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

Ask YC: Finding a co-founder(s)

news.ycombinator.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

31–36 of 36 posts

Re: Ask YC: Finding a co-founder(s)

#31

Post by lsc »

aaronblohowiak wrote: post #22
lsc wrote: post #20

My problem is recognising tallent outside of your core compentencies. If you can recognise tallent, it's easy enough to pick up people who are on the rebound from bad jobs, or who haven't gotten much paid experience yet. I regularly hire friends of friends, but then I hang out with very technical people who have very technical friends. I've picked up a lot of really good technical people with little experience and pa…

recognizing talent is one thing that humans are amazingly bad at, as recent HN stories about malcom's new book and the nytimes article about competent vs nice coworkers have suggested. i dont know if an iterative model can work in staffing. this is why experience is so valued by companies -- if you've done stuff, then you are able to do stuff (though, maybe you're a big faker who got lucky.)

I think recognizing talent in the context of an interview is difficult, but not impossibly so. I think judging how well they work, (do they 'get stuff done') is much more difficult during interviews, unless the person has solo projects. I know working for others, I've recommended several 'smart but useless' people after interviewing. Usually when hiring people I know, though, I know in what ways they are useless, and can hire for positions where I can make up for their weaknesses.

but I don't think it's difficult to judge a person if you have known them for a while, especially if you are the type to talk about technical things in social contexts.

I think the problem appears when you are judging things outside your field, or people you only see for an hour.

Re: Ask YC: Finding a co-founder(s)

#32

Post by webwright »

bkovitz wrote: post #6

I found a co-founder by posting on craigslist. We have very different styles: I am improvisational, creative, always willing to try an idea, in love with writing beautiful code, mostly driven by aesthetics and idealism. He is organized, managerial, skeptical, oriented toward business and negotiation and the world of money, good at researching and finding out how other people have solved a problem, though he still enj…

Hrm. This seems like it CAN work (clearly) but is really sub-optimal... Like hunting for a wife on dating sites or hunting for an employee in a resume database. A lot (but not all) of the best options aren't going to put themselves out there as targets because the signal-to-noise ratio is so bad.

I'd second the "find the watering hole where your prey is" comment.

Re: Ask YC: Finding a co-founder(s)

#33

Post by aaronblohowiak »

lsc wrote: post #31
aaronblohowiak wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

recognizing talent is one thing that humans are amazingly bad at, as recent HN stories about malcom's new book and the nytimes article about competent vs nice coworkers have suggested. i dont know if an iterative model can work in staffing. this is why experience is so valued by companies -- if you've done stuff, then you are able to do stuff (though, maybe you're a big faker who got lucky.)

I think recognizing talent in the context of an interview is difficult, but not impossibly so. I think judging how well they work, (do they 'get stuff done') is much more difficult during interviews, unless the person has solo projects. I know working for others, I've recommended several 'smart but useless' people after interviewing. Usually when hiring people I know, though, I know in what ways they are useless, and…

Yes, agreed. I should have specified the scope limitation to my statement of the interview context.

Re: Ask YC: Finding a co-founder(s)

#34

Post by dtang4 »

My friend pointed me to your thread. I am in a very similar situation.

I've been out of school for a little of 2 yrs and work in LA as a mgmt consultant. I've been developing sites for a number of years, and currently run a couple social networking sites and a search engine, among others. Send me an email if you're interested to meet up for coffee or something. My email is dtang4 [at] gmail [dot] com.

Thanks.

Re: Ask YC: Finding a co-founder(s)

#35

Post by Rod »

aaronblohowiak wrote: post #8

Restating your problem: the circles I run in now don't have what I am looking for, how can I find what I am looking for? Simple answer: change the circles you run in. Go to the watering hole for the prey you want to take down -- users groups, coworking facilities, and professional networks like workingwithrails and linkedin. Then, do a small test project, then try a harder project together. Expect to go through many…

+1, Gratuitous, yet hilarious, musical interlude ;-)

It cracked me up, LOL

Re: Ask YC: Finding a co-founder(s)

#36

Post by jond2062 »

dtang4 wrote: post #34

My friend pointed me to your thread. I am in a very similar situation. I've been out of school for a little of 2 yrs and work in LA as a mgmt consultant. I've been developing sites for a number of years, and currently run a couple social networking sites and a search engine, among others. Send me an email if you're interested to meet up for coffee or something. My email is dtang4 [at] gmail [dot] com. Thanks.

Sent you a message jond2062 [at] gmail [.] com
Post reply on HN