Why you can('t) recruit a technical co-founder • Hacker News Board

Re: Why you can('t) recruit a technical co-founder

#11

Post by hippo33 » Thu, Mar 10, 2011, 6:35 PM UTC

mikeleeorg wrote: post #10

mindcrime wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not sure about "having trouble," but I'll say that - in my own experience - it isn't necessarily easy. I've been trawling for a sales/marketing/bizdev guy for a few months now and haven't had a whole lot of success finding anybody. But, to be fair, I haven't tried that hard yet. But still, some insights into what it takes to tempt a sales/marketing/bizdev guy into a startup would be useful... at least, I know I'd fin…

Finding a good sales/marketing/bizdev guy is certainly not easy. I'm a developer-turned-biz guy, so I can offer a bit of insight from my perspective, though it may differ with others. First, it's important to recognize the market to which you are targeting. Yours is enterprise software, which you correctly realize is different than consumer software. This speaks to the different skills you'll want in a biz guy. Secon…

Thanks, Mike -- great advice!

Re: Why you can('t) recruit a technical co-founder

#12

Post by dystopia » Thu, Mar 10, 2011, 7:20 PM UTC

mikeleeorg wrote: post #10

mindcrime wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not sure about "having trouble," but I'll say that - in my own experience - it isn't necessarily easy. I've been trawling for a sales/marketing/bizdev guy for a few months now and haven't had a whole lot of success finding anybody. But, to be fair, I haven't tried that hard yet. But still, some insights into what it takes to tempt a sales/marketing/bizdev guy into a startup would be useful... at least, I know I'd fin…

Finding a good sales/marketing/bizdev guy is certainly not easy. I'm a developer-turned-biz guy, so I can offer a bit of insight from my perspective, though it may differ with others. First, it's important to recognize the market to which you are targeting. Yours is enterprise software, which you correctly realize is different than consumer software. This speaks to the different skills you'll want in a biz guy. Secon…

Great comment.

I get pitched a lot to be a technical cofounder, and I put a lot of thought into assessing the biz skills of a potential sales/marketing/bizdev cofounder.

As you said, some ideas may be better suited to having someone with a sales background as a co-founder while others for someone with killer marketing skills.

And I've also found in the past that I have a different working dynamic with sales vs. marketing people as they often complement/overlap my skillset in different ways.

Another random thing to add regarding founder dating from the techie side is an awareness if someone is giving off the vibe that they're really looking for their first engineer even though they say they're looking for a true cofounder.

Finally, I try to distance the individual from the idea and ask myself, "Would I want to still co-found something with this person if things don't work out and we have to do a hard pivot from the original idea?" I would rather team up with someone great on a marginal idea that may evolve into more than someone just because I think the idea is killer. Most people I know in Silicon Valley have a million ideas on the backburner anyway, so it's a red flag to me if the idea interests me more than the person.

Re: Why you can('t) recruit a technical co-founder

#13

Post by hippo33 » Thu, Mar 10, 2011, 9:59 PM UTC

dystopia wrote: post #12

mikeleeorg wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Finding a good sales/marketing/bizdev guy is certainly not easy. I'm a developer-turned-biz guy, so I can offer a bit of insight from my perspective, though it may differ with others. First, it's important to recognize the market to which you are targeting. Yours is enterprise software, which you correctly realize is different than consumer software. This speaks to the different skills you'll want in a biz guy. Secon…

Great comment. I get pitched a lot to be a technical cofounder, and I put a lot of thought into assessing the biz skills of a potential sales/marketing/bizdev cofounder. As you said, some ideas may be better suited to having someone with a sales background as a co-founder while others for someone with killer marketing skills. And I've also found in the past that I have a different working dynamic with sales vs. marke…

Agreed, dystopia. I would've expected the personality-fit to be of top importance, so it's surprising to me that it really wasn't that important to the people filling out the survey.

Re: Why you can('t) recruit a technical co-founder

#14

Post by mikeleeorg » Thu, Mar 10, 2011, 10:17 PM UTC

hippo33 wrote: post #13

dystopia wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Great comment. I get pitched a lot to be a technical cofounder, and I put a lot of thought into assessing the biz skills of a potential sales/marketing/bizdev cofounder. As you said, some ideas may be better suited to having someone with a sales background as a co-founder while others for someone with killer marketing skills. And I've also found in the past that I have a different working dynamic with sales vs. marke…

Agreed, dystopia. I would've expected the personality-fit to be of top importance, so it's surprising to me that it really wasn't that important to the people filling out the survey.

I suspect you didn't see personality-fit being of top importance only because the survey didn't offer that as a topline item. At least, not that I can remember or can see in the results.

I've seen a lot of cofounder relationships dissolve because of personality-fit alone. Both parties were at the top of their game and highly accomplished individuals. But together, they were awful. Everything from lack of trust to lack of shared vision hurt their rapport. They all eventually fizzled away.

I definitely should have listed it as #1 in my answer. Whether people realize it or not, personality-fit is very, very important. dystopia brings up a great reason for this. It's very possible you & your cofounder will need to pivot significantly. If the biz person can't do so well (ie. skills are not aligned, interest is not there, can't handle this "failure", etc), then this isn't the right cofounder for you.

Re: Why you can('t) recruit a technical co-founder

#15

Post by orenmazor » Fri, Mar 11, 2011, 3:23 AM UTC

hippo33 wrote: post #5

mindcrime wrote: post #3

Can we just "sticky" this to the top of HN, as a perpetual answer to the (seemingly) daily "How to find a technical co-founder" thread? Seriously though, that was good stuff. Now how about a survey that goes the other way? One that's directed towards technical types who are looking for a non-technical co-founder (that is, a "the sales / marketing / bizdev guy" type.)

thanks mindcrime -- hmm, I'd never thought about that. Are people have trouble finding non-technical co-founders? (good sales / BD?)

maybe in NYC or SF it's easier, but where I am (Ottawa), I'm finding big-business/gov sucks up all the non-technical people. So I end up being a technical guy either on my own, or pitching other technical guys.