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Comment by toisanji | Hacker News Reader

My bet is that most of the people on their site are non-technical. There is nothing wrong with that, but it always seems like there are way more non-technical cofounder candidates that technical cofounder candidates. I've always wanted to work with a cofounder who is way more technical than I am, but I usually end up with junior developers in the projects I do. What are your opinions on how the starting team's skillset?

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I think that there is something wrong with that. I have found that business co-founders are a dime a dozen but tech co-founders are extremely hard to find and in high demand. Oddly enough this creates the same situation that you find on traditional dating sites (e.g.: too many men not enough women). But even with that said. It seems like a cool idea and I hope they do well.

On the flip side, I find it difficult to find a business co-founder. Knowing little about business, I'm concerned with finding someone who will work well with me, but who is also good. How do I rate certain factors? What do I look for?

I think it's a real problem. How, as a developer, can I find someone who really is a business person, and not just someone who isn't technical. You see, there are a lot of non-technical people interested, but not as many people who are actually proficient. Business people is such a generic term. What aspect of business is someone good at?

Maybe that's an issue with what I'm looking for. Not a business person. A "business person" is like asking for a "developer." I mean, really, what is a "business person." It's like labeling myself as a "developer." What does that tell you?

Absolutely nothing useful.

Just like traditional dating it's just numbers. Go out and meet people. Then you two should go on dates and test the relationship. Seriously. My friends linked up because they only called and talked to each other at 2 in the morning. Someone else I know went to Burning Man and became a dev/biz team. Using an OKCupid for startup founders seems silly though.

I met my wife on OPN (Now FreeNode) back in 2001. =) So yeah, I sorta never followed the traditional dating route. However, your point is understood. And yes, I do need to go out and meet new people.

A general business person is not much use to a technical startup early on. To paraphrase Peter Drucker, every business has only two core functions: innovation, or marketing. So any "business" co-founder had better be awesome at marketing/sales (those are related, but not the same), preferably with domain knowledge and people-access in the market of interest that's difficult for outsiders to get. Typically, you could evaluate those skills by outputs: reading a marketing document, seeing a presentation, and drilling them with questions. Just like with programming jobs, titles don't mean much; there's no shortage of schmoozers and BS'ers who can't actually do marketing well, especially in the fluid, fast context of a startup.

Beyond those business skills, you'd likely want the usual requirements of any co-founder: integrity, and a record of getting things done.

Sounds good. I'd hope to be in high demand. I'd rather be in high demand in the local dating scene, to be honest but then, this isn't Lovesick Hacker News, so I'll keep that to myself.

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