ZEROmail – Co-founder Search Goes On « Bart Jellema | Hacker News Reader

ZEROmail – Co-founder Search Goes On « Bart Jellema

blog.bartjellema.com

17 pointsGVRV8 comments

It sounds like you're looking for a first employee rather than a cofounder?

A person who comes in after the idea has already been defined and the plans have been drawn up isn't really a cofounder. At the moment the business is structured around your and Katrin's idea, and your common skills. Are you willing to change it substantially to accomodate the skills of the third person? If not, then he/she is not a cofounder, imho.

PS: Btw, that may explain why "they're not lining up". Cofounders are paid founder equity (lots of it... in this case, I'd expect 30%). Employees are paid cash and options. My guess is you're not paying a decent wage and you're not giving enough shares for a cofounder.

Even though the idea is already there, we are still looking for an equal co-founder... no pay, no options, just equity in the same way we get it... which should build up to roughly 30% or so.

It's funny, I clicked on the link to read this, and suddenly he mentions Katrin. I worked with her on a small project, and was hugely impressed by her skill and her in general. Whoever gets to work with her is quite lucky!

Best of luck to Katrin and Bart - too bad I can't relocate to Sydney :D

That's a nice comment! Wish I could frame it and put it on my wall... Thanks, Itay! :)

You never said explained why you need them to move to Sidney. Sure, that might be implicit, but there can be hundreds of reasons... Maybe by expliciting it, you could help a possible cofounder to consider it the proposal more seriously, or even show you a way of how he can solve your need for him to be there, which would allow him to work remotely.

Also, as swombat mentioned here as well, you look more like you are hiring an employee to join your startup than inviting a cofounder to help build it.

We believe working remotely is counter productive in a startup. There is something about a bunch of people in a room with a whiteboard that can't be beaten. Since in a startup so many forces are already against you, we think it's important to not compromise on the factors that you can control. So to maximize our chances of success we need to all be in the same room with a whiteboard...

Interesting that many of you think we're looking for an employee rather than a co-founder... We must have not made that clear enough. If we find someone to join the team in the next few weeks, they will be an equal co-founder. No pay, their fair share of equity and an equal vote in decisions.

We can do this with the 2 of us, but we think our chances of success go up with an extra co-founder. Someone as excited as us about the idea and with the right incentives.

That's interesting. We're trying to solve the same problem with BetterInbox, and I know how hard it is to find co-founders. (still searching)

Best wishes to you guys. I'm actually trying to relocate to Silicon Valley, otherwise, would have loved to meet you.

It seems to me "as long as they are willing to relocate to Sydney" winnows your field to an impossibly small number pretty quickly. Coders can work very well remotely now.

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