
Find a co-founder (inspired by news.yc threads) - drop19
http://www.founderfinder.com/
======
Alex3917
The problem: While there are potentially many great co-founders out there, you
have no one to work with. This problem has two parts:

A) Not knowing enough people interested in startups.

B) Not knowing if people would make good or bad co-founders.

So this is certainly a step toward solving part A. The problem is it really
does nothing toward solving part B, which is by far the hardest part of the
puzzle.

I'm sitting here reading news.YC and there are comments from dozens of smart
people, some of whom would make great co-founders and some wouldn't. The issue
isn't for the most part isn't the fact that I don't know they exist; I know
they all exist. The issue is a lack of identity.

If you want to solve the co-founder problem, the solution isn't to get a large
amount of people interested in starting companies in the same room. The
solution comes from getting them to know each other. This comes from two
things:

A) Identity.

B) Interaction.

Identity is 10% what we say about ourselves, and 90% what others say about us
based on previous actions. To solve the identity problem you need a way to
either aggregate what others say about us or else shine light on previous
actions. (Previous actions being anything from college degrees to old blog
posts.)

Interaction comes from objects of sociability. Playing games. Breaking a loaf
of fresh bread. Sharing a bottle of wine over dinner. A pot of tea. Solving
hard problems together. Solving difficult problems together. etc.

Anyway, my point is that the website doesn't solve a problem. At best it is
the first 10% of the solution that enables a few people with really good
judgement to solve the problem themselves. More likely it encourages people to
enter really dangerous territory and potentially get into a lot of trouble
with people they barely know.

~~~
drop19
This points out an unexamined assumption on my part, which was 'getting a
large amount of people interested in starting companies in the same room is
bound to lead to interesting interactions'. I also assumed people would vet
each other, but you're right, it would be more valuable to have other kinds of
assessment available.

It sounds like you are saying that the interaction problem is best handled
off-line, so is there any website that can really do that?

I recently joined a Meetup group in Baltimore and have already had some great
interactions that way. There are far more technical people in my area than I
had realized.

~~~
Alex3917
Think about it this way. PG built news.YC in large part to get to know people
before committing to working with them. News.YC has relevant articles that you
can comment on. PG could have just as easily built a site that let you upload
your profile pic and interests.

The thing is, uploading a profile pic and interests wouldn't let PG know how
smart you are or what your personality is like. On news.YC, users are
literally creating their own identities through their interaction with the
site and with each other. Furthermore, PG designed the site so that users
would interact in a way that would reveal the aspects of their character that
are most salient to knowing whether or not they'll build a successful startup
or go out and blow his money on hookers and beer.

news.YC is the solution to PG's identity problem. However, the problem of
whether or not to fund a group is very similar to the problem of knowing
whether or not to work with someone. PG's a smart guy. Think about which parts
of his solution are relevant to your problem, and go from there.

~~~
pg
Actually I'm planning to add more stuff to help people meet communicate with
one another. The new "about" field in the profile is a step toward that.

I don't want to just solve YC's problem; I want to make this site do what
users need.

~~~
Alex3917
Ahh, that is a good direction for the site to go in I think.

My thinking is that YC's problem is mainly figuring out how likely people are
to MSPW and how fun they will be to work with.

I am trying to think out how the co-founder problem differs from the YC
problem, but I'm not sure which assumptions to use:

1) The productivity of the startup is mainly the sum of the traits of each
individual. Plus, to a lesser extent, the synergies between them.

2) The productivity of the startup is mainly an emergent phenomenon that is
difficult to predict from looking at either of the two co-founders alone.
Plus, to a lessor extent, the traits of each individual. (For example, the
output of someone working with Steve Jobs is different than their output in
other circumstances.)

Whether it's more of case 1 or more of case 2 matters when figuring out in
which direction to take the community, because in each case you are going to
want a different systemic design to bring out the different salient factors.
(Of course it could actually be case 1 for some startups and case 2 for other
startups, which would make the problem even more difficult.)

~~~
sharpshoot
"1) The productivity of the startup is mainly the sum of the traits of each
individual. Plus, to a lesser extent, the synergies between them."

I would argue the synergies between cofounders to be the single most valuable
entity in a partnership. You may have complementary skills but if you don't
come together and are able to do incredible things that are spurred on by
eachother. Spark is key - this linear trait argument isn't correct at all.
Never compromise without spark.

You don't know by chatting with someone - best to work on something non
trivial together and figure out if you get on.

~~~
drop19
This seems like it could be an interesting feature idea -- maybe I could
include a way for people to solve a problem together after they introduce
themselves?

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drop19
A few weeks ago there was a thread about starting a free-form way for
entrepreneurs to find each other in different cities:

http://news.ycombinator.com/comments?id=445

...so I decided to try setting one up. Please let me know what you think.
There's no ads on it or anything, this is strictly a project to make
connections and learn more about web development.

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jwecker
Great name for the site. A couple of suggestions: technical strengths and
weaknesses are important, but not necessarily more important than general
strengths and weaknesses- at least not for a founder. If it was an employee
search that would be one thing but I would possibly relabel those "technical &
business strengths" etc.

"My dream is to start a company that" should probably be more along the lines
of "I have plans and/or interests in the following areas-" I guess I would
just step the seriousness up a little bit so you get people who are generally
serious partners.

Finally, I'm normally against this, but this is one place where you may want
to consider having the site invitation-only, either that or password-protect
the site and let the password spread among founder-networked people. A lot of
garbage profiles would ruin the usefulness of the site.

[upd] oh, and one more thing- maybe one more field where the potential co-
founder can write about themselves- "about me" or "unique things about me" or
something along those lines. Finding a cofounder is a lot about chemistry and
an alignment of personalities, not just matching up needed technical skills.
It's not a school project, it's more like a.... marriage, to be honest
(nothing weird of course).

~~~
drop19
I like your suggestions about the strengths and weaknesses and dream section.
I'm going to go change that right now. My original thought was, I want to
really focus on the kinds of motivated technical people reading YCombinator,
but you're right, it sounds too much like an employee search.

It also makes sence because people might be looking for skills that are not
always technical (or maybe for people who do not self-identify as having
technical skills).

As for the name, that is a big relief to hear you say that. My girlfriend
thought it wasn't very 'cool-sounding' (i.e. not a web 2.0 name).

I never thought about the potential for garbage profiles. I'm not sure if I
could be successful with it by using invitations -- I don't know anyone else
in this world (yet).

~~~
jwecker
well, the users would be able to invite. it wouldn't eliminate the garbage,
just slow it down. news.yc people would spread the word pretty effectively, I
think, or some well placed invitations on facebook, etc.

------
JasonBerlinsky
I have to say that this concept is unfounded on many levels. Case and point
being that the basis of a good partnership is a good friendship. If I meet
someone on the Internet, my first thought is that they are not who they say
they are.

There is no need for social networking to extend to the business concept on
this level. If you can not find a founder in your town, in real life, then
start a business yourself. Either that, or don't start one at all.

Jason Berlinsky

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juwo
Amazing! I can tell you will be very successful as you have actually done
something about the problem - the rest of us (especially myself) sat on our
butts bemoaning our fate.

~~~
drop19
Thanks! This might sound like I'm blowing smoke, but I'm not: I've been really
inspired by all of the great articles here and at other sites, and by the
37signals book Getting Real. I grew up very much cultured to think I would
have to join a large organization to be successful, and now I'm starting to
realize it's better to strike out on my own.

------
drop19
This has been a really interesting 17 hours. I've only posted here and
startupping.com and I've received a lot of traffic (a lot for me anyway). One
thing I did not anticipate was all of the international visitors. So far
there's Sweden, UK, Spain, and Canada. So I am going to add a Country field
ASAP. I've never done an international site; are there other things I should
keep in mind?

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riverbend
FYI I just now tried to register but kept getting some sort of "something went
wrong we've been notified" error. 3:45 pm EST 3/11/07.

On the app - when you say technical do you just mean things like programming,
hardware, networking? Certainly more than tech skills are required. Is this
site only for those with tech skills where someone a bit softer can find
someone?

~~~
e1ven
There are two real problems I see with a site like this-

The first is that the people working on it aren't friends- They don't know
each other well, so won't have the relationship to whether what comes..

The second is that people who are pulled together like this are unlikely to
care deeply about the same idea..

The idea behind wanting co-founders is people who both believe in a dream, and
can help each other through it.. That's not something that a site like this
helps with.

~~~
drop19
well, all I can tell you is that from looking at the logs, there are a lot of
people out there who are searching for someone with common interests that they
must not be finding through normal channels. I'm especially seeing it with
people overseas -- that was a surprise for me. I think that is a strong
indicator that YCombinator has large overseas following.

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davidw
From everything I've read, it's not quite that simple. You don't just pick
someone out of a web site to go through thick and thin with, it's a process
that takes time. I guess it can't hurt though.

~~~
drop19
True; I'm just hoping to help make that first introduction. I chose to mimic
the craiglist home page by listing cities on the right. I'm hoping that people
like me will see their city name their and get inspired to make a connection.

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timg
Nice, I was about to make the same site last week until I got buried in work..

One thing: should the search really include "Technical Weaknesses" as well?

~~~
drop19
I thought so, because you might want to look for someone who's not as good at
something as you are. That's something to consider though; if that ends up
giving too many garbage results I can always remove it from the index.

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juwo
would you like to collaborate on an idea i have had for displaying the
founders?

~~~
drop19
sure thing! e-mail me at mike@founderfinder.com

~~~
juwo
Actually the idea is still nascent even though I wrote it down 10 years ago!
But here's another: http://juwo-works.blogspot.com/2007/03/co-founder-match-
making.html

~~~
drop19
interesting! I never thought of coding it up a la a dating site. I wonder what
sort of algorithm would work best for that. I don't want it become like
eHarmony!

I could add such a questionnaire as an optional part of the process.

