Ask HN: My co-founder bailed on me What do i do now? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: My co-founder bailed on me What do i do now?

9 pointssammville16 comments

I did not want to bring this up but i feel HN offers the best advice. I am a 19 year old student in university and i build apps as a hobby. I built a survey tool to help you survey website visitors and still looking for ways to make it kick off. I got a co-founder on HN, who was supposed to help with the business and marketing side because i have had no luck in that area with my previous projects. He helped out for a while to organize the website properly, worked on the site's copy and bailed after 3 weeks without doing the main job i wanted a co-founder to help out with. So now i am stuck. I don't have an idea on how to market the site without spending loads of money or contacting bloggers (which i have had no luck before). What do i do HN?

View on HN

I can relate. Only a couple of weeks ago, days after submitting our YC application, my co-founder (technical half) bailed on me. Fortunately, I had a few other friends that were interested in my idea and they jumped on the opportunity. You can't dwell on it. Shit happens! As an entrepreneur this probably won't be the first or last time that something comes out of left field. I would try to find out why this dude bailed and then use this opportunity to find another co-founder, ideally one you know in person. As an active student, you have access to so many people on campus. Find someone that is passionate about your idea and compliments your skill set. If there is an entrepreneurship club or program at your school, that might be a good place to start...

You can build stuff. In this economic climate, that gives you an advantage in cofounder negotations, as there's a huge supply of unattached business people floating around.

I've been in a vaguely similar position. Don't freak out, and don't think of yourself as desperate. Don't settle. Don't rush things either. University is a great place to meet people who could become cofounders, so meet people.

The easy answer: find another co-founder-- one who is as passionate about your idea as you are. Of course, this may not really be all that easy.

Which leads to the difficult question: what's there to love about your idea? I'm sure there are many of us reading this who are saying to themselves, "Another survey widget? Ho hum." To which you reply: "Yes, but this one is different. This one does X."

This "X", of course, is your secret sauce. Your "unique value proposition."

Now, if you don't know what X is, then figuring that out is what you need to be working on. It's going to be hard to attract co-founders or customers without it.

If you do know what X is, then pitch it around to other potential co-founders. Locally-- you want someone in the same city. Sure, it's possible to collaborate remotely, but I wouldn't recommend it, especially under your circumstances.

To summarize: define your "unique value proposition." Find a local co-founder who is passionate about it. And then, apply to YC.

Thanks michael_dorfman. I would try looking for one but can you offer marketing advice. There are competitors in my space including kissinsights. We don't use an obstructive and annoying widget to collect feedback. It is more affordable and simpler to use than my competitors. We give even free users the power to set their own questions instead of forcing them to use templates or pay a hefty price for that option.

Some free advice, for what it's worth:

Don't lead with "more affordable." Trying to be the cheapest in the market is a losing strategy, generally speaking.

"Simpler to use" is good. "Less annoying to end-users" is good, too.

I assume you've got pilot customers. If you don't, get some. I don't mean users-- I mean customers. Get five people to pay for your product. Get their opinions.

Now: think of a problem your product solves. I mean, one, specific, real life, concrete instance. You're looking for a story. Because that's what you want to pitch to bloggers/journalists. Features don't write stories-- anecdotes do.

Read Patrick's blog. Take his advice seriously.

And, good luck!

Make sure that the break with your ex-co-founder is a clean one, i.e. ensure that company ownership, IP rights etc is resolved in a way that leaves no room for doubt at some later point.

You should try to avoid a situation where he can return at some later point with a potentially legitimate claim to a part of any business that your company may have evolved into.

We never signed any agreements so i don't think it would be a problem. Thanks for the advice

When you find another partner, give them a stake in the project (equity; incorporate if you haven't already - its not expensive), having skin in a project makes it more difficult to arbitrarily walk away.

Careful - have it vest over time! Don't sign over equity immediately to someone that could bail on you and keep the equity.

You should still check this carefully. It would suck to find out after you have started making money that you're about to get slammed with litigation.

You do have a problem. He may come back later and claim half the company. He can claim verbal promises and will probably win. Best to have a lawyer draft a release and have the guy sign it.

A friend of mine hired a contractor without a work for hire agreement. The guy came back later and claimed the software. It cost my friend $20k to get rid of him. And that was when $20k was real money.

So my non-lawyerly advice is to always have some sort of simple document to protect yourself.

Yes, you need to have this person sign something stating that he doesn't own anything.

And go watch The Social Network.

Try to conduct an "exit interview" with the person who bailed. That way, you can find out why they bailed; if the reason is something that you can address, you'll do better next time. As others suggested, find another co-founder. Having equal levels of co-founder enthusiasm is the exception, rather than the rule, so don't be discouraged.

you're not alone. it takes a certain type of person to start a business, let alone run one. Most get wrapped up in some romantic fantasy about what they see on TV about owning a business. Contrary to the dream, it is work.

Partners are very over rated, but YC seems to like them. I've had several, all worthless. it's tough, you got to find someone with the same passion, or there will be significant differences down the road, especially with work load and responsibility.

watch out for going into business with family members - i've never seen that work out well either.

also, verbal agreements are just as enforceable as written ones, which is why you always get a written agreement. Contracts are a tool to prevent/protect future problems/litigation. Again, this is experience talking. I made over $1M in my first business, and then spent $250K defending it from a partner with a cocaine habit. I won, but it was tough and extremely expensive. You make money with this, he will comeback to haunt you.

If you do NEED a partner/founder, be very cautious. It can be good, but more often than not i've seen partnerships wreck friendships, marriages and families...

My co-founder left my project about 2 weeks as well. It would be great to connect. Connect with me at gsawhney at vt dot edu.

post a "review my startup" on hacker news

Reply on news.ycombinator.com