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Ask HN: Where to meet non-technical cofounders?

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Re: Ask HN: Where to meet non-technical cofounders?

#51

Post by robot »

mav3rick wrote: post #40
fgimenez wrote: post #38

I’m a VC, so this take is biased. Liberally apply grains of salt. If you are looking to start a VC-scale startup, I’d suggest talking to VCs who can help introduce you to domain experts. There are a few reasons this is beneficial: - You get to battle test your idea to hone the story. This will help you recruit non-technical people. - You build relationships with VC for the moment you need funding. - You learn which V…

I doubt you all reply to cold emails ? As someone who has no connections to the VC world, it does feel intimidating just writing a cold email. Then again - nothing to lose.

work out your product, buyer persona, business model, go to market, and tell a coherent story around these for why you will succeed and you will get replies.

the cold email contents will be a concise summary of the above.

Re: Ask HN: Where to meet non-technical cofounders?

#52

Post by robot »

ditonal wrote: post #25
zbruhnke wrote: post #17

Honestly my advice would be to leave FAANG and join an early stage startup ... you're much more likely to meet a wider array of people with similar passions and interests and varied skillsets. Even if that startup itself fails you are likely to meet people you could start another company with and if it succeeds it will be an even better place to start a company from when leaving, most exceptional founders love to sup…

Respectfully this is awful advice, as someone who’s worked at FAANG and early stage startups. The idea that working for early stage startups will help you start your own is a myth propagated intentionally by founders/VCs to recruit SWEs with lowball offers. FAANG is actually way better to meet cofounders. At Google you can have lunch with a talented person every day (there’s internal apps to network like this), plus…

I agree it is awful advice. Early stage startup will be similar to FAANG except a lot more work and much less compensation.

Re: Ask HN: Where to meet non-technical cofounders?

#53

Post by ZephyrBlu »

adventured wrote: post #50
Judgmentality wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Larry Page and Sergey Brin were grad students in computer science, which presumably makes them "engineers." Do you suppose Google is only good because they had some business guy whispering in their ears what customers wanted? Larry Page and Sergey Brin originally wanted Google to be a pay-to-use service and were against ads. I don't know how they came to their change in business model, but I suspect it was after th…

It occurred after Eric Schmidt took over operational control of Google. He focused in on a rational business model (swiped from GoTo.com [1]), it's specifically why the venture capitalists installed him. Schmidt had both an engineering background and management experience. The story I recall from back then was about John Doerr telling Schmidt to not fuck it up (recounted in a nicer way by Schmidt, below [2]); the adv…

Wow, that growth is absolutely insane even by startup standards.

Has there been another company since Google that grew so fast? $19mil revenue in 2yrs, then tripling and quadrupling.

Re: Ask HN: Where to meet non-technical cofounders?

#54

Post by christophergs »

nefitty wrote: post #24

https://indiehackers.com has local communities around the world and online forums for discussing technical and non-technical startup processes

There's even a group: https://www.indiehackers.com/group/looking-to-partner-up

In my experience Indie Hackers has an unusually high concentration of people who get things done, the kind of people with grit who you might want to partner with.

Re: Ask HN: Where to meet non-technical cofounders?

#55

Post by lgleason »

This is a semi serious answer but...

If we were not in the middle of COVID I would say to take a trip to Atlanta. In the Atlanta startup community there is no shortage of MBA and marketing types with lots of ideas that are just looking for a developer who is willing to work for next to nothing and equity that is much smaller than it should be.

Of course all of these business types will tell you about how they are the tech visionaries. They dominate most of the big startup events in that town that are supposed to be tech focused and will write countless marketing pieces telling you why their next co-working space makes Atlanta the "Silicon Valley of the East". In reality, a former tech reporter for the Atlanta Business Chronicle more accurately called Atlanta the Bangalore of the South since many larger tech groups will open offices here to try to reduce costs.

Don't get me wrong with Atlanta, it is a great place to live from a standpoint of having a lower cost of living compared with what you can get for a salary, especially if you are able to work for a west coast company that pays well. There are also other cities with a similar dynamic.

My point is that there are many ways to find it, but be careful because you may be trading one set of problems for another.

Re: Ask HN: Where to meet non-technical cofounders?

#56

Post by [deleted] »

ZephyrBlu wrote: post #53
adventured wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It occurred after Eric Schmidt took over operational control of Google. He focused in on a rational business model (swiped from GoTo.com [1]), it's specifically why the venture capitalists installed him. Schmidt had both an engineering background and management experience. The story I recall from back then was about John Doerr telling Schmidt to not fuck it up (recounted in a nicer way by Schmidt, below [2]); the adv…

Wow, that growth is absolutely insane even by startup standards. Has there been another company since Google that grew so fast? $19mil revenue in 2yrs, then tripling and quadrupling.

[deleted]

Re: Ask HN: Where to meet non-technical cofounders?

#57

Post by renewiltord »

ZephyrBlu wrote: post #53
adventured wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It occurred after Eric Schmidt took over operational control of Google. He focused in on a rational business model (swiped from GoTo.com [1]), it's specifically why the venture capitalists installed him. Schmidt had both an engineering background and management experience. The story I recall from back then was about John Doerr telling Schmidt to not fuck it up (recounted in a nicer way by Schmidt, below [2]); the adv…

Wow, that growth is absolutely insane even by startup standards. Has there been another company since Google that grew so fast? $19mil revenue in 2yrs, then tripling and quadrupling.

I believe Uber's revenue grew at that pace.

Re: Ask HN: Where to meet non-technical cofounders?

#58

Post by 100-xyz »

Hi,

Dont mean to hijack the thread...

I am in a similar position. I have a startup toonclip.com. Its a web based animation editor, has about 100 registered users and has some product market fit. Would love to meet business oriented founders who are familiar with this industry. Please drop an email to leisenmint AT protonmail DOT com

Re: Ask HN: Where to meet non-technical cofounders?

#59

Post by fgimenez »

mav3rick wrote: post #40
fgimenez wrote: post #38

I’m a VC, so this take is biased. Liberally apply grains of salt. If you are looking to start a VC-scale startup, I’d suggest talking to VCs who can help introduce you to domain experts. There are a few reasons this is beneficial: - You get to battle test your idea to hone the story. This will help you recruit non-technical people. - You build relationships with VC for the moment you need funding. - You learn which V…

I doubt you all reply to cold emails ? As someone who has no connections to the VC world, it does feel intimidating just writing a cold email. Then again - nothing to lose.

Really depends on the type of cold email. If an investment banker cold emails me with a “hot deal” I delete immediately. If a founder sends me a template email in a space I clearly dont invest, I delete. If a dev sends me an email with interesting insight or project and the ask is an easy to answer question, I’ll respond. Might go out of my way and chat if I’m impressed.

Re: Ask HN: Where to meet non-technical cofounders?

#60

Post by fizixer »

paulsutter wrote: post #23

From Paul Graham ( http://www.paulgraham.com/bronze.html ): > The good news is, choosing problems is something that can be learned. I know that from experience. Hackers can learn to make things customers want. [6] >This is a controversial view. One expert on "entrepreneurship" told me that any startup had to include business people, because only they could focus on what customers wanted. I'll probably alienate this g…

In my opinion, 'business person' is not the right word.

You need someone who has the right network, and/or can network, and/or can comfortably network. While still contributing as a co-founder.

Usually extraverts are good at this. If you're an introvert, you could still do it, but chances are you spent most of your life avoiding and/or wanting to avoid other folks.

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