5
0 Comments

Finding cofounders is broken - and that is the polite version!

Seriously, does any workable structure exist for finding cofounders!? We're all doing it, but many of us have horror stories. It is a horrible process that seems quite random and sometimes results in incredible partnerships, but often ends up in a car crash.

Well, I wonder if my new Consultancy as a Service (CaaS) offering may be a possible new cofounder-finding model. For the moment, it is just me, but I have the vision to make it into something that could work for anyone looking to pair up with a cofounder. I am going to start validating the idea in the coming months, and I'd love feedback.

Allow me to explain, firstly with some background on my new service

It has taken a lifetime (ok, 25 years, so under half a lifetime) to reach a point where I want to give all my startup experience back to new founders by helping validate new tech startup ideas and supporting them in the early stages.

After six months of design by pivot, I have arrived at my final consultancy offering. I have rolled up all my other websites. The research by trial is over.

My new fractional Interim Cofounder service (https://www.interim-cofounder.com) is live and supports early-stage founders with many roles, including mentoring, research, strategy, planning, feedback, investor introductions and lots more.

Essentially I embed with a founder for several hours each month and do whatever cofounders do to accelerate the plans and make things pop. So I am giving daily access to myself, a tech startup veteran of 25 years, for a simple low monthly fee on an Ask Me Anything model. But importantly for my clients and my future cofounder-finding idea, I do a lot pro-actively - because good cofounders are pro-active, right!?

Plus, all good X as a Service offerings aren't complete without a free trial. So, of course, I offer free 30-minute office hour calls to provide an idea and startup review.

But how does this work for a better cofounder-finding model?

It's still at the idea in my head stage. But quite simply, I expand my website and offering to be a marketplace for meeting cofounders. The platform, like many others, introduces cofounders who have a startup to those seeking one. But then it allows the startup owner to pay the other a small monthly fee for a while (3, 6, 12, 1 month, etc, no absolute limit).

For example, my model is just $345 per month for 5 hours (and extra free hours to do investor intro's). So it doesn't need to break the bank of any founder - I've had people in developing countries approach me and say it is affordable.

So a few hundred dollars per month to see if the person who says they are a tremendous potential CTO or growth partner are all they say they are. Or maybe they sound nice when you first chat but do you still get on with them after two months.

By doing this myself for the next six months, I have the opportunity to evolve it and plan how to roll it out for others.

Building in public, as always

And of course, I will evolve it in public, allowing us all to gain from making cofounder-finding less like pulling teeth!

Trending on Indie Hackers
Competing with Product Hunt: a month later 33 comments Why do you hate marketing? 29 comments My Top 20 Free Tools That I Use Everyday as an Indie Hacker 18 comments $15k revenues in <4 months as a solopreneur 14 comments Use Your Product 13 comments How I Launched FrontendEase 13 comments