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Comment by rajdesai225 | Hacker News Reader

Finding a business partner is just like finding a life partner. You have to start out with a business date and see if you can take the relationship to the next level. Running a business is all about conviction and hardwork. You will go through lots and lots of ups and downs and for better or worst your business partner will be there to share your burden. From your post, it appears you are a coder. Are you a good marketer as well? In partner - you definitely want to look for something that you don't have. That person should be bringing you something that you cannot do. If you need marketing help, try your local SCORE. They are usually very good and are completely Free.

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I have never heard score before but I will definitely dig into that.

The SCORE is Service Corps Of Retired Executives backed by SBA and they help you via email. Their service is free and you can have a Marketing Executive (As oppose to an intern) help you via email for your plans etc. You shold definitely take a look at it. What I am not clear is that if your idea is 90% ready then why not just test it to see if you get any traction? If you have users - I think the rest will really fall into place :)

I am assuming you don't really need a whole lot of marketing budget. Can you test your idea using adwords? For about $500 dollars, you can get fairly targeted customers and you can study their bheavior using analytics? Just a thought!

I have a very niche market and it wont be hard for me to get in touch with the possible users. But all of this is a full time work. I already have a full time work and putting another full time work hours for development. From my past experiences, trying to do everything by yourself just doesn't work. So that's why I thought partnership would be better. These are my last steps before quitting my fulltime job. That's why I am trying to get as much help as I can while I am still safe.

Okay - that sounds good. Although, one thing I forgot to mention is - if you can - please stay away from angel investors who are non-value added.

The problem with non value added investors is that they may or may not know what you are trying to create (and how difficult it is or will be) so they will get impatient very fast and will run for shelter at the first sign of trouble. They are known for running start-ups down!

Instead, find a technical invester. Having an investor who is technically sound and who understands your concept well will be much harder to convince but in long run you will have great return from him/her.

There is nothing better than a technical expert committing money in your start up. It will instantly validate your idea and I think that is the first step to a great success.

In my humble opinion, you should leaverage you leaving your job based on an investment from a technical investor.

And, trust me - I know how difficult it is to have a technical investor commit their seed money but also trust me that if you can pull it - you will be a very happy founder even after leaving your job.

Best of Luck :)

This has been very useful for me, thanks.

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