Seek cofounder before or after building a prototype? | Hacker News Reader

Seek cofounder before or after building a prototype?

4 pointsmagsafe2 comments

I'm a technical founder working on a sweet new consumer app (iOS related). I want to bring in 2 cofounders (a designer and a fellow developer) at some point.

What's the right time to bring them in? I'm currently in the prototype building stage. If I bring cofounders in now, they get to contribute vision, help speed it up. However, I also run the risk of not showing them a complete enough product to convince them to join me. They may decide to pass me up, or worse - take my ideas and build it themselves!

If I wait till a bit later (e.g. after launching a beta), I can make a better pitch to potential cofounders, and also ensure I maintain a lead. However, they will feel like "employees" instead of cofounders, since my personal vision is so baked into the product.

So, what's a better time to seek cofounders? Any suggestions on timing greatly appreciated.

Thanks!

This is a tricky question with no right answer.

If you are the vision guy and seek to maintain as much equity, you might want to build a prototype first.

However, you are running risks by not bringing people on board sooner. You risk speed to market, but more importantly, you risk heading in the wrong direction or spending a long time building something one way, when their might be a better, more usable way to build a part of your app. Thus, you may want to consider bringing the designer onboard sooner than your other developer friend, especially if the designer is really good with UI/UX and especially designing user workflows.

One of the reasons YC is reluctant to take on single-founders is because having two or more helps. You're much less likely to do something stupid if you have a talented co-founder you trust around to talk you out of it.

If the people you want to bring onboard are the kind that might steal your idea, then you probably don't want them as co-founders. Choosing a co-founder is like choosing to get married. It is not a decision to be taken lightly.

I have been dealing with this issue myself, albeit I am the 'business guy' so have been teaching myself development and am building out the prototype myself so that I can approach potential cofounders as more than just the 'business guy'. But for someone who already has the technical chops I would think you should start engaging potential partners sooner rather than later. There will undoubtedly be plenty of up and downs for your venture in the future and partners that are only interested after you have a product or traction may not be prepared for the full slog.

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