Recruiting Technical Co-Founders
andysparks.co
andysparks.co
I would imagine he would recognize his sales experience as a key component of his start-up value, both in terms of 'stacking cheddar' and also in evaluating the market potential of a product.
The hustler can set the product development vision, but it better be based on a keen understanding of customer need, market readiness, and his team's ability to execute.
Adam, though, you make a really good point of how important a good vision is to sales. A clear vision makes a sale so much easier.
1) The first is two find some way to "hack" together a product yourself. This can be as simple as a "demo" in keynote/powerpoint or something that you can show off to investors as the product initially. Or if you are in a service business, perform the service manually for a few customers (run it from a spreadsheet) and prove the need before plunging into full fledged development. Both of those will most likely also reduce the time-footprint of your development
2) A lot of accelerators seem to be accepting pre-product companies these days and I think this is the strength of a lot of the accelerators is to get you into the product stage. These could be a viable option if you have one in your area
If you want to find a good technical co-founder - be good at sales. Business is successful when you can 1) build a product 2) sell it. Well, part 2 is the hardest one in 99% of cases. If some biz co-founder can nail it - he/she will have no problem finding a tech co-founder.
[1] and equal equity share means everyone needs to bring an equal amount of value to the company. If they want me to build the entire thing and they sit back and watch the money roll in, then they are not adding equal value, so why would this be worth equal (or, god forbid, less than equal) equity to me?
Which is why so many of them want you to sign an NDA. :)
When I don't sign an NDA, often (this doesn't happen every day, but on the order of 6-8 times per year) I'll get some line about how this is a great idea and I'm a fool to let it pass. Or that the other person has to do this to protect themselves because I could just steal the idea and make all the money. Or some variation of one of those. I simply state that if they're looking for a true partner, starting off on by distrusting me that much, and making the relationship extremely one-sided (based on the language in the NDA as it may be), is a recipe for failure.
Recently someone approached me with an NDA, and had a business for something that millions of people need (not a want, mind you, a need), and they'd each be willing to pay $100/year for it. I wasn't told what it was until I signed the NDA, which I didn't. But I asked "how will you deal with the competition?" and was told "there won't be any". "Really? You're creating a market that doesn't exist right now, and generating hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue within a few years, and you think there will be no competition at all?" "Correct".
I politely declined at that point, and pointed out that even if I'd signed the NDA, I wouldn't be able to 'partner' with someone that naive about business.
I immediately quit when the terms were revealed but reconsidered after negotiating a bit.
Although it isn't quite what I had hoped for, they are paying me a salary, the work conditions are great, the other partners are entrenched in the industry, and I'm not the one taking a risk. They also removed all strings attached to my stake.
[1] http://hackfwd.tumblr.com/post/23669383330/rob-fitzpatrick-h...
The problem is that I cannot make "my own" something I had absolutely no part in, from its inception. I guess there could be some odd situation where someone comes up with something in the exact same manner I would have, but the chances of that are low.
The other typical behavior is business people who believe "the idea" is everything and that the building of "it" is a trivial task that a tech co-founder will want to tackle because they are unable to formulate ideas on their own. [The reality is that ideas are a dime a dozen and execution is 99% of success. And tech co-founder will be as much business-oriented as any entrepreneur must be.]
Would anybody want to help contribute if I do a post on that?
http://www.launchbit.com/blog/why-you-cant-recruit-a-technic...
I apologize that in migrating our blog to Wordpress, things seem to have gotten a little mangled.
In every case so far, they have gone radio silent, and months later I always find out that their ideas still go unimplemented, which does not surprise me. I believe an authentic counteroffer for a genuine board position (if you already have a track record that aligns with the counteroffer) is a positive and non-combative response. If they genuinely appreciate what you bring to a potential team, they would believe it fair to exchange 2% for that value, or at least they will start dickering. If on the other hand they are just looking for Work For Hire on the cheap, they'll move their pitch onto the next technical persone they run into.
Probably the most important line for me. This one line wraps up all the jargon about liking, trusting, respecting, etc. No, you don't actually have to know a cofounder for many years, but I do think that it should feel like you're long time friends / colleagues by the time you're making the plunge.
This really makes a huge difference. It makes working together easy.
Interestingly enough, I'm the technical cofounder and they're the non-technical (using the usual definition, not the one in the article) cofounders, but they bring a lot of value to the table. Between them, they bring a massive network (both in the industry and in the startup scene in general), many years of experience in their areas and a track record. I've also (obviously) seen them work and its impressive. Before I teamed up with them, I was squarely in the only-technical-founders camp, but now I couldn't imagine starting a company without them.