

Letter to a Co-Founder - kingsidharth
http://www.64notes.com/dear-co-founder-open-letter-to-your-co-founder/

======
Udo
Disregarding the weird tone, the letter makes some interesting points.

    
    
      None of us is the best person out there.
    

This whole notion of someone out there being the best programmer (or person,
or whatever) is fallacious. While there are certainly many degrees between
"awesome" and "failing", it's important to recognize that either you're indeed
awesome at what you're doing right now or it's time to move onto something
else. Of course, the definition of "awesome" is completely subjective so you
have a lot of room for introspection there.

    
    
      That’s irrelevant! Because we are best for each other.
    

This is an important sentiment, certainly one of the most crucial ones in a
co-founder relationship.

I have seen what it looks like when it's not working out: we were friends
before the startup, we liked to talk about crazy ideas all day. But a while
into the startup, all we talked about was money and disappointment. This
created an atmosphere of misery and failure, long before the actual failure of
the company. If I were to do a startup again today, I would look for this kind
of synergy the author is describing. It's important. It's not enough to just
be a bunch of dudes hacking away at stuff.

~~~
d3x
"It's important. It's not enough to just be a bunch of dudes hacking away at
stuff."

I Disagree. This is the most productive environment for me. The issue is that
people set out to start a company and not solve a problem. A bunch of dudes
siting around hacking to start a company might not be the best idea but a
bunch of dudes sitting around trying to solve a problem is the best way to
start.

~~~
Udo
I don't see the point of having cofounders in that case. If it's really just a
bunch of guys hacking away at stuff, you might as well just hire them. I admit
I'm on the fence about the whole "you have to have a cofounder" thing to begin
with - my own experience with having a cofounder hasn't been that great (it's
not his fault, or mine, it was just a bad dynamic in general).

> a bunch of dudes sitting around trying to solve a problem is the best way to
> start

I totally agree. Without a great and creative team you're screwed. This
article isn't about those aspects, though, isn't it? It's about _what else_ a
cofounder should bring to the table that moves the company forward.

------
paulnelligan
Let this be a lesson: never write a letter to a co-founder while drunk or
high!!

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bdfh42
If anyone were to send me this I would be forced to spend the next two nights
trawling through their commits to find out just what it was they screwed up -
and then I would look for a new gig.

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problemmaker
Great letter, if your aim was to bed your co-founder. Honestly, as a co-
founder of a tech company myself, receiving something like this would freak me
out. No hate to anyone homosexual or otherwise, but lay off the cheese,
please? King-sidharth, are you rather a 'Queen'?

------
Achshar
I am not sure if i would really want to be sentimental with my co-founder.
It's not a (romantic) relationship we are in. I know making such a letter with
"brogramming" attitude would be quiet opposite of this but I believe any such
letter should be a balance of "feelings" and get-things-done ("brograming")
attitude. This seems to lean a bit on the "feelings" side.

------
revorad
This reminded me of Max Levchin's talk at the last Startup School. It has some
really funny anecdotes and thoughts about co-founders -
<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3JBWjuXO6kY>

------
twidlit
In the words of Señor Chang. GAYYYY! Seriously, the letter is a GREAT idea but
the gushing and sensuality will make MY co-founder think i'm in love with him
or something. Tone it down a bit and it will be perfect and much needed too.

~~~
kabuks
Really?! It's almost 2012 and you're still using 'GAY' as a derogatory term.

~~~
twidlit
its from the TV show, Community. I was hoping the Senor Chang preface was
enough of a clue that it was a pop/geek culture reference...

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n9com
lols, were you high when you wrote this? how on earth does this make front
page on HN?

~~~
kingsidharth
Because your's is not the only point of view.

------
robjohnson
Well...that was different.

~~~
eps
That's an emerging new genre - the startup fan fiction.

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rrrazdan
You can't fix a typo is very directly related to how you run a startup. Not
eating a burger 'properly' is not.

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darkmethod
The take-aways are:

0\. no one is perfect.

1\. co-founders keep each other on task.

2\. relationships and perspectives matter.

I'm grateful for my co-founder too, however I'll be sending him this for a
laugh which I realize is not oa's intent. But then again, doing so may just
build that relationship that much stronger which is the oa's intent. Ironic,
no?

------
urbanjunkie
I struggled, but ultimately succeeded in not throwing up in my mouth whilst
reading this.

