A) Not knowing enough people interested in startups.
B) Not knowing if people would make good or bad co-founders.
So this is certainly a step toward solving part A. The problem is it really does nothing toward solving part B, which is by far the hardest part of the puzzle.
I'm sitting here reading news.YC and there are comments from dozens of smart people, some of whom would make great co-founders and some wouldn't. The issue isn't for the most part isn't the fact that I don't know they exist; I know they all exist. The issue is a lack of identity.
If you want to solve the co-founder problem, the solution isn't to get a large amount of people interested in starting companies in the same room. The solution comes from getting them to know each other. This comes from two things:
A) Identity.
B) Interaction.
Identity is 10% what we say about ourselves, and 90% what others say about us based on previous actions. To solve the identity problem you need a way to either aggregate what others say about us or else shine light on previous actions. (Previous actions being anything from college degrees to old blog posts.)
Interaction comes from objects of sociability. Playing games. Breaking a loaf of fresh bread. Sharing a bottle of wine over dinner. A pot of tea. Solving hard problems together. Solving difficult problems together. etc.
Anyway, my point is that the website doesn't solve a problem. At best it is the first 10% of the solution that enables a few people with really good judgement to solve the problem themselves. More likely it encourages people to enter really dangerous territory and potentially get into a lot of trouble with people they barely know.
It sounds like you are saying that the interaction problem is best handled off-line, so is there any website that can really do that?
I recently joined a Meetup group in Baltimore and have already had some great interactions that way. There are far more technical people in my area than I had realized.
The thing is, uploading a profile pic and interests wouldn't let PG know how smart you are or what your personality is like. On news.YC, users are literally creating their own identities through their interaction with the site and with each other. Furthermore, PG designed the site so that users would interact in a way that would reveal the aspects of their character that are most salient to knowing whether or not they'll build a successful startup or go out and blow his money on hookers and beer.
news.YC is the solution to PG's identity problem. However, the problem of whether or not to fund a group is very similar to the problem of knowing whether or not to work with someone. PG's a smart guy. Think about which parts of his solution are relevant to your problem, and go from there.
On the app - when you say technical do you just mean things like programming, hardware, networking? Certainly more than tech skills are required. Is this site only for those with tech skills where someone a bit softer can find someone?
The first is that the people working on it aren't friends- They don't know each other well, so won't have the relationship to whether what comes..
The second is that people who are pulled together like this are unlikely to care deeply about the same idea..
The idea behind wanting co-founders is people who both believe in a dream, and can help each other through it.. That's not something that a site like this helps with.
Based on the feedack I've received, I changed the questions to be more general. I just realized I need to change the tag line as well.
"My dream is to start a company that" should probably be more along the lines of "I have plans and/or interests in the following areas-" I guess I would just step the seriousness up a little bit so you get people who are generally serious partners.
Finally, I'm normally against this, but this is one place where you may want to consider having the site invitation-only, either that or password-protect the site and let the password spread among founder-networked people. A lot of garbage profiles would ruin the usefulness of the site.
[upd] oh, and one more thing- maybe one more field where the potential co-founder can write about themselves- "about me" or "unique things about me" or something along those lines. Finding a cofounder is a lot about chemistry and an alignment of personalities, not just matching up needed technical skills. It's not a school project, it's more like a.... marriage, to be honest (nothing weird of course).
It also makes sence because people might be looking for skills that are not always technical (or maybe for people who do not self-identify as having technical skills).
As for the name, that is a big relief to hear you say that. My girlfriend thought it wasn't very 'cool-sounding' (i.e. not a web 2.0 name).
I never thought about the potential for garbage profiles. I'm not sure if I could be successful with it by using invitations -- I don't know anyone else in this world (yet).
One thing: should the search really include "Technical Weaknesses" as well?
http://news.ycombinator.com/comments?id=445
...so I decided to try setting one up. Please let me know what you think. There's no ads on it or anything, this is strictly a project to make connections and learn more about web development.
There is no need for social networking to extend to the business concept on this level. If you can not find a founder in your town, in real life, then start a business yourself. Either that, or don't start one at all.
Jason Berlinsky
