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Ask HN: Where to meet people who are interested in building a company together?

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Re: Ask HN: Where to meet people who are interested in building a company together?

#51

Post by tepitoperrito »

I'll second shermanblanca's recommendations to build and learn in public. And to build an audience on a variety of social media platforms.

I was lucky to have met my non tech cofounder at my previous employer. We remembered each other as great to work with and decided to strike out together.

What you're lookig for is super interesting to me though, and something I think about often from a variety of angles. If you ever wanna chat more in depth about you can find me email in my profile.

I'm told this game is less about what you know than about it is about who you know. And now we've met : )

Oh, and if you shop online for anything you could buy in person, start shopping IRL. Oodles of lifestyle biz or startup potential just from being friendly with store owners and employees. They love friendly tech wizards who want to solve their problems.

Re: Ask HN: Where to meet people who are interested in building a company together?

#52

Post by jjk166 »

kareemsabri wrote: post #49
aunty_helen wrote: post #14

I’ll put this out there as a point that’s serious and I’ve come across a few times as both a founder and freelancer. No body wants to build your idea for free. For those that are reading this and thinking that finding a cofounder is actually just finding a set of hands you can work with, be buds and create your idea and you can split it 50-50 or whatever. Just stop. These people don’t exist in the random hallways of…

This is really not true. How do you think people start companies together when they don't have capital? By splitting 50-50 and working on something "for free" on nights and weekends.

But it's not one guy has the idea, one guy does the work. It's two people who have the same vision working together. One might be more technical than the other but the less technical person is still bringing something worth 50%.

Re: Ask HN: Where to meet people who are interested in building a company together?

#53

Post by startupsales »

There are a bunch of startup communities you can join like YC's startup school, on deck, and Antler offers programs to connect people who want to start something together around just an idea. Many other structured programs exist too. If you're a technical founder, you'll likely be accepted because they never have enough.

Another way is to start working on something of your own, get some traction, and if you still want a co-founder, it will be easier to find someone after you reduced some risk.

You can also join different startup communities and reach out to people in a genuine way to network. You'll need to have a lot of convos. I recently did this and most people were mercenaries, not founders.

Make it known to friends that you're looking for one and ask them if they can recommend people.

It's a major commitment to work with a co-founder so there's no reason to rush it.

Make sure to go through this if you think you found someone who might be a fit: https://proof-assets.s3.amazonaws.com/firstround/50%20Questi...

Re: Ask HN: Where to meet people who are interested in building a company together?

#54

Post by LZ_Khan »

I will say this as a coder who has worked with non-technical founders: unless you bring something to the table other than your idea, good coder's will steer clear.

The amount of work it takes to bring a coding project to fruition is massive. 50+ hour work-weeks, lots of uncertainty and wasted attempts, and a ton of stress from juggling a million moving parts. All while the non-technical dude rests on his laurels and "PM"s his way through the workweek, providing general guidance in pointless meetings. This has been my experience twice and I will never work with a non-technical person again unless A) His idea is entirely groundbreaking and the chance of success is high B) He has strong marketing chops and takes care of the growth question.

Re: Ask HN: Where to meet people who are interested in building a company together?

#56

Post by Gtex555 »

jjk166 wrote: post #52
kareemsabri wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is really not true. How do you think people start companies together when they don't have capital? By splitting 50-50 and working on something "for free" on nights and weekends.

But it's not one guy has the idea, one guy does the work. It's two people who have the same vision working together. One might be more technical than the other but the less technical person is still bringing something worth 50%.

It's not even about bringing something worth 50%, you will often find at that early stage even having someone who brings 35% value while working as a team is worth giving 50% stake cause startups are so hard. It's usually down to owning 100% of nothing or 50% of something in those situation.

Re: Ask HN: Where to meet people who are interested in building a company together?

#57

Post by [deleted] »

aunty_helen wrote: post #14

I’ll put this out there as a point that’s serious and I’ve come across a few times as both a founder and freelancer. No body wants to build your idea for free. For those that are reading this and thinking that finding a cofounder is actually just finding a set of hands you can work with, be buds and create your idea and you can split it 50-50 or whatever. Just stop. These people don’t exist in the random hallways of…

[deleted]

Re: Ask HN: Where to meet people who are interested in building a company together?

#59

Post by majestic5762 »

LZ_Khan wrote: post #54

I will say this as a coder who has worked with non-technical founders: unless you bring something to the table other than your idea, good coder's will steer clear. The amount of work it takes to bring a coding project to fruition is massive. 50+ hour work-weeks, lots of uncertainty and wasted attempts, and a ton of stress from juggling a million moving parts. All while the non-technical dude rests on his laurels and…

You are right and I agree 100%. This is my experience as well.
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