Do I need a technical co-founder? | Hacker News Reader

Do I need a technical co-founder?

11 pointsahujasid17 comments

I'm starting up, and have started the process of talking to users. I'm a product-minded designer who and I'm confident of creating what people want.

I can code really shoddily, at least getting to a basic MVP with the help of ChatGPT. I take too much time to build, however, and could use the help of someone better than me at this. Of course, after a basic MVP my talents fail.

My question is, should I start looking for a technical co-founder or learn more advanced coding myself? If I do need to look for one, what point would be most suited for their entry? Right now I'm assuming after launching a pilot, but is that too late?

Also, I have not worked in a startup for a while, and have no engineers in my network that I can reach out to. How do I find engineers who are leaders and willing to work with me?

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If you can't get a technical co-founder, your idea isn't good, or you haven't tried hard enough.

I've come across hundreds of "looking for a technical co-founder" folks; they all typically have an idea that has been done before or are overconfident about their product development skills.

Questions such as "How do we make money?", "Do you have contact with a few initial pilot customers?" etc tend to make them run away.

If you know a good market niche, feel free to send me a message or any other developer; we can generally be very rational and can recognize value very easily.

"I can code really shoddily"

Ideally you need a technical co-founder. If you are starting a software company, at least 1 founder needs to be really good at creating software with actual experience.

Having said that, don't settle for anyone and keep trying. You CAN build an MVP without a technical co-founder (some yourself or with freelancers etc if you can afford it) and get 10 paying customers. But you need one if you want to build a real software company and not just a side project with a few paying customers.

"How do I find engineers who are leaders and willing to work with me"

Show. Don't tell. Get an MVP done somehow and then get 10 paying customers. Heck, get 5. Show that you are the real deal and mean business. Then you have to talk about it everywhere. Think of it as sales. You have to sell yourself/your vision/your company to someone who may have similar interests. But any good experience technical person won't join you unless you do these things first.

If your goal is to build a product that will scale, I'd highly recommend getting a technical co-founder, or at the very least a technical advisor, early on. Coding is only one piece of the puzzle. Setting up scalable infrastructure, ensuring everything is secure, and understanding the overall system design take more extensive knowledge. ChatGPT will provide you with the code snippets you ask for meaning that if you ask for custom authentication, ChatGPT will probably gladly do so but experienced software engineers know that homegrown auth is a risky road. Additionally, writing code that works and writing quality code that other engineers will be able to easily digest and update are two different ballgames. If you hire someone with experience post pilot launch, know it's very possible they may recommend scrapping the existing code base / infra and starting over for a multitude of reasons. I'm not necessarily saying don't do it, but even if your MVP and pilot launch go well, be prepared for the possibility it will need a rework from an experienced engineer before you're able to scale it or add new features.

It is an easy decision - if the core of your business is tech, then you have to have that expertise on board from day 1.

If tech is just a tool, one of many to support your core business - then no, you don’t require a high expertise in the core team.

All no code startsup success stories I heard are good examples of businesses without core technical advantage. Many of them are basically spreadsheets with some bells and whistles.

I'm a web developer, or I was anyway. I've also started a couple businesses, but not tech. I disagree with the other commenters.

> I can code really shoddily, at least getting to a basic MVP with the help of ChatGPT.

Then launch your MVP solo, IMO. Coding is still a superpower right now, and it's a great secondary skill for any entrepreneur--I recommend you continue learning. But even aside from leveling up, launch your MVP solo. It lets you retain full control over direction, and validates the idea.

> If I do need to look for one, what point would be most suited for their entry?

After you validate the business (with paying customers). And when you cannot move the business forward alone.

> is that too late?

No.

> How do I find engineers who are leaders and willing to work with me?

The answer to this is also to validate the idea. Or build it and show it to them. Let people attach to your idea. You're also important, but the business should be the star, not you. Have your business making money, so you can pay these people good salaries.

Your reply helps to show that there's no "right" answer to this question. Context matters.

Sure you can co-found. Sure you can go it alone. Both approaches can work, both can fail.

From my perspective, I've always had co-founders. I've found that having to convince a partner of an idea is a good way to filter out crap ideas.

Whichever way you go, employee or co-owner, it's important to find people uou can listen to, and that will listen to you. Sometimes you'll be right, sometimes they'll be right.

As a tech guy, hell, sometimes I wish I had another technical cofounder. A popular combo is usually one 1x dev and a 10x. Zuckerberg could code, Steve Jobs could code. You want to code fast enough to prototype your stuff and sometimes, at least deal with UI things. No code is still development and a lot of no code goes far, but you're probably trying to solve problems that Excel can't.

"How do I find engineers who are leaders and willing to work with me?"

The most efficient I've seen is just blogging. Speak about the problem from your heart. Social media works too including Instagram and TikTok.

For one thing, tech people are just flooded with offers from non-tech cofounders. So we see a lot of people who have ideas and then lose interest after the prototype is complete. After the tech cofounder spends a month or so full time building it. It helps to actually care about the problem and know enough about it for a long time.

Actually, Steve Jobs couldn't code. Source from Steve Woz's archived site https://archive.is/YsF8a

Ooh, thanks, very good primary source. I assumed that because he was hired as a technician, he actually did technical stuff.

He could code but not as a professional engineer. Your source says he was technical:

> he was technical enough to alter and change and add to other technical designs

He could do more too.

> https://duckduckgo.com/?q=steve+jobs+atari

> Jobs was hired as Atari employee #40, as a technician fixing up and tweaking circuit board designs.

> "So, we decided to have a night shift in engineering -- he was the only one in it."

As the other commenter mentions, you definitely need a technical cofounder. Maybe not right this minute, but eventually - preferably soon. If you have money to outsource some of the technical work for now, even that might be preferred to doing the technical work yourself. There simply are only but so many hours in the day, and trying to do _everything_ yourself is just going to burn you out super quick :(

There are a few platforms you can use to find a potential technical cofounder. There's obviously YC's "Cofounder Matching", and then there's a newer service (might be invite only?) called Co-foundermatch.ai. I've had some success with both but found my current role through YC's co-founder matching.

Good luck :)

It depends on what you want. If you don’t have any prospects you’re excited about, can make the MVP yourself, and acquire customers on your own then it might make sense to do so. Once you have traction, it becomes easier to hire and you can give up less equity.

The mindset can be next. If you are so confident about product success - just invest your money and pay for the development. If you do not have this confidence - why should engineer invest the time to implement your idea?

It depends how much money you have. If you have deep pockets and lots of patience, then no. If you want to properly incentivise someone then of course. And as for learning advanced coding while trying to start a business, thanks, that made me laugh.

You never really said what you are trying to achieve. If you want to build a software company, yeah, you probably need a technical co founder. If you want to ship a consumer product, maybe you don't.

> Do I need a technical co-founder?

Are you building a technology company or a non-technology company?

check out the ycombinator YouTube channel.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZpKu2wvquWg&list=PLQ-uHSnFig...

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