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Comment by csmeder | Hacker News Reader

Interesting Greg Nemeth is listed as on WakeMate's about page http://www.wakemate.com/about/ as a cofounder of the company that produces WakeMate.

   "Greg Nemeth is Co-Founder and President of Perfect 
   Third, Inc. He manages WakeMate’s finances, 
   communications, and marketing strategy. Greg 
   studied business at Boston College until he left 
   to pursue WakeMate full-time."

According to this blog post he seems to have secretly started a competing company and used WakeMates email list? http://www.indiegogo.com/MiLifePlus

Its a shame WakeMate didn't end up succeeding, it was one of my favorite YC startup ideas.

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Check out the name of Greg's new company. I'm sure it's designed to sound like the original company:

* Wakemate: By Perfect Third Inc. (http://wakemate.com/about/)

* MiLife+: By Three Thirds Inc. (http://www.indiegogo.com/GregNemeth)

Somehow this all reminds me of the JooJoo tablet (http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2009/12/crunchpad-tablet-jooj...).

Picking the right Co-founders is so important! I would not start a company with a person unless we have a proven track record and have built trust over several years and having worked together on a number of projects.

That is easy to say, but often you don't know exactly the right person with the right skill set at the time you need them. If you only work with people you have known for several years you are going to have a slow time growing your company.

I was referring to co-founders only in my comment about trust and track record. I agree that at some point you will have to bring people on board that you haven't known for that long, but then the risk is also a lot smaller since they won't be co-founders.

So you'll only bring on people with a proven track record of having multiple past exits? That severely limits your options... plus why would someone with multiple successful exits want to work with you?

No, he's saying the exact opposite of that. Bringing people on board doesn't require as much pickiness as choosing cofounders.

If you don't have the skill set within your personal network of yourself plus possible cofounders to start the company, then this idea/company is not within your reach to execute effectively. Do something else.

You can't hire founders.

Oops, the information on that page is outdated. Greg is a co-founder of WakeMate.

Edit: as per swombat's comment below changed "was" to "is"

There's no such thing as "was a cofounder". Once you're a cofounder, you always are, even if you're kicked out of your company or leave for any reason. Steve Jobs was still cofounder of Apple when he was kicked out of it.

Not entirely true. There are many cases where someone joins the business but then leaves after a couple months, before any of their equity even vests.

Founding a company is an act. Those who found a company are its founders. It can't be undone.

No.. having founded a company is a decision made and re-made by historians.

Steve Case was VP of Marketing when AOL was founded as Quantum Computer Services. As his role grew, early employees left, and time passed, he became the co-founder.

I thought it was wakemate which "was".

What about the reverse? If one co-founder leaves, does that make you “founder” and not co-founder?

I've been wondering this as this is exactly what happened to me and I'm never sure how to introduce myself!

In my mind "co-founder" is a type of founder. I don't think you are doing anything wrong by calling yourself founder.

Don't you mean: Steve Jobs IS still cofounder of Apple when he was kicked out of it. ;)

Kind of like "former alumnus?" I'm trying to figure out how one can do that transition...

You can have your degree stripped from you

Oh, no question.

But I wonder if that makes you a former alumnus. Being an alumnus doesn't require a degree, does it?

If you really want to be pedantic, if he is a cofounder, he was a cofounder too. As Mitch Hedberg said, "I used to do drugs. I still do, but I used to too"

He doesn't any more.

Hmmm. Just in case I am being misunderstood - I'm not sad because he stopped doing drugs. I'm sad because the reason he stopped doing drugs was because he died of a heroin overdose.

He got a hold of their Twitter account too. Check the stream, as the interactions are hilarious. https://twitter.com/#!/wakemate (but hurry because I'm sure the tweets will be gone soon).

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