

"Match.com" for startup founders / co-founders - fnazeeri
http://www.startupwithme.com/

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toisanji
My bet is that most of the people on their site are non-technical. There is
nothing wrong with that, but it always seems like there are way more non-
technical cofounder candidates that technical cofounder candidates. I've
always wanted to work with a cofounder who is way more technical than I am,
but I usually end up with junior developers in the projects I do. What are
your opinions on how the starting team's skillset?

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p01nd3xt3r
I think that there is something wrong with that. I have found that business
co-founders are a dime a dozen but tech co-founders are extremely hard to find
and in high demand. Oddly enough this creates the same situation that you find
on traditional dating sites (e.g.: too many men not enough women). But even
with that said. It seems like a cool idea and I hope they do well.

~~~
jasonlotito
On the flip side, I find it difficult to find a business co-founder. Knowing
little about business, I'm concerned with finding someone who will work well
with me, but who is also good. How do I rate certain factors? What do I look
for?

I think it's a real problem. How, as a developer, can I find someone who
really is a business person, and not just someone who isn't technical. You
see, there are a lot of non-technical people interested, but not as many
people who are actually proficient. Business people is such a generic term.
What aspect of business is someone good at?

Maybe that's an issue with what I'm looking for. Not a business person. A
"business person" is like asking for a "developer." I mean, really, what is a
"business person." It's like labeling myself as a "developer." What does that
tell you?

Absolutely nothing useful.

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jw84
Just like traditional dating it's just numbers. Go out and meet people. Then
you two should go on dates and test the relationship. Seriously. My friends
linked up because they only called and talked to each other at 2 in the
morning. Someone else I know went to Burning Man and became a dev/biz team.
Using an OKCupid for startup founders seems silly though.

~~~
jasonlotito
I met my wife on OPN (Now FreeNode) back in 2001. =) So yeah, I sorta never
followed the traditional dating route. However, your point is understood. And
yes, I do need to go out and meet new people.

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p01nd3xt3r
Another issue here is that IMHO all the best teams are formed organically
(e.g.: Google Guys @ Stanford / FB Guys @ Harvard etc...) and not out of a
direct inent to form a startup. As we all know running a startup w/ a co-
founder is like being married. 1 issue that this site could run into is that
just like on dating sites its very difficult to establish a significant amount
of rapport and I would argue that having a good rapport with your co-founder
is just as important as having a good rapport with someone that you want to
date. Instead of using a site like this you should look around and determine
which of the people you know and like would be the best fit in the role of co-
founder. Something like Facebook or linked in would be a good place to search
your network for potential startup co-founders. Or if you are like me you just
start a project and annoy all your friends to test/review/help etc... so much
that they either stop talking to you or become your co-founder.

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hanibash
This sounds word-for-word like the arguments against online dating. Not saying
they aren't valid points, just drawing the parallel.

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LeBlanc
Interesting idea and I hope it works out.

The problem I see is that you can't exactly apply the online dating model to
finding a co-founder. With online dating, you presumably date a number of
people before finding someone acceptable/awesome. Sometimes it takes multiple
dates to figure things out for sure.

But for a start-up founder, you can't go start multiple companies just to be
sure they are the one. You need a level of trust and an ability to work
together that you just can't get from a couple of lunch meetings.

I do hope they can prove me wrong though, because that would be awesome.

~~~
joshuacc
The problem you're describing applies to marriage (or other long-term
relationships) as well.

It seems to me that the best way around this problem isn't to create a site
which aims at getting people "married", but at getting them to go out on a few
"dates" together. In other words, doing some short-term projects together
before committing for the long haul.

~~~
fnazeeri
Great point. Co-founders should "date" and not do shotgun weddings.

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sudonim
Having used Match.com for dating, I would never refer to another site I
thought favorably of as "Match.com for x". Does that mean the response rate is
low, and it's full of people desperate to make a commitment?

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jlees
I'm seeing more and more of these sites/solutions spring up but none of them
seem to really work.

Why?

My thoughts:

Partly an issue of signal to noise / matching, finding the right person in the
first place.

Partly frustration at unsuitable cold calls through cofounder matching sites
(I listed on one to see if I could find an additional technical cofounder and
got a ton of business contacts in areas that were totally mismatched to my
interests and skills).

Partly lack of obvious second step, in a way. Exchange emails, meet, decide
what to do next (small project or something, parallel with dating pre-
commitment, I suppose). But this isn't foolproof and is very high-touch. Maybe
this is just me though.

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stevefink
Clever idea however also like Match.com I envision 90% of the users here to be
the male, aka non-technical types with an idea and no engineer to implement
it. The other 10% is mediocre looking women maybe looking to mingle if
something extraordinary comes around, aka a half decent engineer who just
might partner if something exceptional comes around. But hey what do I know, I
met my wife on a dating site and I couldn't be happier right now.

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peteypao
From a UI perspective, just my opinion, the site is somewhat obnoxious. First
of all, you have to sign up to see what the site is all about. Then, when I
tried to leave feedback, it required me to give my credentials (Twitter,
Google, MSN, etc). This is bad UX... it doesn't allow me to get a sample of
the site easily.

~~~
jayliew
<http://cofoundergoogledocs.com> :)

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ivanstojic
This seems like a very nice idea, but it feels rough around the edges even for
a MVP...

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asanwal
Given the likely supply-demand imbalance (more biz types/fewer technical
types), it might be good to give some way for the biz types to show they are
'desirable' to help the technical folks sift through them to find the most
promising.

I'm guessing there must be some legitimate assessment/test created by some
credible institution to assess someone's "entrepreneurial'ness". Of course,
such a test won't be infallible, but it might help attract the tech types if
they can screen the biz types easily on a few dimensions.

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benmccann
There's no way to filter by location. It's showing me all these folks from
North Carolina and I'm probably not interested if someone's on the other side
of the country.

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oggz
I'm seeing people in other countries, I could really do with filtering them
out.

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cinimod
I would ask this question in the profile page:

As a founder, you would take the time to fill out all those following
questions?

[yes no]

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rajeshamara
I think Match.com itself needs a tech cofounder. Login and Join us takes lot
of time. I gave up after some time.

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ljf
great idea, I am very close to beta launching a London centric site with the
same concept, guess numbers is the biggest issue in this game. can have the
best ebay killer but if too few use it, it's pointless.

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andrewljohnson
All the pictures are old white businessmen.

A real start-up matching site would have lots of 20-somethings, with about
half foreigners, who have written some code.

~~~
code_duck
'foreigners' is relative to who YOU are.

~~~
patio11
Everybody is a foreigner somewhere. (Relatedly, everyone has an impenetrable
accent, and everyone has a weird esoteric name that breaks our system and
should be changed to fit in.)

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itistoday
Nice idea, could use a lot of improvement though... Some initial feedback (as
I'm attempting to fill out a profile):

 _Personality Which profile is most like you?

\- Vision/strategy: see 1-2 years ahead, predict trends, write vision
document, and inspire a team

\- Implementation/execution: build a product, follow a great plan, detail-
oriented, manage daily operations_

I'd be nice if those were checkboxes, it's perfectly reasonable for a person
to embody all of those personality traits. In general it would be nice if
there was more flexibility in the profile.

~~~
mr_luc
I came here to post that on that subject, as well.

>We believe that founder teams need a good mix of strengths in both
vision/strategy and implementation/execution. We will match you with potential
co-founders who complement your strengths, ie: the opposite of you.

It's as if match.com (and I have never used match.com, so maybe this analogy
is bad) said:

>We believe that marriages need a good mix of strengths in both
leader/decision-maker and cooking/cleaning/listening quietly. We will match
you with potential mates who complement your strengths, ie: the opposite of
you.

Oh, fun.

I'd be looking for someone who is willing to do "whatever seems like the
biggest win" at the time, and who can change plans on no notice.

I'd also be looking for someone who will get their hands dirty implementing.
It's not just the amount of work required, although that's reason enough. It
indicates the humility necessary for the enterprise to work.

It's "gee honey, you know I sure appreciate the hard work you did cooking this
meal while I was sitting on the couch" versus getting in the kitchen and
making good food happen cooperatively.

