on its own worth
very few to nothing. Your cofounder must be convinced that you will be the
relevant person to team up and achieve the vision. Demonstrate that you are
this person is I think the best way to convince a tech cofounder to join your
startup.

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GhiliaWeld
If the business co-founder were to have an MVP built and a little traction but
no funding, would you guys join?

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bsvalley
It would take fundings and a serious network. Or, a very specific and rare
skill like medicine, biotech, Maths, etc.

Nowadays a none tech co-founder is close to useless thanks to companies like
YC. They make everything seamless for tech people so why would a tech
entrepreneur work for someone else's idea while giving up power and money?

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ThomPete
A hard or interesting enough problem.

