Ask HN: How do I meet a co-founder? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: How do I meet a co-founder?

4 pointsthenerduk7 comments

TL;DR I'm 18 and I need a co-founder but have no connections or knowledge

Let's ignore the fact that I have no real experience, startups are hard etc. but I really need a co-founder. Problem is, I'm a fairly good programmer, I can happily sit down and code pretty much constantly for months. But I need some help with my idea, I need a co-founder to help me out with some of the business stuff I don't understand, getting designers/other staff, helping with the pitches to investors and all that sort of stuff. I have no real connections locally (All the work I've done has been with people from the US, I live in the UK), it'd need to be someone prepared to fully commit to the project and be enthusiastic.

What do you suggest? I've looked around, there are no "hackathons" near where I live, and even if I was to go to London they're not very often or as popular as the ones in the US. I don't really want to just start going round telling everyone my idea but I'm not going to get anyone on board looking for someone who want's to take part in "a secret project".

I'd be interested to hear your thoughts -Sam

My two cents -

I could be wildly wrong, but it sounds like you want to start a company more because you know you want to be an entrepreneur than because (a) you have some idea that you are convinced will revolutionize the world and (b) you are convinced it is your destiny to bring this innovation to humankind.

If this is correct, given your age, I'd recommend either going to a school or working in an environment where you will be surrounded by really smart and ambitious people. This may not be the best way to find a co-founder right now but in my opinion, it will yield the best results in the long run. You are young enough that you can afford to invest in the future a little.

One point in favor of going to a really good school for college would be that it's the one option you have that you can't do when you're older (or at least it's a lot harder).

You didn't mention where in the UK you are. If you are near Birmingham, you can contact http://oxygenaccelerator.com and see if they can help you find a co-founder for your idea.

At your age you have going to university as an option and meeting people there who you may want to team up with. In the mean time I would suggest looking at the lean start-up movement to help you with the business side of things.

Good luck.

Haha, yeah I'm from Birmingham, I'm actually applying to Oxygen this month but they say on the website "While we don’t screen applications just because they have a single founder, it does make things more difficult" (Hence this post). I did look around the Oxygen website but couldn't find anything like that, do I just use the contact form?

Contact them and ask about any meet and greet or co-founder matching events they are hosting. If they aren't, then you may want to suggest they do (that should win you some brownie points for when you do apply).

Also check your local meet-ups:

http://www.meetup.com/Birmingham-Open-Coffee/events/20668251...

http://www.meetup.com/The-Birmingham-Entrepreneur-Meetup-Gro...

http://www.meetup.com/Warwickshire-Entrepreneurs/events/2005...

"I don't really want to just start going round telling everyone my idea..."

Ideas are cheap, start building something. It'll help you recruit people and you'll almost certainly need something tangible to get funding.

If events are that lacking in the place you live, chances are that you need to move. If your hometown doesn't already have a lively ecosystem, it's probably going to be very difficult to recruit employees or make sales from there.

I think you should work and develop a working prototype of your idea. Having an idea and bring it to prototype stage is just the beginning. Even when you are have a working prototype, you have no idea whether users will buy in the product or not, and actually pay for it. Without a working prototype, it is tough to any traction or mention on it.

With all these ground work undone, dun think you want to bringing in a business person to help.

I'm not a good cofounder candidate for geographic and other reasons, but I'd be happy to step you through some idea options and potential business models.

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