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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?

#61

Post by selfinvariant »

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 have to agree that this advice is awful too, unfortunately.

As an engineer for an early-stage startup you daily work and value add - shipping things and invest into deep engineering work, would not be very well aligned with networking and relationship building that would be beneficial to start on your own.

Another interesting idea to consider - as a FAANG engineer you would be able to angel invest already (or fairly soon). That would be a productive (quite expensive though) way to meet more people interested in the same things as you do.

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

#62

Post by wombatmobile »

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…

Nicholas Carr wrote in Los Angeles Review of Books:

Seeking to keep the true nature of its work from the public, it adopted what its CEO at the time, Eric Schmidt, called a “hiding strategy” — a kind of corporate omerta backed up by stringent nondisclosure agreements. Page and Brin further shielded themselves from outside oversight by establishing a stock structure that guaranteed their power could never be challenged, neither by investors nor by directors. As one Google executive quoted by Zuboff put it, “Larry [Page] opposed any path that would reveal our technological secrets or stir the privacy pot and endanger our ability to gather data.”

https://lareviewofbooks.org/article/thieves-of-experience-ho...

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

#63

Post by marc__1 »

renewiltord wrote: post #57
ZephyrBlu wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Fastest company to reach $100m ARR [1]:

Slack - 3 years Twilio - ~5 years ServiceNow - 6 years Shopify - 7 years

[1] https://www.bvp.com/bvp-nasdaq-emerging-cloud-index

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

#65

Post by davemel37 »

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.

When Groupon pivoted from The Point it grew insanely fast. 2008 - $0 2009 - $15 million 2010 - $313 Million 2011 - $1.6 Billion

Source: https://www.macrotrends.net/stocks/charts/GRPN/groupon/reven...

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

#66

Post by davemel37 »

marc__1 wrote: post #63
renewiltord wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I believe Uber's revenue grew at that pace.

Fastest company to reach $100m ARR [1]: Slack - 3 years Twilio - ~5 years ServiceNow - 6 years Shopify - 7 years [1] https://www.bvp.com/bvp-nasdaq-emerging-cloud-index

This list is saas companies. Its missing all consumer brands.

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

#67

Post by mch82 »

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.

Optimistically, he did just reply to a cold post :-)

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

#68

Post by halfmatthalfcat »

lisper wrote: post #46
mav3rick wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

You'd be surprised. VCs will often respond to cold calls because part of their job is to cultivate connections with people who will be starting the Next Big Thing. The best way to do that is to get them into their rolodex before they get on anyone else's radar. But be careful what you wish for. Getting the cold call response and even the first meeting is relatively easy. But it is also easy to exhibit a level of clue…

Why would you get blackballed for being clueless? Are founders suppose to come equipped with how to speak VC jargon? Aren’t VCs suppose to find unpolished talent with the ability to execute, invest and be a resource to make them successful?

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

#69

Post by chrisgoman »

Unfortunately, founder-dating is the same as normal dating but probably even harder as the stakes are higher. It's very difficult to find same "motivation-level" people (how much do they "want" it, are they as "hungry" as you, etc.) and it is very hard to gauge with talk as you have to see their actions to really know and sometimes it may be too late. At the same time, there is also the "stage in life" (single, married, etc.) and how much can they risk (like a 45-yr old person may not be able to quit their high-paying job so you will carry the load and end up with a lot of resentment)

Since you work at a FAANG as an engineer, I assume you are fairly well compensated so I suggest finding a semi-expensive hobby (definitely not FIRE friendly) like sailing or flying which may cost like $1k/mo to something you remotely enjoy so you get to meet people from all walks of life and domain expertise enjoying a "not cheap" hobby. The fact that they can afford it means they are motivated. The person doing your hobby may not be the person you end up starting a business with but it may be one-step away (degrees of separation).

This may be bad advice ... so take with a grain of salt :)

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

#70

Post by skmurphy »

We have helped a number of teams form at the Bootstrapper Breakfast over the last fourteen years. You are welcome to join us, here is a schedule of meetings in September: https://bootstrappersbreakfast.com/2020/08/25/roundup-of-eve... You can also see a list of meetings on eventbrite: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/silicon-valley-bootstrapper-bre...

I would NOT quit your day job until you have a clear direction and a reasonable certainly of progress. Treat your current employer as a passive investor in your next venture.

Here is a pointer to the first blog post in a series that provides some practical advice on how to find cofounders: https://www.skmurphy.com/blog/2010/06/25/finding-a-co-founde...

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