Find Co-Founders, Don't Get Screwed

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

47 points by chris100 15 years ago | 14 comments

dannyr 15 years ago |

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.

dabent 15 years ago | |

It seems to me that they're also trying to manufacture something that seems to occur naturally. From the founder's stories I've seen, many of them were friends before they got the idea to do a startup. That's why they seem to be able to weather the ups and downs of starting a company - their friendship isn't tied directly to the company.

Things like meetups, including Startup School could be a good place to get the right people together and just let them get to know each other and discuss ideas.

bravura 15 years ago | | |

It seems to me that they're also trying to manufacture something that seems to occur naturally.

I was going to make a comment that finding a co-founder is a lot like dating, and that dating web sites have improved (but not completely fixed) the dating process.

Right? Like on a co-founder site you can list you turn-ons and turn-offs, to determine compatability. "Bootstrapping is a turn on.". "Windows is a big turn off."

Then I realized that most couples who met on the internet, much like all other couples: They end up fighting about money, trust, shared responsibility, etc. And, in all likelihood, they separate. And I realized that, in company founding, the co-founder "dating phase" is something that happens WELL before you start a company together. You build trust and a relationship over time.

So perhaps starting a company with someone is more like marriage, but with alimony vesting. It seems like accelerating that process would need a very different approach than fixing the "dating" process.

pg 15 years ago |

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.

sp4rki 15 years ago |

I think that people just climb in the bandwagon of finding someone to make their product with without first asking themselves if it is really necessary to do so at this time and if the other person really is needed.

If you have an idea, please develop as far as you can alone while you're able to do so within your means. Hell anyone can make a prototype in Omnigraffle or Keynote to later pitch the idea. There are lot's of things a non tech founder can do before requiring a cofounder and vice versa. Hopefully while doing so you'll find a person that's a good fit and whom you can trust and respect. And of course, even then create vesting agreements for either a viable but "not too soon" time or based on goals and acomplishments.

starkness 15 years ago |

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?

alain94040 15 years ago | |

(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 :-)

rmah 15 years ago | |

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

mostafaa 15 years ago | | |

IMHO, for success, the cofounders have to work as a team, which can only be achieved if there is friendship. You can either have this friendship relationship before you start (you start a venture with a friend who becomes a cofounder), or you can try to develop it later on (you find a cofounder who later on becomes a friend). The problem with the friendship-later model is that with these matching websites, there is no guarantee that you will get along with the co-founder to the extent that you develop a friendship relationship.

Besides respect, friendship gives you trust and commitment. Ideas of venture do change along the way. A friend is committed to you before the idea of a venture came along, hence, he will be flexible with the change in the idea, the company, the profits, etc. On the other hand, a co-founder (who was not your friend) joined you based on the idea (or the money), hence, he will be less flexible when things change (if no friendship develops along the way).

jmtame 15 years ago | |

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)?

staunch 15 years ago | | |

The two founders of Kayak (Steve Hafner & Paul English) agreed to be 50/50 partners and write checks for $1M each within an hour of meeting through a VC intro. Hafner likened it to speed dating in an interview.

Not exactly the same, but a pretty awesome example of two founders working well together with no prior relationship.

enki 15 years ago |

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.

PHPAdam 15 years ago |

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?

vaksel 15 years ago |

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