Ask HN: Why is it so difficult to find a co-founder? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: Why is it so difficult to find a co-founder?

3 pointsbluefits7 comments

To tell you a little bit something about myself, I've joined a fair amount of startups, worked professionally as an engineer in bigger companies., have had my own startup, but ended up leaving due to internal problems. And still, the question that I find myself asking, how do I find the right co-founders? In your personal experience, what are the methods that you use in order to find your initial founders? What are the most effective ones in your experience?

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Your title says ‘co-founder’, but then the body of your question says ‘team’.

In my experience the two are quite different. Co-founder relationships are much more critical and also need a different kind of personal relationship from the rest of the team.

Team is very important and not easy to get right, but you can hire experienced professionals, manage them well, and get good results. You can also replace or reposition team members as the demands of the organization change, in a way that you cannot so easily with co-founders.

Which is your primary concern?

The primary concern would be finding co-founders. Because as you said you can hire experienced professionals, but finding that initial fouding members is a bit more difficult, I think. I was just wondering what methods have other people used in order to find that partner/partners.

You might want to edit your post to narrow the question then.

My next question would be how many co-founders are you looking for, and what do you need them to bring to the table?

Not sure about how many, but it can be as small as one or as big as 5 and up. I can build complicated software, websites, and I am well acquainted with design conepts. Find a co-founder who can fill in my weaknesses is perhaps what I'm looking for. And more importantly, we need have the same vision and passion for the startup. That is difficult because its hard to convince someone that your idea is worth the commitment. So my question is, how do people usually find that right co-founder/co-founders who can believe in your vision?

Simple but hard answer:

1. Get very clear about what weaknesses you have. The clearer you are about these and the less afraid of them you are, the more easily you’ll be able to recognize someone who complements you. This will also help you figure out where to look.

2. Cultivate relationships with people who complement you and who help you to think in ways you can’t do alone. Invest in these relationships whether or not the individual is available to be a co-founder - they may help you find the right person, or their circumstances may change, but either way you’ll be practicing the kind of relationship that you’ll need with co-founders so that when you find the right one, it will be obvious.

If you want talent, loyalty, and commitment, offer significant amounts of money and significant amounts of equity. This reads like one of those "i have an idea i cant pay for it but i'll give you 1% of the profit it'll be bigger than facebook" posts to me.

If you want people to 'grind it out' and they have like, 2% equity, they have no skin in the game nor will they be willing to make large sacrifices for nothing.

I dont have a problem with sharing equity and of course people should be paid what they are worth. I was just more interested in how people usually find their co-founders.

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