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Comment by MichaelRo | Hacker News Reader

Even with a real cofounder, unless you have a bulletproof contract, each of them can take their toys (I mean the code they have access to) and leave. And this guy's a buffoon, not a partner.

Only perplexity I have is what in the world drove you to hook up with such a loser? You seem to be fairly competent and accomplished ("I work a job in Big Tech") and he seems to be less than useless ("a [semi-technical] college student on summer break"). I guess the "semi" part is only as much as he was able to fake some basic competence while tickling your fragile ego, I bet he's unable to write FOR i=1 TO N without looking it up in ChatGPT.

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I think that the OP is himself just a year or two our of education and in an entry-level position in Tech. It would explain a lot.

Apparently not:

"On one team, I was the head engineer at a small, seed-stage, venture-backed startup. I reported to and worked alongside the CEO.

On my second team, I was an individual contributor with 10 others at a well-known Big Tech company (Meta, Google, Apple, etc)."

From OPs linked blog.

How an apparently successful software developer, believes that having a college kid as his co founder, is a good idea is baffling though.

> On my second team, I was an individual contributor with 10 others at a well-known Big Tech company (Meta, Google, Apple, etc)."

This is almost certainly describing an entry-level position. A senior/staff IC is unlikely to describe their role as working "with 10 others" (rather than leading/managing them).

Good point. It was initially because of their network that I thought would be super valuable. It's in a niche-y industry where I took a chance on an enthusiastic college kid, I guess. (I'm where I am today because people took a chance on me in college!)

They were pretty well-connected in a way that I thought would pan out well, but it just didn't end up working out that way.

Maybe I am just from a different culture, but the thought of betting my professional future on someone who is currently going through the most unstable phase of his life seems very strange to me.

I also have a hard time believing that someone who has zero professional relationships can even have the kind networks valuable for a startup. If his connections aren't professional, what are they. Romantic? Familiar? Friendships?

Rich kid with family in the industry? There could be many possibilities.

So was I when I was 21 :-) It doesn't say much about age or experience. His dilemma on the other hands speaks volumes.

> You seem to be fairly competent and accomplished ("I work a job in Big Tech")

This (sadly) doesn't necessarily say much about their interpersonal or people management skills. BigTech ICs can be very blinkered outside of their technical focus.

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