Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Ask HN: How do you find a technical cofounder with little experience?

news.ycombinator.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

11–20 of 26 posts

Re: Ask HN: How do you find a technical cofounder with little experience?

#11

Post by throwaway789123 »

soneca wrote: post #10
throwaway789123 wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Unfortunately the character limit on HN made me cut that paragraph out. I have researched my idea thoroughly. I have the market, the business model, the validation. I have contacts that I have been trying to cultivate with investors, I have the marketing strategy worked out. I have been reading up on design so that I could craft a basic design for my app. I have read everything that I could get my hands on (HN includ…

Why the most important word of an early stage startup validation is missing here? "Customers". The only thing that matters of your whole paragraph is "validation". Explain this better, somehow I feel that it isn't exactly validating the idea with customers. The main thing a non-tech founder can bring to the table is customer development. Focus on that, as they are practical things. Don't try so hard to be the "self-t…

I'm in that rut where customers say "Interesting idea, show me how well it works" and the technical guys say "Show me customers that are onboard before I build the thing".

I get what you are saying though. Obviously having a product to show customers will be huge in acquiring them.

Re: Ask HN: How do you find a technical cofounder with little experience?

#12

Post by throwaway789123 »

Throwadev wrote: post #8

How to find? Go to meetups, hang out at engineering clubs at your school, post fliers or find other appropriate means of putting it out there that you are looking for a cofounder. You don't want someone who is going to "learn on the job" if you want a chance at making this successful. So finding CS students at your school won't be that useful unless you can find someone who's published some web sites or apps before.…

Thanks for the advice. I am going through those steps. I emailed a bunch of CS departments and am going to meetups (can't do too many because school takes a lot of my time).

I am really big on the quality and detail of the product so outsourcing is a last resort.

Re: Ask HN: How do you find a technical cofounder with little experience?

#13

Post by throwaway789123 »

sherm8n wrote: post #9
throwaway789123 wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As a student, I can assure you I'm not rich ;)

Well okay not rich, but enough to pay a student developer at your school $20-30/hr or so.

Yeah I get what you mean. I have some savings, but this isn't a long-term solution.

Re: Ask HN: How do you find a technical cofounder with little experience?

#14

Post by soneca »

throwaway789123 wrote: post #11
soneca wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why the most important word of an early stage startup validation is missing here? "Customers". The only thing that matters of your whole paragraph is "validation". Explain this better, somehow I feel that it isn't exactly validating the idea with customers. The main thing a non-tech founder can bring to the table is customer development. Focus on that, as they are practical things. Don't try so hard to be the "self-t…

I'm in that rut where customers say "Interesting idea, show me how well it works" and the technical guys say "Show me customers that are onboard before I build the thing". I get what you are saying though. Obviously having a product to show customers will be huge in acquiring them.

You make it sounds like a chicken and egg problem, but it isn't. Customer "saying" "insteresting idea" is not customer development. I have no idea what your business is, but I pretty sure you can validate it without code. There are lots of ways to do that. For an example, check this thread https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5424206 Look how much validation they got! And - except for the demo, which isn't the core thing of their landing page - there is no code in there. Actually, we don't even know if the founder can code or if they are just "idea guys" (ok, you can assume they aren't, but nothing there prove they aren't).

There are dozens of examples of MVP that don't use any code out there, just google it. "Concierge MVPs", "Fake it before you make it" MVPs, find a strategy for your own. Just find something stronger than "I talked to a few customer and they told me is an interestgin idea and want me to show them how it works".

Re: Ask HN: How do you find a technical cofounder with little experience?

#15

Post by jmorton »

Read this, or if you already have, read it again. http://www.paulgraham.com/relres.html

Done? Good.

Start coding today. Seriously. Today.

You need to find and talk to people one-on-one about what you want to accomplish. Go crash an upper division computer science class tomorrow morning, and look for students that "get it" – the kind that engage the professor, ask and answer questions. After class, pick one of them and talk to them about what you're building.

Search for new posts like "Show HN: ..." these are generally technical people that can deliver. Figure out if they have technical chops or just do launch pages.

Bonus: Get a t-shirt made that says, "Co-Founder Seeking Co-Founder" and walk around campus. Or stand somewhere.

Repeat this every day between now and Friday. If it doesn't work, I'll give you a full refund.

Re: Ask HN: How do you find a technical cofounder with little experience?

#16

Post by throwaway789123 »

soneca wrote: post #14
throwaway789123 wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm in that rut where customers say "Interesting idea, show me how well it works" and the technical guys say "Show me customers that are onboard before I build the thing". I get what you are saying though. Obviously having a product to show customers will be huge in acquiring them.

You make it sounds like a chicken and egg problem, but it isn't. Customer "saying" "insteresting idea" is not customer development. I have no idea what your business is, but I pretty sure you can validate it without code. There are lots of ways to do that. For an example, check this thread https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5424206 Look how much validation they got! And - except for the demo, which isn't the core t…

You are right. However since my product is a social consumer-facing product, it is harder to validate without having something to show users (and honestly the marketing will be more important here). The customer portion of my app/business comes from the data gathered and it is hard to show how useful that data is without some real examples (and no I'm not gathering this data maliciously).

I will look into making a page like those "Fake it before you make it" MVPs.

Re: Ask HN: How do you find a technical cofounder with little experience?

#17

Post by sherm8n »

throwaway789123 wrote: post #13
sherm8n wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well okay not rich, but enough to pay a student developer at your school $20-30/hr or so.

Yeah I get what you mean. I have some savings, but this isn't a long-term solution.

It's not a long term solution, but gets you progress. If you're looking for a technical co-founder they'll want to see that you can execute. You can even start building on your own :)

Re: Ask HN: How do you find a technical cofounder with little experience?

#18

Post by argonaut »

throwaway789123 wrote: post #6
amarghose wrote: post #4

As a fellow "business" guy whose recently broken out of the "stereotype" this is what I can offer: nobody cares about your idea. They care about your execution. Most business guys get a bad rep because they think they have a genius idea and expect programmers to make it happen. They don't appreciate or even recognize the amount of difficulties and problems that have to be solved to come anywhere close to a usable pro…

Unfortunately the character limit on HN made me cut that paragraph out. I have researched my idea thoroughly. I have the market, the business model, the validation. I have contacts that I have been trying to cultivate with investors, I have the marketing strategy worked out. I have been reading up on design so that I could craft a basic design for my app. I have read everything that I could get my hands on (HN includ…

Going off what soneca is saying (and soneca is right), the problem is that you don't actually have the market, the business model, and the validation. What you mean is you have written down on a piece of paper (or in your head) a market you're thinking about targeting, a business model you think works, and the validation which you think is actually valid.

The problem is that you'll get a lot of people who'll say "sounds interesting," but unless you have people signed up and actively engaging with your product, or people actually giving you money, that doesn't tell you much. Even getting people to sign up for an invite list is a good step (albeit only the first step of many in validation).

I would seriously consider outsourcing your MVP. There are some really good developers out there who work in countries where $10-20 / hour is a really good wage; typically Eastern European, South American, or SE Asian countries. Yes, many of them suck. The way to go about finding the "gems" is to have a very small "test" project which you test against several (5 or more) developers simultaneously. Then see the results and either pick the best or try running the same experiment again. Learn the basics of coding so that you can look through their code and judge for yourself.

Once you have an MVP with traction it'll be a lot easier to get a technical co-founder or even a technical "founding employee."

Re: Ask HN: How do you find a technical cofounder with little experience?

#19

Post by soneca »

throwaway789123 wrote: post #16
soneca wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You make it sounds like a chicken and egg problem, but it isn't. Customer "saying" "insteresting idea" is not customer development. I have no idea what your business is, but I pretty sure you can validate it without code. There are lots of ways to do that. For an example, check this thread https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5424206 Look how much validation they got! And - except for the demo, which isn't the core t…

You are right. However since my product is a social consumer-facing product, it is harder to validate without having something to show users (and honestly the marketing will be more important here). The customer portion of my app/business comes from the data gathered and it is hard to show how useful that data is without some real examples (and no I'm not gathering this data maliciously). I will look into making a pa…

A google result with good examples: http://kontrary.com/2012/05/03/how-to-fake-it-until-you-make...

Re: Ask HN: How do you find a technical cofounder with little experience?

#20

Post by throwaway789123 »

jmorton wrote: post #15

Read this, or if you already have, read it again. http://www.paulgraham.com/relres.html Done? Good. Start coding today. Seriously. Today. You need to find and talk to people one-on-one about what you want to accomplish. Go crash an upper division computer science class tomorrow morning, and look for students that "get it" – the kind that engage the professor, ask and answer questions. After class, pick one of them an…

Noted thanks!
Post reply on HN