Ask HN: Help me find a co-founder | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: Help me find a co-founder

5 pointsresdirector22 comments

Paul Graham lists a few ways to find a co-founder: http://www.paulgraham.com/startupfaq.html.

I'm testing a new way of finding a co-founder.

Here's a list of my likes and dislikes: http://willwegetalong.site44.com/ (embarrassingly messy at this stage)

My hypothesis is this: two people who work well together have somewhat similar passions and peeves[1]. In the link above, I’ve not only included my likes and dislikes, but also how much I like or dislike each. +1 is roughly equivalent to one "Facebook Like”. +2 equivalent to two “Facebook likes” and so on. Yes, ill defined and arbitrary.

Have a look down my list of likes and dislikes, and if you think you know someone who shares the same passions and peeves, intro us. I will decide on a reward in conjunction with said new co-founder.

[1] Necessary but not sufficient.

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Clickables:

http://www.paulgraham.com/startupfaq.html http://willwegetalong.site44.com/

My criteria for a cofounder would be someone who has complimentary skills, and that I think has a good chance of being a successful entrepreneur.

Sharing interests might be a nice secondary thing, but I would start with the kind of person you're looking for first.

All three are necessary. But finding someone you fundamentally click with is the harder of the three, IMO. Followed by the entrepreneur spirit, followed by the skill set.

As I mentioned in another comment, the broader (and bold) hypothesis here is that our passions and peeves play the strongest role in determining success of close working relationships.

If anyone here thinks this is an interesting hypothesis worth chasing AND/OR thinks they'll get along well with me (http://willwegetalong.site44.com/), I would absolutely love to chat to you.

Or if you simply know of someone who would be interested in investigating this hypothesis.

EDIT: big thankyou to all the comments here. Much good feedback that will go into v0.2

I think we'd enjoy watching some TV together for sure, but I don't know if you're the techy guy or the sales guy from this

Tech guy.

Yeah, good point, I'll consider adding more entrepreneur-centric info on.

(Out of interest, which TV shows? Or was just figure of speech?)

My guess is that he was commenting on the fact that all of your interests are TV shows. I would have listed things like hiking, photography, boating, gardening... for myself.

You listed 25 things, and the biggest stretch from the TV theme was a pair of directors. I think that says more than any of the specific shows you liked/disliked.

Good points.

FWIW one reason I went for a (very) strong TV angle is that it's a trade off between being too broad and too niche. As an example, I could have put down "The Chocolate Watchband" (awesome band from the 60s), but it'd be a long time before I found another person who shared that passion.

Also, of those whom I've worked very well with in the past have shared some very strong, similar interests in visual media (TV, movies), and much less so, sports, hobbies, or even books. A big "however", mind you: this is just an observation and/or hypothesis.

tl;dr TV ticked both the boxes of being non-niche and a strong discriminator.

Unfortunately I've come across as a TV obsessed junkie! :)

The idea has some merit - founders work very closely together so it's a good idea to share interests.

However, almost all of your interests are to do with watching television (or consuming media of one kind or other). That would be a 'nope' moment for me on a date, and I suppose in evaluating a co-founder as well.

Most of us can work really well with people of different ages, interests, family structures, backgrounds, political persuasions, religious ideas, and popular media choices. Different approaches to responsibility and how to treat others will kill a partnership; Different TV tastes, not so much.

Different approaches to responsibility and how to treat others will kill a partnership; Different TV tastes, not so much.

Perhaps I listed way too much TV. The broader (and bold) hypothesis here is that our passions and peeves play the strongest role in determining success of close working relationships.

Isn't what skills each person has to offer important in cofounder match making?

True, but I'm approaching it from a new angle, interests first, skills second.

I think this way is better, because even if there isn't a skill match, we'll still likely have an interesting conversation (presuming we bond over one or more of our passions or peeves). And I'll probably keep you in my Rolodex...who knows, maybe sometime later we'll have complimentary skill sets.

Sorry, we are not a good fit. Good luck with your search. /s

How are you and your co-founder planning on getting anything done while watching this much TV?

I don't watch that much TV, it just seems that way because I neglected to mention other interests.

Holy cow are we incompatible

Haha, it's working ;)

why so much tv?

TV, I think, is a good discriminator. I could list "Objective C", "Node.js" etc, but sharing similar tech passions aren't as accurate at predicting compatibility.

I could well be completely wrong. I aim to find out.

it just made me wonder if tv might be a distraction.

but i also think this quiz only gives you half the equation - you'd have evidence you could be friends but it doesn't tell you whether you could be co-workers (requires similar motivations/work ethic & complementary skills).

although i like seinfeld, i'm squarely on the friends end of the seinfeld-friends continuum, so i guess that wouldn't bode well for a partnership. =)

i'm squarely on the friends end of the seinfeld-friends continuum, so i guess that wouldn't bode well for a partnership. =)

Don't get me started on Friends! That would rate five thumbs down for me ;P.

Re your larger point of the quiz only giving half (or a third) of the story, true, but I have a bold hypothesis that people who share strong passions and peeves often have similar motivations.

In other words, I hypothesize that our interests tell us more about who we are than we think. (That said, I perhaps listed too much TV!)

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