TechCofounder.com: Meet Technical Cofounders for your Startup
techcofounder.com
techcofounder.com
If I was building a system like this I would allow people to post an ad about the company they are starting, their location, the people currently involved, something about the vision of the company (without giving away too much), the expectations of how much work is involved, are the other people full time, equity on offer, the skills, experience and qualifications of the other co-counders, does location matter, do you need to be in the same city etc etc etc.
Instead this odd site assumes that searching for cofounders is about placing job ads. A bit strange.
It's possible that the first several postings along the lines of "Smart programmer wanted as co-founder for new social networking concept (that also shortens urls)", but it has since been noticed by recruiters as a "free job board" and thus is filled with "Programmer/Analyst III with J2EE" positions.
Perhaps they need to work on the tech a bit to discourage the job postings and encourage the actual entrepreneurial stuff.
Techcofounder.com is not a job site. It's meant to help entrepreneurs find technical people who are interested in doing a startup. Engineers create profiles listing skills, experience, etc. They aren't posting job ads.
-Ben
The anonymity angle is interesting, but I don't think it's critical. In fact, it probably hurts. If I can't read their blog, check out their tweets, or scan their LinkedIn profile, there's generally a lot less for someone to get excited about. There will be a lot of "toad kissing" to find a prince.
All it means is "somebody who programs computers". Translate it in your head and move on.
Seriously, coders are not the only valid cofounders for this kind of company, but they're the only necessary ones.
For example, I don't see a lot of coders begging for "a guy with the vision" who can provide them with a "can't-miss idea" they can put "sweat equity" into. It's always the other way around.
-Ben
Particularly, I'm thinking of people with specialized expertise or connections in a specific domain--people who know a niche, and could build a business, but need technology to make it happen and don't have the resources to just go hire a team to make it happen. Advertising to such an ill-defined demographic would be awkward at best, though.
As someone who is, for most purposes, a pure technologist, my ideal in a hypothetical cofounder (given basic things like "being able to work toegether") would be someone older, deeply familiar with some business domain populated by companies that are a bit behind the technological curve. Tech startups drive innovation in markets that tech people care about--but there's a lot of markets that get ignored, when a tech startup-style approach could seriously shake things up.
Since all the good minds on either side of the equation would already be locked into their own thing, I can't see how any of them would show up on a site like this (or its natural counterpart, BizCofounder.com).
As a result, all that's left is a pool of developers who either don't have any good ideas, or have been to afraid to make the leap on their own. Neither of those qualities are ones you'd look for in a potential co-founder.
but its a good start! Iterate your way to the top ;)
Oh: looks like I can edit my profile!
HTH.
I like the black and gold b/c it's kinda unique. looks different than most other sites.
In the non-tech to tech cofounder match, the tech guy actually has more leverage in the relationship on some level
@tom_ilsinszki, I will add int'l support shortly. In the meantime, please go ahead and create a profile and choose arbitrary location. I can update it for you later.
- I'd also prefer optional anonymity.
- I'd rather that the page views (such as the list of all coders) showed 50 or 100 items at a time.
Looks pretty interesting; I signed up to see what happens.