Find Co-Founders, Don't Get Screwed

#1

Post by chris100 » Sat, Oct 23, 2010, 3:52 PM UTC

Find Co-Founders, Don't Get Screwed
venturebeat.com

Re: Find Co-Founders, Don't Get Screwed

#2

Post by starkness » Sat, Oct 23, 2010, 4:12 PM UTC

Hmm given all the discussion about friendship being of utmost importance for cofounders (particularly in the case of YC), do people think this would work?

Re: Find Co-Founders, Don't Get Screwed

#3

Post by alain94040 » Sat, Oct 23, 2010, 4:19 PM UTC

starkness wrote: post #2

Hmm given all the discussion about friendship being of utmost importance for cofounders (particularly in the case of YC), do people think this would work?

(founder here). We have some more ideas on how to better pair founders and at least make sure people don't make stupid mistakes. That would be an improvement for many first-time founders, maybe not good enough for the experiences HNers, but they can manage on their own usually :-)

Re: Find Co-Founders, Don't Get Screwed

#4

Post by dannyr » Sat, Oct 23, 2010, 4:31 PM UTC

I have seen so many sites related to finding a cofounder. In my opinion, there's an oversupply of them.

I know a lot of people looking for a cofounder but most of them are non-engineers.

My guess is a lot of these sites may have a lot of seekers but very few actually find one. It's a like a dating site where it's mostly men.

Re: Find Co-Founders, Don't Get Screwed

#5

Post by rmah » Sat, Oct 23, 2010, 5:04 PM UTC

starkness wrote: post #2

Hmm given all the discussion about friendship being of utmost importance for cofounders (particularly in the case of YC), do people think this would work?

While friendship is nice, I don't think it's necessary. More important, IMO, is respect.

Re: Find Co-Founders, Don't Get Screwed

#6

Post by vaksel » Sat, Oct 23, 2010, 5:19 PM UTC

i think at this point we need someone to build a site that aggregates all these cofounder finding sites.

Re: Find Co-Founders, Don't Get Screwed

#7

Post by jmtame » Sat, Oct 23, 2010, 5:34 PM UTC

starkness wrote: post #2

Hmm given all the discussion about friendship being of utmost importance for cofounders (particularly in the case of YC), do people think this would work?

i'm curious if there are any good examples of cofounders who worked well together and met through one of the third party founder dating approaches? or do most founders meet each other serendipitously (e.g. randomly at a coffee shop, some common interest group at school, dorm roommates, etc)?

Re: Find Co-Founders, Don't Get Screwed

#8

Post by PHPAdam » Sat, Oct 23, 2010, 5:38 PM UTC

As a developer id rather give up 3 percent of equity, of something worth nothing at the time, than pay $9.99 per month. Key to any start-up without investors is to keep regular costs down.

foundrs.com is not the end all of incorporation, it seems to have nothing for "assets". Who owns the code? Author or Company. Who owns the domain? Registrar or Company?

Re: Find Co-Founders, Don't Get Screwed

#9

Post by pg » Sat, Oct 23, 2010, 6:14 PM UTC

I would want to hear what a lawyer said about these agreements before using them. Misincorporating yourself can be disastrously hard to fix, and this could have the same problems. It's better to sign nothing than to sign the wrong thing.

Re: Find Co-Founders, Don't Get Screwed

#10

Post by enki » Sat, Oct 23, 2010, 6:16 PM UTC

that article makes it sound like immediately distributing equity is super important. having a rough idea of the pie sizes is probably a good idea, but 1 month vesting like the site says? no way! honestly, at this point i wouldn't start anything without a one year cliff for all cofounders (including me) anymore.

if there's a net positive return on kicking you within the first year, you're either not pulling your weight or your cofounders are acting irrational and will kill the company anyway.