Quick summary:
- based on 3 failed cofounder relationships, 1 successful company (CircleCI)
- current cofounding (https://darklang.com) very strong
- spoke to 50 potential cofounders (not 2-3 like before)
- 50% of my pipeline were founders with underrepresented backgrounds
- after first 10 had a profile that I was looking for (PM in consumer or devtools)
- had a 40 part questionnaire that potential cofounders filled in, took about 90 mins, sent them my answers after I got theirs
- prioritize chemistry and company value alignment (eg questions like when do you want to sell the company)
- worked together on small company-building projects for a few weeks to assess fit
- went to cofounder therapy (still going, it's been two years)
- getting 50 is hard, I asked for recommendations from friends, colleagues, investors, posted on social media and linkedin, used angellist, went to meetups, cold emailed people, cold linkedin messaged. All produced good leads and lots of bad leads
+1 to everything Paul said, especially cofounder therapy.
The other thing that really helped me was understanding what I wanted from a cofounder (philosophically, skills-wise, ideology) before I was making a this person-or-not decision. Feels less personal.
I got that knowledge by doing many hackathon/intense sprints with other people to figure out when people tended to not work for me: https://blog.ellenchisa.com/startup-lockdown-day-0-576d2d7d4.... I also had a good sense of traits that others found annoying (esp when they quit other jobs) that I felt fine with.
Other useful things: - Explicitly naming "red flags" and things we were worried about. - Calling Paul's previous cofounder (who graciously agreed to talk to me).
As a random thing I still find interest, I said no when someone tried to warm intro me to Paul, but agreed to meet when he sent me a cold email. Felt more sincere somehow.
Over 11K founders have already signed up for Startup School. Classes start July 22nd. https://startupschool.org
- pg
- Kevin (YC Partner / Startup School Instructor/Host)
Long term this could be a good idea to meet people with similar interests, but to partner with for your next startup maybe. Not for now.
I mean, it seems like a bad idea to me too, but you guys have access to a lot more data than I do.
- Dave, Post-Exist Technical Cofounder, Senior Engineer and Manager Being Honest About Their Opinion Of Kevin's Credibility On This Subject.
Doing business (especially a high-risk, high-stress startup) with friends can lead to the elephant in the room effect when in the long term the founders focus on preserving their relationship thus avoiding the friction.
Side note: the author is a teacher, not a serial entrepreneur where one of Aristotle's quote hold its water: “Those who know, do. Those that understand, teach.”
[1] https://www.entrepreneurship.org/learning-paths/founders-dil...
"make friends through business, but don't make business with friends" was his response. a quote that stuck with me ever since.
Ex: I'm building a new mapping product right now and know very little about image signal processing, but was recently introduced to a CV engineer who blew my mind when we were introduced on LinkedIn. I'm not sure we'd hangout had we not been intro'd, but we get along just fine and her ability to instantly illuminate concepts that had been taking me weeks to grasp is exactly what I need in an early-stage startup cofounder. I think the timing risk of waiting for the "right one" is much greater than finding someone who might not check all of the boxes but meets 90% of what you're looking for. As always, YMMV.
I'm doing this right now as a solo co-founder and wish I had someone amazing to have my back.
we often forget how many things started...netscape founders (jim clark and marc andreessen) met through an email!
I know people who have married after 3 months of knowing each other and it works, and I imagine the same can happen for founders -- but -- who wants to take that chance? The ideal "marriage" whether in relationships or business settings (IMHO) is one where you observe the person before you are tied to them (e.g., before they are on their best behavior due to courtship), and ideally for a longer period of time so you can see how they are in stressed situations.
Everyone is usually on their best behavior during dating, so you don't know how people react under real pressure (e.g., when millions of dollars of theoretical paper equity are on the line on some crucial decision, or when interests diverge.)
I need someone really awesome in product + growth OR an amazing React + frontend developer.
We've made GREAT progress so far..
Here's the rough elevator pitch.
Polar is a tool for managing knowledge which is kind of a hybrid of Kindle, Github, and Slack. Polar allows you to keep all your knowledge and reading material in one place. You can easily suspend and resume reading complex technical material and annotate and take notes directly without ever having to leave your reading platform.
More specifically, Polar implements spaced repetition, is a technique from cognitive science to prevent the user from forgetting the material they've read. This same technology is used in other platforms like Duolingo but we apply it to other areas outside of just language learning.
... and here's what I'm struggling with at the moment.
1. The long term vision is large but I have to do a better job of explaining the short term vision.
2. I need to do a much better job of conveying the 'aha' moment to our users who visit the site.
3. Marketing right now can definitely be improved. Huge opportunity there.
I've nailed a LOT but of course everyone has limited talents and time. The areas where Polar shines:
- our users that 'get it' LOVE Polar.
- we have a lot of users that STILL love Polar but are waiting to come on board due to one or two smaller missing but critical features. Like Firefox support or mobile or something along these lines. They users LOVE the app once they get the aha moment.
Despite that I'm probably not co-founder material. I'm heading back to Uni in September to study comp sci. But I'm interested in finding impactful side projects.
If you're interested in a chat email me: jpk@zealous.digital
It’s pretty frustrating actually; it seems obvious to me that it will be the future of human-computer interaction.
I have been waiting for someone to build it for the past 18 months... but nobody seems to be working on it. I finally said “screw it” and I’m going to build it out myself.
If this sounds interesting feel free to reach out! I’m one of the ones looking for a cofounder. (Twitter is easiest. My dms are open)
So what's the "right" thing to do?
Have a cofounder to greatly increase your chances or success, or endanger your company by getting a cofounder?
If you choose a great co-founder with complementary skills and personality, it will drive you forward. If you choose poorly, you would have been better off staying single. The only thing that is really going to matter is your specific results. There is no reason for there to be a general rule that applies to everyone.
Nothing like a cofounder with no real world experience, YC level entitlement, and a history of running/failing out of an overcapitalized tech-startup.
1) act as recruiter yourself. Yeah, some activist investors will tell you to only focus on core business stuff/creating product market fit but that's just certain people's opinion. Presumably you have some kind of network you can leverage + you can cold message people earnestly
2) Contract with a recruiting agency to perform some of the administrative/vetting part and give you the candidate for 1-2 interviews. You only pay for each hire. Expensive (I've heard of rates in the 10-30k range) but definitely does not cost $50k for zero result. This has the added benefit of allowing you to bundle recruiting tasks that you yourself probably don't have time for like background checks
Maybe people are "good by default" and all that, but I do have some very early stage startup experience (VPEng), and both the founders and the employees have enough trouble trying to not get screwed even without such additional complications. Money and egos always find a way to ruin everything.
Are your a chess player with a taste for risk? I'm interested in creating the company of the future, heavy on processes and UX. Let's mix empathy and Sun Tzu's the Art of War to create a global conglomerate?
