Ask HN: Finding a Co-Founder while in High School?

> but I don't need the entrepreneurial sense

Horrible statement. You want your cofounder to be very entrepreneurial regardless of whether he's the business cofounder or the technical cofounder. Otherwise what you're really looking for is a coding monkey disguised as a cofounder to avoid having to pay because you don't have the means to.

> I need someone with a greater or equal knowledge of programming and (more importantly) a drive to actually use that knowledge.

Having a drive is important. Either you or your cofounder needs to be good enough on the technical side. But it sounds like you're discrediting someone who knows his business and marketing chops. Its definitely hard to find someone that knows it in high school but I would be careful about disregarding this in favor of technical talent if you are already a developer. A lot of startups fail not because they aren't able to build their product, it's because they're unable to get it out to the market.

> I know a few people in startups and plenty of people who work in some part of Silicon Valley, but most of those people are considerably older than me (40+) and/or not someone who I would want to work with.

Age shouldn't be a determining factor albeit I can see where you're coming from. However there are plenty of people in their 20s in the valley and the startup scene.

> You might be wondering how being in high school is related to finding a co-founder, or if not a co-founder someone to work on a particular project with, and it's because based on what I've read/heard, people find co-founders in college/university. I don't have that advantage of being grouped with people of similar interest.

No, we're not wondering that. College just is the norm. You need to get a better idea of what you actually need in a cofounder rather than just what you assume you need. And you can find ways to network and meet people of similar interest, even in the East Bay.

Hope that helps.

"> but I don't need the entrepreneurial sense Horrible statement. You want your cofounder to be very entrepreneurial regardless of whether he's the business cofounder or the technical cofounder. Otherwise what you're really looking for is a coding monkey disguised as a cofounder to avoid having to pay because you don't have the means to."

I meant that I don't need the business sense as much as I need the technology sense.

"> I need someone with a greater or equal knowledge of programming and (more importantly) a drive to actually use that knowledge. Having a drive is important. Either you or your cofounder needs to be good enough on the technical side. But it sounds like you're discrediting someone who knows his business and marketing chops. Its definitely hard to find someone that knows it in high school but I would be careful about disregarding this in favor of technical talent if you are already a developer. A lot of startups fail not because they aren't able to build their product, it's because they're unable to get it out to the market."

My primary reason for not getting anything I'm working on out to market is because I'm thinking a lot more about the idea than actually spending time coding it. I start coding and soon after I realize a better way to approach it, and then I start working on that better way and the process repeats itself. I think this process will fix itself if I were to have a co-founder. In addition, having a specifically technical co-founder would speed up development time tremendously.

"> I know a few people in startups and plenty of people who work in some part of Silicon Valley, but most of those people are considerably older than me (40+) and/or not someone who I would want to work with. Age shouldn't be a determining factor albeit I can see where you're coming from. However there are plenty of people in their 20s in the valley and the startup scene."

Age isn't a determining factor. It's the individual's personality, and more importantly, whether I think I can work with them and if they think they can work with me. I haven't come across people wherein both of those conditions were met.

One of challenges of doing this in high school is that the student body is like unenriched uranium, pretty much everyone has to go to school and so the mix is broad. One of the things that colleges do is that they typically have the kind of student in mind who will be successful there, and they have depth in various programs, so they create a selected population out of the total possible population, thus creating a more highly enriched entrepreneurial ore.

As you don't get the benefit of that selection process by the high school (unless perhaps its a private school that lots of people have been competing to get into) you're best bet are places where such self selection is done. For business folks there is DECA, for engineering folks there is FIRST, for musical folks band, for future CS and math majors there is chess club :-). But all those share the property that they are a self selecting group, if there is a club or extra curricular activity you find interesting, and its voluntary, chances are better you will find like minded individuals participating in that activity.

So depending on your Co-founder needs check various clubs in the space that meet in the Bay area.

Congrats, you're starting early. I wish I'd known to do so when I was younger.

I've been struggling with this problem for several years without success, but I've made some progress, met several great friends. So I have a few things worth trying that I've been meaning to write up, but haven't gotten around to it yet.

Feel free to ping me to discuss offline. (Email in profile.)