PG on finding cofounders and being a strong team | Hacker News Reader

PG on finding cofounders and being a strong team

garrysub.posterous.com

94 pointsdirtyaura17 comments

Open articleView on HN

Summary of PG's response:

- Founder is more important than the idea

- He likes people who have been friends for a while.

- people who worked together before, so they know each others working capacity

- don't like people who came together for the purpose of doing this startup (nothing else holding them together)

- almost every startup, at some point the startup is doomed and worthless

- friends will work on the startup even if it's worthless in order not to let each other down, will often result in over coming the rough days and succeed in the end.

- It's really bad if they can't figure which one of the founder is the leader is (needs to have a more "forceful" leader)

- "it's good if there one who pushes the other out a little bit, but not too much"

And yet, knowing all this, I still applied alone.

Had the perfect co-founder, too: lifelong friend, smart, capable, diligent, with whom I’ve worked on a number of projects. He just couldn’t get his act together for the application.

Still, if my ice cube’s chance in hell of getting accepted pans out, I’ll probably drag him into it anyway; it’s not really about the money. I applied with some truly insane ideas, so even though I could go it alone, it’d be way nicer to have someone on board!

Fingers crossed, anyway. Anyone in a similar boat?

Not in the same boat, but in the initial beginning, I'd make sure you give them as many opportunities to quit as possible. It'll weed out those who aren't truly dedicated, and may jump ship anyway 3-24 months from now.

I'm not sure how common dropouts are among YC founders, but it's a pattern I've noticed in real life. If something is going to take a long time to accomplish, requiring lots of dedication and persistence, you've got to be 100% certain all parties involved are all-in or they have a high probability of flaking out.

I absolutely agree; you need a persistent “go big or go home” attitude if you’re going to make it as a startup business. I once took on a rather large game project with another good friend of mine, an artist. Though he was pessimistic from the beginning, I insisted we keep at it. In retrospect, it would’ve been much better to reevaluate the scope of the project early on, rather than burn ourselves out and not finish anything.

Of course, I don’t actually see my erstwhile cofounder quitting on me—he’s as dedicated as I am. We were just going to miss the deadline to apply together, so I said “Screw it—I’ll apply alone and hire him immediately, if by some magic I get in”.

But for single founders (like me) who don't have such a friend, what do you do? Even if you go around looking for one now, by definition your relationship won't be considered good enough until at least a few years later.

If you've been friends for a year that's probably enough. And since a successful startup is going to take at least 3-5 years (more if you're really successful), you're thus turning 3-5 years into 4-6, which is not much different.

What if you have a friend whom you've known for about 12 years, has stuck with you through some dicey times, you've worked with on a few things and trust and respect completely, is keen on the idea of a start-up and has a pretty good business sense and gets things done, But he's not passionate about technology. What would you advice?

I think there's a big difference between being passionate about technology itself and being passionate about getting a business/product off the ground using technology. The latter, along with your relationship, sounds pretty good.

YC companies are quite diverse these days and many require as much, if not more, non-tech work and understanding as deeply technical work.

> If you've been friends for a year that's probably enough

thanks. is there any reason it is not now time to add this point of data to the application. definitely a question i as well as many others have wasted thought cycles pondering. though i do like the privilege of having access to this information.

Growing and expanding your network is a good thing to do in general. Doesn't hurt to have as many friends as possible with multiple different skillsets. Growing from an idea to a business will require many different people along the way willing to help you out. So start asking around and see if anyone you know wants to setup a little weekend hacking session. Don't worry about the present too much there are always infinite possibilities in the future.

"A friendship founded on business is better than a business founded on friendship." - John D. Rockefeller

Sounds like someone who didn't have any friends.

I find it hard to work or do business with close friends, whenever there is a problem or discussion I worry that the relationship will be damaged. Separating business and friendship is hard.

If you are friends though shouldn't you be able to work through some really hard problems together and go through the ups and downs as a team? I find that friendship is an added bonus that helps you push through tough challenges that would otherwise make you want to quit. You can't let your friends down when the going gets tough...

How are "project-less" applications going btw?

Applications in general, I think they have a ton to wade through. It's got to be a mind bending task to go through thousands of applications. On a personal note, Every time my iPhone gets an email my wife asks "is it from ycombinator?" ;)

It's written that they will get back to us on the Monday, the 16th.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com