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Ask HN: YC co-founder matching is bad

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Re: Ask HN: YC co-founder matching is bad

#51

Post by jrumbut »

exolymph wrote: post #16

Cofounder matching is a market for lemons, much like online dating. The best prospects are either never on the open market, or get snapped up very quickly. So it's always a problem of sorting through many low-quality options to find diamonds in the rough (and if you can find one, upgrading a rough diamond to a shiny diamond is still a nontrivial process). Point being, cofounder matching is inherently a frustrating gr…

But it's also like dating in that a successful outcome is worth exponentially more than the time it takes to read a few dozen profiles.

Re: Ask HN: YC co-founder matching is bad

#52

Post by maerF0x0 »

gardenhedge wrote: post #44
shrimpx wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I did, and I strongly disagree that online dating is a market for lemons.

Your friends got snapped up leaving the lemons behind

they didn't specify if it they were "snapped up" (presuming this means rapidly) , or if it was a "grind"

Assuming it's a man and woman, and average experiences the guy likely went through 100s-1000s of profiles to match with her, and she likely in the high 10s to low 100s.

Re: Ask HN: YC co-founder matching is bad

#53

Post by thaumaturgy »

exolymph wrote: post #16

Cofounder matching is a market for lemons, much like online dating. The best prospects are either never on the open market, or get snapped up very quickly. So it's always a problem of sorting through many low-quality options to find diamonds in the rough (and if you can find one, upgrading a rough diamond to a shiny diamond is still a nontrivial process). Point being, cofounder matching is inherently a frustrating gr…

This reminds me of the old joke: an economist is walking down the street with a friend, and the friend says, "Look! There's a $20 bill on the ground!" The economist replies, "Nah, if there were, somebody would've picked it up already,"

The real world is messy. There are many reasons why a suitable cofounder might be found through a matching service, or a life partner, or even just a fun date.

YCombinator was founded in part on the notion that there existed quality technical founders that were being excluded from traditional venture capital networks.

Re: Ask HN: YC co-founder matching is bad

#54

Post by snowmaker »

amir734jj wrote: post #49
snowmaker wrote: post #48

Hello - I'm one of the people at YC who work on YC's co-founder matching site (which, if you aren't familiar with it, is at https://www.ycombinator.com/cofounder-matching ). It's not totally clear to me if OP is referring to that product specifically or something else, but I figured I would take the opportunity to get feedback anyway! We are very actively working on the co-founder matching site and would love to hear…

Thank you so much for the reply. Can you please add a search or filtering? I don't want to keep clicking "next"

Yes, this is one of the things we're working on next.

Re: Ask HN: YC co-founder matching is bad

#55

Post by danvoell »

amir734jj wrote: post #49
snowmaker wrote: post #48

Hello - I'm one of the people at YC who work on YC's co-founder matching site (which, if you aren't familiar with it, is at https://www.ycombinator.com/cofounder-matching ). It's not totally clear to me if OP is referring to that product specifically or something else, but I figured I would take the opportunity to get feedback anyway! We are very actively working on the co-founder matching site and would love to hear…

Thank you so much for the reply. Can you please add a search or filtering? I don't want to keep clicking "next"

This. Also could you add a not interested in matching up because field option when someone tries to connect. And/or if you want to poke someone by letting them know you like what they are up to but you wouldn’t be good co-founder material.

Re: Ask HN: YC co-founder matching is bad

#56

Post by jamal-kumar »

999900000999 wrote: post #31
exolymph wrote: post #16

Cofounder matching is a market for lemons, much like online dating. The best prospects are either never on the open market, or get snapped up very quickly. So it's always a problem of sorting through many low-quality options to find diamonds in the rough (and if you can find one, upgrading a rough diamond to a shiny diamond is still a nontrivial process). Point being, cofounder matching is inherently a frustrating gr…

To be fair, I've met plenty of idea guys in real life. I can't imagine the internet somehow being worse. It's always ' I want Multi billion dollar company X combined with multi billion dollar company Z. Build this for me in exchange for 2.5% equity vested over 5 years.' Then if you do waste a weekend on a POC you'll hear it doesn't match their vision. You don't even get a thank you from these jerks. TBH I've given up…

I mean you could always disappear to somewhere with nicer weather and run away with their idea...

Every time I've been given an annoying "you do all the work" offer like this I've entertained the thought. I'm surprised you don't hear about it happening more often to be honest.

Re: Ask HN: YC co-founder matching is bad

#57

Post by salamo »

robust-cactus wrote: post #22

I've heard it works and it has caused companies to form and get funded. I signed up like 1 week ago and I'm a 2nd time founder. It depends on your expectations and how you configure it is my read. For me, even though I'm technical, I'm mostly looking for other technical founders. Other than that, the thing I mainly want to feel when I read a profile is a sense of "oh this person would be fun to jam on ideas with" and…

> kinda worried about how many people are looking to start an "ai startup" rather than solve a problem which might involve AI

My issue is that I am working on a project (I wouldn't call it a startup exactly) which does directly involve AI, so I attract attention from the exact types of people you mentioned, fair weather fans. If you have crypto in your profile and are now interested in AI, that tells me all I need to know.

I've been able to scare most of them away by not having a functioning landing page and directing them to a repo instead. Since I am looking for another technical person this has been a great filter.

Re: Ask HN: YC co-founder matching is bad

#58

Post by fdgsdfogijq »

exolymph wrote: post #16

Cofounder matching is a market for lemons, much like online dating. The best prospects are either never on the open market, or get snapped up very quickly. So it's always a problem of sorting through many low-quality options to find diamonds in the rough (and if you can find one, upgrading a rough diamond to a shiny diamond is still a nontrivial process). Point being, cofounder matching is inherently a frustrating gr…

Wouldnt be surprised to find a bunch of "idea guys" looking for a programmer to implement their idea, meanwhile they "sell" to clients.

Re: Ask HN: YC co-founder matching is bad

#59

Post by Zetice »

shrimpx wrote: post #45
Zetice wrote: post #4

Your network is going to help you with this 10x as much as random matching would. I doubt random matching is even very successful, compared to organically finding a partner. Ask around, see what people in your network know about folks who are building new things. They may even have ideas about folks who would build something if the right partner were to help them.

I don't think it's 10x. Your network is likely to be limited. Coworkers, buddies from school, friends of family? When you filter out all the ones with careers/no interest in starting a company, and then the ones you don't want to work with, you think you're left with highly relevant matches?

[dead]

Re: Ask HN: YC co-founder matching is bad

#60

Post by RC_ITR »

testTED wrote: post #36
shrimpx wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I disagree about online dating. Increasingly, my peers who end up in long term relationships or married have found each other on dating apps. Dating only coworkers and friends gets boring and limiting.

Read the entire comment you are responding to.

You're not supposed to make comments like this on here because usually what ends up happening is that they did read the full comment and that you disagree with their interpretation of it, but then the discourse grinds to a halt because the discussion becomes about reading.

The reason you disagree FWIW is that you believes 'snapped up quickly' means near-instantaneous, whereas they see it as more of 'with the right strategy you can be the snapper'

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