You can now use YC's Startup School directory to find a cofounder • Hacker News Board

Re: You can now use YC's Startup School directory to find a cofounder

#121

Post by em-bee » Sun, Jul 14, 2019, 4:01 AM UTC

mrep wrote: post #27

eloff wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm with pg on this, starting a company with someone is a bigger commitment than getting married and without the physical chemistry to help things through tough spots. You'd be crazy to do that with someone you just met. I can't help thinking you'd actually be decreasing your odds of success versus just being a single founder. I'll stay a single founder and I feel that's the right decision for me. I can weather the h…

> starting a company with someone is a bigger commitment than getting married How? You can leave a company you founded at any any time without any financial repercussions usually but marriages you cannot unless you get a prenup (which probably costs legal fees) and that's not even including the ring nor wedding.

and when you have children, then a permanent separation is impossible unless one partner gives up seeing the children ever again. you are connected for the rest of your lives

Re: You can now use YC's Startup School directory to find a cofounder

#122

Post by em-bee » Sun, Jul 14, 2019, 4:06 AM UTC

bradam wrote: post #95

ekc wrote: post #6

"Cofounder dating" is a bad idea. Cofounders should be friends before starting the company. - pg https://twitter.com/paulg/status/852493839176785921

Adding an opposite view, Noam Wassermann in his book "The Founder's Dilemmas"[1] concluded after analysing loads of startups that weak links or acquaintances (friends of friends or persons in the same community) are better co-founders. Doing business (especially a high-risk, high-stress startup) with friends can lead to the elephant in the room effect when in the long term the founders focus on preserving their relat…

an acquaintance of mine went through this experience. started a business with friends. the business went bust, and the friends broke up over it.

"make friends through business, but don't make business with friends" was his response. a quote that stuck with me ever since.

Re: You can now use YC's Startup School directory to find a cofounder

#123

Post by em-bee » Sun, Jul 14, 2019, 4:09 AM UTC

jammygit wrote: post #18

ekc wrote: post #6

"Cofounder dating" is a bad idea. Cofounders should be friends before starting the company. - pg https://twitter.com/paulg/status/852493839176785921

If I build it, who’s in for a online cofounder dungeons and dragons? Meet in the game, change the world!

DnD and similar games are a great way to get to know someones character. how they act in a game shows how they might act in business. (a game with higher stakes)

Re: You can now use YC's Startup School directory to find a cofounder

#124

Post by em-bee » Sun, Jul 14, 2019, 4:15 AM UTC

davidivadavid wrote: post #35

TuringNYC wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Dating sounds like a great idea, but I find it difficult to imagine getting to know someone in a small amount of time. I know people who have married after 3 months of knowing each other and it works, and I imagine the same can happen for founders -- but -- who wants to take that chance? The ideal "marriage" whether in relationships or business settings (IMHO) is one where you observe the person before you are tied t…

Sure, so it means you should be "dating" for a longer time before you start a company with someone. I'm just not sure I understand the point that's being made here, because it sounds like it's impossible to meet your future cofounder unless you've already done something with them, which is a pretty obvious catch 22.

when getting a client, i always like to start off with a smaller project before jumping into something big. same would goes for a co-founder. lets start a loose cooperation, without long-term commitment. let's see how it goes. make that commitment after the initial project(s) have gone well.

Re: You can now use YC's Startup School directory to find a cofounder

#125

Post by nl » Mon, Jul 15, 2019, 11:40 PM UTC

codesushi42 wrote: post #117

eloff wrote: post #115

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It doesn't tell how many companies with single founders fail vs teams, but it shows that single founder companies comprise about half of successful startups on crunchbase. It's not perfect, but it's hardly bad either.

>It doesn't tell how many companies with single founders fail vs teams Exactly, that missing information is what makes the data bad . Negative examples are needed to make any meaningful comparison between single vs team. You're missing an entire distribution showing success vs failure. You gave a perfect example of selection bias. You would make a terrible statistician, or maybe you're highly skilled in the art of Ho…

You could back off on the personal attacks some.

Imperfect data is a fact of life. Provided you understand what it represents ("Of startups that succeed, a large proportion have single founders") there is nothing wrong with using this.

It's much better than what you have offered: no data and insults to anyone who disagrees with you. You may want to consider this when thinking about why you have been unable to find a co-founder.