Out of curiosity, how long have you known each other (perhaps defined by when you first received an email from him via your HN submission and when you considered him a co-founder)?
I'd love to know this as well. Also, was their any specific criteria besides technical and that you got along with him when evaluating him as a co-founder? Are you located near each other (i.e. same city) or working remotely? Very cool story, thanks for sharing!
Do you have the content of the original post?
Did I miss a link to your current startup?
Great story ... I also posted on HN in frustration, nearly ready to throw in the towel on my programming career.
The resultant feedback completely changed my outlook and I haven't looked back since ... here it is:
Very interesting story. I went to a ruby meetup event and they told me the best way to build a team is to post what I have so far on GitHub. Just another thought for others looking for technical co-founders.