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Please stop asking how to find a technical co-founder.

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Re: Please stop asking how to find a technical co-founder.

#21

Post by thwarted »

retube wrote: post #10
cletus wrote: post #5

Good post. Speaking as a technical guy, my default position is to be turned off by co-founding with a business guy unless they have an amazing track record. I like the advice of earning a technical co-founder. I just wish more business guys realized their ideas aren't that special, aren't a magic way of printing money and just coming up with the idea doesn't entitle you to 75% of a two-man venture. It doesn't even re…

> It doesn't even really entitle you to an extra 10%. Depends on the capabilities of the business guy. The best idea in the world, with the best technical execution in the world, is worth precisely $0 without the capability to bring it to market: to build sales channels and drive growing revenues. This is a real skill, often over-looked by gung-ho coders with a neat idea. If you don't have the contacts and the experi…

If business guys want to earn their chops, there are a bajillion open source products out there that a solid consulting or VAR business could be built of off. Learning how to, for example, configure file servers with samba for small businesses, or set up blogging platforms, are a good way to get some technical chops too, and is most likely going to take less time to get good at than becoming a kickass programmer. And it's more practical experience than telling people about your awesome idea that just needs to be implemented.

In other words, there are a lot of business opportunities for which a majority of "the technical part" is already done.

Re: Please stop asking how to find a technical co-founder.

#22

Post by VuongN »

I completely agree with this article, I would also add the following. I'm so tired of seeing these posts on HN--I do appreciate the genuine feelings, but my gosh, I am so frustrated when I see posts on Ask HN: 1) What should I build? 2) What programming language should I learn? Both question tells me the poster hasn't done enough thinking and research on their own and is asking a VERY BUSY community to do the legwork for them. The questions should be from this stage:

1) You are trying to build this idea, you've researched and tried a few strategies in thinking about this [then explain what you're thinking], any other suggestions before you go build this thing? Fine, this is a meaningful conversation we can have and will afford opportunities for everyone to learn from it. Most of us are building something because we mostly CAN'T sit by/live without it NOT being built.

2) If you're a young and a starting out hacker, all you have to do is Google your questions. Most questions, believe it or not, have been answered. All the programming language X vs Y, framework A vs B questions are usually answered extensively by many other wise hackers that went before you. If you don't spend the time to read, understand and appreciate those reading/researches which many hackers in the community had spent the time writing them out specifically for YOU, all ou're doing is asking a VERY BUSY community to do your basic legwork for you. No, that's now how it works. Most of us learned stuff/languages because we are hungry for it. We ask questions on freenode etct, read articles, books AND discuss in depth about what we're trying to learn.

/rant

Re: Please stop asking how to find a technical co-founder.

#23

Post by wisty »

retube wrote: post #10
cletus wrote: post #5

Good post. Speaking as a technical guy, my default position is to be turned off by co-founding with a business guy unless they have an amazing track record. I like the advice of earning a technical co-founder. I just wish more business guys realized their ideas aren't that special, aren't a magic way of printing money and just coming up with the idea doesn't entitle you to 75% of a two-man venture. It doesn't even re…

> It doesn't even really entitle you to an extra 10%. Depends on the capabilities of the business guy. The best idea in the world, with the best technical execution in the world, is worth precisely $0 without the capability to bring it to market: to build sales channels and drive growing revenues. This is a real skill, often over-looked by gung-ho coders with a neat idea. If you don't have the contacts and the experi…

So, you need a sales guy.

I don't think I've ever met a self-described "business guy" who wasn't a student.

If someone is a great salesman, they are a "sales guy". If they write ads, they are a "marketing guy". If they allocate capital, hire and fire, and lobby the CEO for more funds they are "managers".

When people say "business", it means they don't know what they are able to do, but want to make money. Or that they want to be the manager, but don't want to say it.

Re: Please stop asking how to find a technical co-founder.

#26

Post by invalidOrTaken »

int3rnaut wrote: post #11
dmitri1981 wrote: post #2

One thing that irritates the hell out of me every time is meeting a 'business' guy with the world's best idea, who is prepared to let a lucky developer have 10% of the venture in return for building the damn thing. I am yet to meet a developer who has not had this very same experience.

What would you consider fair and reasonable? I'm one of the people who needed to read this article, because I am not as technical as I need to be to see my idea through, but I'm also not a "business" guy--and I am coming into this endevour with little to no baggage or pre-conceived notion on how things work--I honestly thought if I ever did find someone technical (I'm paying freelancers right now) it would be a 50/50…

There are two sides to it. It depends on whether you're overvaluing your own contribution. What exactly will you do while a technical cofounder is building your product? If you don't have a solid answer, you're not contributing much.

On the other hand, technical people, like many people, value money. Hiring an employee #1, rather than looking for a cofounder on equity basis, is the right move for some people. #aaronpatzer

Re: Please stop asking how to find a technical co-founder.

#27

Post by wtn »

luke_osu wrote: post #12

Last week I was approached by 2 business type guys looking for a technical partner to start a business. One of these guys I already knew from years back. Immediately I got the impression that these guys were very passionate and very serious about their idea. It helps that their idea was a good one. What really impressed me is they had already done a lot of the leg work. They picked out a name and had a logo designed.…

A key point here is that you already knew one of the guys.

Re: Please stop asking how to find a technical co-founder.

#28

Post by JoeAltmaier »

dmitri1981 wrote: post #2

One thing that irritates the hell out of me every time is meeting a 'business' guy with the world's best idea, who is prepared to let a lucky developer have 10% of the venture in return for building the damn thing. I am yet to meet a developer who has not had this very same experience.

During 2002 (post-bust) I got approached 5 times with the sweet deal of developing a product for Nothing, and no specifics at all for equity down the road. Got to be a joke with my technical friends - How many are you up to today?

Re: Please stop asking how to find a technical co-founder.

#29

Post by lutorm »

wccrawford wrote: post #4

I think you de-stress the 'having an idea' too much. Having a truly great idea -will- attract a co-founder. Well, if they hear it. It's not a magic spell. Also, being the 'idea guy' might be over-rated, but being the 'vision guy' is definitely the bee's knees. At a previous company, 1 man was the vision behind the entire product. I can't tell you how many hour-long meetings were ended in 5 minutes when he showed up a…

It's true that those people are valuable. But would you really believe that this guy was the "vision guy" if he'd just said so? The guy in your story did earn it, so it kind of affirms the OP.
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