Letter to a Co-Founder | Hacker News Reader

Letter to a Co-Founder

64notes.com

42 pointskingsidharth21 comments

Disregarding the weird tone, the letter makes some interesting points.

  None of us is the best person out there.

This whole notion of someone out there being the best programmer (or person, or whatever) is fallacious. While there are certainly many degrees between "awesome" and "failing", it's important to recognize that either you're indeed awesome at what you're doing right now or it's time to move onto something else. Of course, the definition of "awesome" is completely subjective so you have a lot of room for introspection there.

  That’s irrelevant! Because we are best for each other.

This is an important sentiment, certainly one of the most crucial ones in a co-founder relationship.

I have seen what it looks like when it's not working out: we were friends before the startup, we liked to talk about crazy ideas all day. But a while into the startup, all we talked about was money and disappointment. This created an atmosphere of misery and failure, long before the actual failure of the company. If I were to do a startup again today, I would look for this kind of synergy the author is describing. It's important. It's not enough to just be a bunch of dudes hacking away at stuff.

"It's important. It's not enough to just be a bunch of dudes hacking away at stuff."

I Disagree. This is the most productive environment for me. The issue is that people set out to start a company and not solve a problem. A bunch of dudes siting around hacking to start a company might not be the best idea but a bunch of dudes sitting around trying to solve a problem is the best way to start.

I don't see the point of having cofounders in that case. If it's really just a bunch of guys hacking away at stuff, you might as well just hire them. I admit I'm on the fence about the whole "you have to have a cofounder" thing to begin with - my own experience with having a cofounder hasn't been that great (it's not his fault, or mine, it was just a bad dynamic in general).

> a bunch of dudes sitting around trying to solve a problem is the best way to start

I totally agree. Without a great and creative team you're screwed. This article isn't about those aspects, though, isn't it? It's about what else a cofounder should bring to the table that moves the company forward.

Let this be a lesson: never write a letter to a co-founder while drunk or high!!

If anyone were to send me this I would be forced to spend the next two nights trawling through their commits to find out just what it was they screwed up - and then I would look for a new gig.

Great letter, if your aim was to bed your co-founder. Honestly, as a co-founder of a tech company myself, receiving something like this would freak me out. No hate to anyone homosexual or otherwise, but lay off the cheese, please? King-sidharth, are you rather a 'Queen'?

I am not sure if i would really want to be sentimental with my co-founder. It's not a (romantic) relationship we are in. I know making such a letter with "brogramming" attitude would be quiet opposite of this but I believe any such letter should be a balance of "feelings" and get-things-done ("brograming") attitude. This seems to lean a bit on the "feelings" side.

This reminded me of Max Levchin's talk at the last Startup School. It has some really funny anecdotes and thoughts about co-founders - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3JBWjuXO6kY

In the words of Señor Chang. GAYYYY! Seriously, the letter is a GREAT idea but the gushing and sensuality will make MY co-founder think i'm in love with him or something. Tone it down a bit and it will be perfect and much needed too.

I got that from a lot of people, trust me it's cultural.

Really?! It's almost 2012 and you're still using 'GAY' as a derogatory term.

Gay, Straight, Bisexual, Other... I doubt anyone would want to portray their sexuality to be something other than it actually is.

(Small text: I have been known to be overly generous at times. Is this one of those times?)

its from the TV show, Community. I was hoping the Senor Chang preface was enough of a clue that it was a pop/geek culture reference...

I'm assuming it was deliberately written like this for comic effect.

lols, were you high when you wrote this? how on earth does this make front page on HN?

Because your's is not the only point of view.

Well...that was different.

That's an emerging new genre - the startup fan fiction.

You can't fix a typo is very directly related to how you run a startup. Not eating a burger 'properly' is not.

The take-aways are:

0. no one is perfect.

1. co-founders keep each other on task.

2. relationships and perspectives matter.

I'm grateful for my co-founder too, however I'll be sending him this for a laugh which I realize is not oa's intent. But then again, doing so may just build that relationship that much stronger which is the oa's intent. Ironic, no?

I struggled, but ultimately succeeded in not throwing up in my mouth whilst reading this.

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