Untitled topic

Go to local programming and tech meetups and talk to people. Where do you live? In some places this may be harder to do than others.

In general, if I was at school and some guy walked up to me and said "Hello. Are you interested in opportunities?" I would probably think you were insane. This has actually happened to me twice.

Might be a good idea to include your contact info in your HN profile too.

1.

Make sure you position yourself so that people want to work with you. Work on your website and your authority first. If someone else is looking for a cofounder, would they contact you? - You need to reach that position first... your possible co-founder needs to be as much of a fan of your work as you will be of his work.

When I was looking for a cofounder, I created a kind of "elevator speech" for my startup idea. And then called 20 people asking if they knew someone who knew someone... went through 30-40 possible suspects before meeting with and interviewing a few of them.

2.

Birds of a feather fly together. Find someone talented in the area you are looking for. And even if she is not available as a co-founder - see where she hangs out. Pick her brains. And ask her if she has friends who would be interested.

Hang out at events that are about the talent and skills you're looking for.

3.

Create tools and presentations that will wow the person you want to partner with. Folks work many hours to create a PPT for VCs and banks. But a partner is even more important than that. So spend the time after her that you would spend after a VC. Buy them dinner. And spend 60 minutes convincing them why your idea could be the next big thing. And why you are a good person to partner with.

Their past performance is a good indicator of their commitment.

I am also a firm believer that "environment trumps discipline." So maybe (and just maybe) their inconsistency with your project is because they've failed to create an environment that forces them to work. (Thats why many lazy folks become disciplined if they're given a deadline with a promise of a bonus if they meet the deadline.)

I do rely on a few tricks - for example - I see if the potential partner reaches out to pay the bill after dinner. I'll always pay the bill - but I just want to see if they make an effort. Shows if they have a sharing personality or not. Selfishness doesn't go well with new startups imho. Obviously - this is not a scientific test.

Another tip I picked up from Zappos - is asking them how weird they are. Some weirdness is necessary.

And oh - I'll sign an MoU with them only after they've worked on something small for you first. Only real work will show if you both are a good fit. And if they're committed and timely.

Also - look out for any red flags - or any gut feelings too.

Experience with an ex-partner: we worked well together for 3 months. Then one time I met him and I got this feeling that things aren't looking good. The crazy thing is I still don't know why I got that feeling. Things at that time were actually going very well and we were actually discussing ramping things up. But a week later - he sends an email and that leads to us not working anymore.

Usually though - red flags are more obvious. A meeting with a potential partner - he started out saying that an app would take $15,000 to make. When he saw I didn't balk at the price, he raised it. And then he raised it again. By the end of the meeting, he was at $40,000. So look out for inconsistencies like these - not only in price - but with all their answers.