Why Finding Technical Cofounders Is Hard

Some of this work makes sense to me - the coding part. I have written code before. I can approximate the effort required (knowing my estimate is wrong, of course). The other part of the effort - marketing, getting users, convincing investors, other things I can't even think of - is an unknown to me. I have never done anything like it.

This is how you'd convince me to join your project: by convincing me you can take care of that other stuff I don't know much about. I think a team with complementary skills can work. But it has to be more or less an equal partnership. What will scare me off is the impression that I will be implementing someone's vague and constantly changing idea with no credit for my work.

There are 2 ways to do it.

One, you can give examples from the past how your marketing, monetization and bizdev skills contributed to a success of a startup. And talk about specifics, not generalizations. "My bizdev skills increased revenues 2x" is unverifiable generalization. "In a startup offering on-line marketing to restaurant owners I contacted every restaurant in San Francisco and booked 100.000 revenues for our services" is an example of a specific thing that you did, that brought value to a startup and a many people (e.g. me) would not be comfortable doing.

Second is to offer your ideas tailored to a specific person. "So, you're working on startup doing ..., here's a few ideas of things that I could do to get more business for your services".

I'm an engineer, and here's what I want out of a startup: I want to build something amazing. I want to be a part of something that people use every day. I want to solve important problems. I want to watch my projects grow, I want to watch the people around me be successful, and I want to hang out with people who are a LOT smarter than me. Arguably you have to have these qualities to be in the business of startups.

Now, you and I are not necessarily at odds. In fact, chances are, I would probably like you. But how do you show me? Here are some helpful things that you DON'T want to do:

* Don't just sit around. Show me that you have some sort of flair for the tools at your disposal, some panache for making things happen, show me that at least you understand how useful the tools at your disposal are (and that you get how they can affect the world around you).

For example: this one guy created an Ask HN [http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1351244] that pointed to an extremely simple rails app that he deployed on Heroku for free [http://roomie.heroku.com/]. All it is is one page that tells people who he is, what he does, and that he's looking for a roommate who is smart, a hacker, and interested in the same things. Of course, he actually is a code monkey (and you are not), but you get the idea. If you did something like that and lived in my area, I'd be like, "Fuck yes, I want to be involved with what he's doing!"

* Don't have nothing about you online. The problem for people like you is that you don't hang out with coders. I assume you don't, btw, since you asked this question. This is a problem because good hackers tend to hang out with other good hackers. So how do you show me, the hacker, that you are an awesome and worthy addition to any startup team? Maybe you write for TechCrunch, but probably not, so what are you going to do?

As a person interested in startups, there's a number of things I could judge you by. Me personally, I would start with whether whatever it is that you're doing captivates me. Maybe you are the guy from the last bullet point. Maybe you realized that business and CS at your uni are not connected at all, even though they really should be, and you created a student-based initiative that pays kids to go build cool projects they're interested in, and you blog in detail about how you got the money to do it, what challenges arose, etc. Maybe you're this guy: [http://alecbrownstein.com/project.php?cat=3]. Regardless, in general just remember that I'm a startup-focused hacker, so I'm interested in the whole process in general, not just tech. You NEED TO SHOW PROWESS FOR THE THINGS I'M PASSIONATE ABOUT, even if it's business or "other" stuff.

This brings me to a sub-point:

Be connected to the community. Did you just do something cool? TELL PEOPLE. There are tons of ways to do it. Did someone ask a question you can answer? RESPOND and FOLLOW UP. Get people excited about the answer. There are tons of people here. Some are rich, some are just getting started. A lot are smart. All are interested in what you're interested in. So, for the love of god and all that is holy, REACH OUT, and use it to your advantage. There is nothing really separating you from these A-M-A-Z-I-N-G (sometimes I-M-P-O-R-T-A-N-T) people around you. Don't believe me? Checkout this guy's story: Anyway, when people like me see that you've got traction in the community, we will be impressed.

* Not a "don't", but one last thing is, by being a part of the community, you naturally cultivate interests. I think that being successful is part figuring out where you fit in the picture of all your interests. A lot of people have the problem of seeing things the way they want them to be, rather than the way they are. So just be realistic about where you are. If you try to just be successful, you'll almost certainly fail. So I would say that, rather than trying to be successful, just ask what you can do that's interesting with your life. That's a good starting place. So maybe that is a don't: don't be fooled into thinking that where you end up is where you're going.

That should get you started. I'm sure you'll be fine. If you ever to actually get started, PLEASE drop me a line. I like hearing stories like that. Or post it to HN so we can read about it.

EDIT: I hope you don't mind if this makes its way to my Posterous!

If that's true, you have term sheets to show potential co-founders.

What? You mean that you can generate such materials and that they'll result in term sheets if you can just get someone to write some code. That's very different.

If you've done it before, you can argue that you can do it again, but if you haven't....

Tech folks code during interviews. Perhaps you should do what you say you can do and show us. Bonus points if you get some outside validation, such as an actual investor saying "if that coding was done, I'd be writing a check".

Speaking for myself, I understand that the business development stuff isn't just hot air, but I don't understand the business development stuff in and of itself. Additionally, I probably don't have the spare time to learn it, since I'm going to be bogged down in all sorts of unexpectedly hairy technical stuff.

(Note: this is actually the case at the moment with the startup I'm coding for.)

I like my boss and trust that he's got some sort of plan to make us all rich(er), maybe a thousand-aire by the end of the year, but the plain fact of the matter is that I still have bills to pay and unlike him, I doubt I can talk people into giving me money without a real product to show (or even if I have a real product to show).

But really, you're in the toughest position. Most business co-founders who didn't start with money were working with technical co-founders who were already their friends. If you don't know many nerds, start buddying up now :-)

Game over. If you don't have anything of value to add, it's not going to work. It's like applying for a job but saying, "I have no skills, but can learn on the job."

"I'm of the school of thought that it's best to wait until you have a beta/MVP built and getting traction before fundraising rather than trying to get cash based on an idea."

There's a big difference between an idea and evidence that people will buy a product. If you do enough quality market research, you can demonstrate the market potential of your product. You don't have to have a beta built before you can find out information about a market. And this is where you should start, because this is something of value that you can offer if you don't have cash or the ability to code. Learn how to find and evaluate good markets. Once you've found one, get funded and hire a coder to develop the beta.

"Convincing someone to have faith in your business ability and commit to work for equity as a cofounder is the bigger challenge."

That's because it should not be based on faith. It should be based on evidence. If somehow you can present facts that prove what you are trying to sell (yourself, your idea, whatever) then you'll be off to a good start.