How and where are you looking for co-founders with similar interests/passion?
I'm good with tech side and have plenty of ideas but rather poor at validating them, so finding a market savvy/business dev teammate is very important for me.
Please share your stories finding a matching co-founder/teammate for your startups.
I tried a few things, but what eventually worked for me was my network:
I told pretty much everyone in my network that I was looking for somebody (an actual business partner, of a certain age and with a certain level of experience, a certain socialisation and expectations) and if they heard something or knew something to please reach out.
For months (!) I got zero response. Then one day an old friend got back to me, told me he knew somebody, who was also looking. An intro was made, and then I just talked with the guy, a lot. And then some more, and now we've been working together for close to years.
Didn't meet up physically for the first year or so either, so, a pretty modern startup founder story I'd say :)
Interesting insight. It did take you some time, but I got there in the end. What things you've used at first? I'm going through the same process, but with not much luck so far. 😢
I checked people on all my social profiles (LinkedIn primarily) and people I had directly worked with in the past.
After interviewing a few devs I realized that I did not want somebody working for me, but somebody working with me. Most people saw what I wanted to do as yet another gig, but for me it was a multi-year part-time project. Not easy to find people available for that.
I also wanted somebody who had a similar background. I don't mind working with other people from other countries in other languages (been doing that for 10+ years), but it saves you a lot of mental load if you do not have to navigate cultural issues. Therefore, my clear preference was for somebody similar to me and who was clearly a very good addition to my team of 1.
My tip for you would be to write down what you bring to the table, and what skills and experiences the other guy would ideally bring. I had some odd things on my list as well, e.g.
It's not only hard tech skills that matter.
Thanks for sharing! Sounds like it’s a journey in on itself to find someone who you’d work with for that long.
Why didn’t you meet in the first year, if you don’t mind me asking? Was it hard to collaborate remotely?
My CTO is a digital nomad and for the first year simply was not in Europe. Meetings across continents and time zones were totally normal.
As mentioned in another comment, it really helped that we had a similar background (German tech guys, Berlin startup scene experience, multi-role background, not 25 anymore, etc.).
It took a while for us both to get to know each other but it is getting easier every week. Sure, we had some ups and downs, but you learn from them.
Hey mate,
I'm business founder, looking for a tech savvy cofounder :)
Hit me up if you'd like and we can see if we're a fit!
My LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lucasbotzen/
the good news, it might be easier for a tech person to find sales/marketing co-founders, than the other way round.
Startup bulding requires lots of trust and motivation, on top of the hard skills. So the personal relations, university connections and "friends of friends" are the first ressource to look on.
I'm actually making a product that assists with this issue. What do you look for in collaborators?
That's interesting! I think what I'm looking for is:
i) being honest about what their interests are
ii) being honest about what their commitment level and proof of that
iii) sense of humour
iv) location - important to meet physically, sit down together and see how it feels to work together
Can you tell me what your product does?
It's a matchmaking service for builders, co-founders, and creatives. You answer questions and it calculates a compatibility percentage.
cool, when are you launching it?
I’ve softlaunched it, but I’m still trying to fix bugs, get users, and validate. I actually want to change the stack it’s made on before launching, but development is expensive.
What's wrong with the stack, why do you want to change it?
I'm looking for a stack that will scale better. I started out with php and a cms.
I am in a similar boat as you @ooddaa, I have tried my network, and haven't been able to find anyone who shares the similar vision as me about building a startup. Thanks for posting this question.
Thanks for sharing. It's been disappointing for me as well to find out that no one in my network was interested in starting their own thing. Many seem interested at first, but soon it turned out that they weren't taking it as seriously as I was and weren't prepared to commit and invest their energy.
Some of my friends approached me with projects of their own, and I'd put in time and work only to realise a month after that their interest had dissipated and they weren't straightforward about it.
What's your vision?
I am looking for a partner to join me in my journey to build a profitable SaaS startup on the side. There is no specific skill set that I am looking for, more like like-minded folk(s) who can work together in starting a new venture.
My vision is to build a startup which has following attributes
Markets I am interested in
etc
in that order
I frequently write about this kind of stuff at Zero to Founder
For someone to join as a co-founder, you should have something that you can bring to the table.
You can start making posts on various forums, but the important point is to mention - ‘What you can bring to the table. Rather than just saying you are looking for a tech cofounder/non-tech cofounder, improve your chances by providing more data on what you have done around a given idea. Below are a few examples of how you can be better.
Add as much information as possible; this will get people interested and show that you are serious about your product. Double bonus if both co-founders have complementary skills.
IndieHackers is a good place to put your thoughts and get some folks interested (DM me on Twitter and I would be happy to upvote and get you some better traction.
MicroSaaSHQ is one place where you can start looking for co-founders.
Makes a lot of sense to present proof-of-work on the idea to attract perspective partners.
Could you share if that helped you in your search for a co-founder?
YC Startup School is great as well.
Hey @ooddaa,
I'm a first time entrepreneur, coming from the market research industry.
My personal motto is always to help others, I just get a buzz for it to be honest. So If i can help in any way, maybe providing some ideas to how you can validate your ideas.
Feel free to get in touch!
Hi @Jakepryszlak
Where can I DM you at?
https://twitter.com/Jake_pryszlak
interesting comments here. my co-founder was a dev I hired, there was 2 but the other maybe completed half a splash page in 4 weeks so when I asked the productive dev if he would do 100% of the work for the full compensation not counting the deposit I gave them- he agreed.
then I realized how smart and the good judgement he had, didn't need to hold his hand through everything- I was able to trust his decisions and judgement early on. So I offered him co-founder role, negotiated ownership & equity percentages, and it worked out great.
Congratz on finding a co-founder! Are you a tech guy yourself? Do you also happen to share same interests/values with your co-founder outside of your work together?
Hi @ooddaa,
Are your ideas based on things you'd like to build? Or knowledge in certain areas? Or because you've heard people express that "I wish X exists?" - Just curious.
I am non technical (until recently) and had initially reached out to a few devs I had worked really well with in the past - but the trouble was the time committment, as we all have full time jobs. They were interested... but not interested enough to put that time and effort in to commit for the long haul.
I ended up going solo and am building it myself - however still interested in a technical founder in future because my ideas for the roadmap are long and complicated... I would love to be able to focus on speaking to customers and marketing (I am a Business Analyst in my real job - so I work on IT projects all day with internal stakeholders and developers!)
Hi @Krystie_Tsukio
I think it's the combination of all three. With the last one probably being mostly due to my confirmation bias. I mean I have never really "discovered problems", but rather built solutions to solve problems that I encountered in my personal/professional life. How to test if these problems exist for other people (ie if there's a market) - I have no solid roadmap for that. And, honestly, as a developer, I'd rather focus on developing the product, rather than speaking to customers and marketing.
The devs that you reached out to - what made you think they were interested in the first place? They could say they were, out of politeness or something, a false positive. I'm trying to find out a way to establish if a person can commit to the project from the beginning, so that there's less risk them leaving in a month. I think the best way to go about it is to find out what "sparks their joy" and work out how that could be incorporated into the project.
I guess I had no idea if the devs I reached out to were interested or not. They are the type of devs who like learning new things, like a challenge and we really like working together - I think you can be all those things and still not be interested in actually starting a business - that's like a whole other thing I guess, and you're right - they were probably being polite!
I think finding out "what sparks joy" is a great idea - I think they need to be interested, but more than that - feel compelled to work on it - really enjoy it to commit.
It's possibly hard to "convert" a developer that is a full time employee to an entrepreneurial mindset if that is not their interest also.
Similar to yourself trying to find someone that fits on the product/marketing side - they can't be the type of person who likes to have a guide of what to do for the job. They need to be creative, like talking to people, think outside the square, be persistant and resiliant.
Best of luck on finding a co-founder!
I just discussed this topic with my friend today, who is also looking for a co-founder. He had a good experience with this platform: https://www.ycombinator.com/cofounder-matching. But it may be time-consuming to apply, be prepared.
Good experience sounds nice =) What was good about your friend's experience?
We didn't discuss it deep enough, to be honest. Just wanted to share with you the link.