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

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

#31

Post by TuringNYC »

davidivadavid wrote: post #22
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

Right, so the terminology is not accurate because you're not technically dating your cofounder, but... you still have to start "dating" someone to become cofounders eventually.

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 to them (e.g., before they are on their best behavior due to courtship), and ideally for a longer period of time so you can see how they are in stressed situations.

Everyone is usually on their best behavior during dating, so you don't know how people react under real pressure (e.g., when millions of dollars of theoretical paper equity are on the line on some crucial decision, or when interests diverge.)

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

#32

Post by codesushi42 »

eloff wrote: post #26
kevin wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Startup School is a good way to start finding a friend with similar interests. You gotta start somewhere. - Kevin (YC Partner / Startup School Instructor/Host)

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…

Getting married to someone you just met on a dating app would probably be a bad idea. It could still work. Arranged marriages aren't much different.

Aside from that, there's no issue using a dating app to find that special someone you should marry. Same goes for founder dating. You have to start somewhere.

In any case you should try working with your potential cofounder first. A friend isn't necessarily a good cofounder.

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

#33

Post by EllenChisa »

pbiggar wrote: post #29

Looks like a good time to write my guide on how to find a cofounder and what to do when you do. Quick summary: - based on 3 failed cofounder relationships, 1 successful company (CircleCI) - current cofounding ( https://darklang.com ) very strong - spoke to 50 potential cofounders (not 2-3 like before) - 50% of my pipeline were founders with underrepresented backgrounds - after first 10 had a profile that I was lookin…

@pbiggar's cofounder here!

+1 to everything Paul said, especially cofounder therapy.

The other thing that really helped me was understanding what I wanted from a cofounder (philosophically, skills-wise, ideology) before I was making a this person-or-not decision. Feels less personal.

I got that knowledge by doing many hackathon/intense sprints with other people to figure out when people tended to not work for me: https://blog.ellenchisa.com/startup-lockdown-day-0-576d2d7d4.... I also had a good sense of traits that others found annoying (esp when they quit other jobs) that I felt fine with.

Other useful things: - Explicitly naming "red flags" and things we were worried about. - Calling Paul's previous cofounder (who graciously agreed to talk to me).

As a random thing I still find interest, I said no when someone tried to warm intro me to Paul, but agreed to meet when he sent me a cold email. Felt more sincere somehow.

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

#35

Post by davidivadavid »

TuringNYC wrote: post #31
davidivadavid wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Right, so the terminology is not accurate because you're not technically dating your cofounder, but... you still have to start "dating" someone to become cofounders eventually.

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.

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

#36

Post by eloff »

codesushi42 wrote: post #32
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…

Getting married to someone you just met on a dating app would probably be a bad idea. It could still work. Arranged marriages aren't much different. Aside from that, there's no issue using a dating app to find that special someone you should marry. Same goes for founder dating. You have to start somewhere. In any case you should try working with your potential cofounder first. A friend isn't necessarily a good cofoun…

There are always exceptions. It still makes it a bad idea.

And I don't think there's anything wrong with using it to meet like minded people who you might collaborate with one day.

But let's not ignore the fact that single founders can be successful too, and one of the biggest causes of startup failure is co-founder disputes, according to YC's own data. The real question is, will it help more than it hurts? The good news is we may know in a few years with this experiment YC is running.

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

#38

Post by TuringNYC »

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.

I cant speak to the GP comment, and I understand the catch 22, however IMHO your history need not be long with them, but I think it is very important that the history is on where you've seen their honesty+integrity+ethic under strained conditions, ideally where they dont know they are being directly evaluated.

Imagine your founder and you are sitting on a train and a lady gets off the train leaving behind a huge gold pendant. If you are both together, perhaps he may virtual signal by calling out to the lady. Wow, what a fine gentlemen and citizen.

Now imagine he is alone, you're far off in the corner of the train watching him, it is dark, and he doesn't realize he's being watched -- do you think he might keep the pendant or would he still act the same way?

Then realize that gold pendants arent found every day, so really you're waiting to see how the person performs when they have hard unselfish decisions to make -- the longer you observe people under independent circumstances that more such events you find and then hopefully you can gauge the person's honesty+integrity+ethic.

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

#39

Post by baby_wipe »

bravura wrote: post #37
baby_wipe wrote: post #34

This works great as a reality check to see how my idea isn't as original as I thought.

Does this mean if you sign up for startup school that your idea is shared with everyone?

As far as I know. I don't remember seeing an option and mine is showing.

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

#40

Post by codesushi42 »

eloff wrote: post #36
codesushi42 wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Getting married to someone you just met on a dating app would probably be a bad idea. It could still work. Arranged marriages aren't much different. Aside from that, there's no issue using a dating app to find that special someone you should marry. Same goes for founder dating. You have to start somewhere. In any case you should try working with your potential cofounder first. A friend isn't necessarily a good cofoun…

There are always exceptions. It still makes it a bad idea. And I don't think there's anything wrong with using it to meet like minded people who you might collaborate with one day. But let's not ignore the fact that single founders can be successful too, and one of the biggest causes of startup failure is co-founder disputes, according to YC's own data. The real question is, will it help more than it hurts? The good…

Successful single founders are very rare.

Agreed that the biggest cause of failure is issues between founders.

One could say then that you should only start a company when you have a cofounder, and one that is good. But in reality there's no way of knowing who will be good.

The best proxy is choosing someone you have worked with before. A coworker for instance.

Simply choosing a founder because you hang out with them is not a good idea.

Try moonlighting with your founder dating buddy before making the leap.

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