How to Meet Your Next Cofounder

http://tom.preston-werner.com/2008/11/03/how-to-meet-your-next-cofounder.html

by mojombo • 18 years ago

76 35 18 years ago

tom.preston-werner.com

ram10242• 18 years ago

>IS< stealth-mode really bullshit?

no one has convinced me yet :(

mojombo• 18 years ago

My experience, while obviously not universally true, is that "release early, release often" is critical to web applications.

One big mistake we made at Powerset was to keep everything secret and fuel the hype machine. I think that in the end this was harmful to the company image. It would have been better to get the tool out in front of people, show them what we could do, and let them see the progress. That way you can get people behind you, cheering you on, instead of having them get bored with all the unproven claims you keep making.

Ideas are cheap. Implementations are what make or break a business.

ram10242• 18 years ago

so stealth mode until you have a product? or don't stealthmode at all, just come out and say "we're building THIS, get ready for the storm" ?

heh, i'm just afraid of saying we're going to build something, then having to say "woops, we changed our minds, building this other thing makes more sense to us, sorry about that thing before..."

webwright• 18 years ago

I think stealth mode is (99% of the time) bullshit. I think most of the time you should talk about your product to anyone who will listen. Here are a few things you can't easily get in stealth mode:

- A partner/co-founder: The idea makes all the difference for people who might consider diving in with you. Potential partners don't have time to meet with all the stealth-monkies to sign their NDA and hear about their (usually uninteresting to them) idea.

- A customer: In stealth mode, you'll never meet anyone who will say, "Holy crap that's cool. Can I sign up to be a pilot customer?"

- Wisdom about how to talk about your product: Every time you pitch your product to ANYONE, you get better at knowing what people want, how to talk about it, and where they get confused.

- A random referral: In stealth mode, you'll never hear "Oh! You know who'd be the perfect co-founder/investor/employee/pilot customer for you?!"

- A great idea that makes your idea BETTER. Of course, a lot of stealth moders have serious idea-hubris, so they probably couldn't imagine their idea getting any better.

- An investor. No investor will sign an NDA. Most would punt you if you even asked.

- SEO benefit. Backlinks and site age both effect rankings. Start building now.

On the other side of the coin, would your competition REALLY change their execution if they knew you existed? "Oh no! Two guys armed with Ruby on Rails! We're DOOOOMED!"

vlod• 18 years ago

yes, its BS. i go to the hackers+founders meetup in sunnyvale and we bounce ideas of one another. its a real conversational killer if someone wont talk about what their doing.

wheels3• 18 years ago

Yeah, we tried it, it is. Here are a few reasons:

- If you're a hacker, you probably didn't start with market research, you probably started with code, and you already have competition that you just weren't diligent enough to find. Or the other standard view -- you don't think you're actually competing with the market leaders, because your head is stuck too far in the concept. But you are and everyone else will see that.

- Unless you're funded prior to launching, or have a team with an impressive (startup) track record, nobody in the press cares about your launch. We got picked up in a couple of German (where we're based) news sites which didn't bring in nearly as many hits as posts here or in my personal (fairly widely syndicated) blog.

- Most people when they hear your idea will think that it's dumb. This is universal. Practicing making it sound not dumb is much more important than worrying about people copying your (dumb-sounding) idea. Learning to pitch your idea takes a while.

If you've already been funded and developing for a couple years before launch, yeah, then you can make a bit of a splash when you launch. Incidentally -- great parent article. Spot-on with my thoughts on finding co-founders.

kleneway• 18 years ago

This is great advice. I go to as many local startup meetings as I can. Besides being a great place to meet people, they're almost universally a lot of fun.

tocomment• 18 years ago

Any good ones in the NYC area?

Alex3917• 18 years ago

http://www.garysguide.org/events

habs2• 18 years ago

"The second biggest danger with going solo is the loss of motivation."

I found this to be true, a few weeks a go I mentioned my idea to an old friend of mine and he was sold.

I have found a cofonder and now things are back on track. I was lucky, the guy I'm now working with is my best friend from grad school. So I already knew I wouldn't have a problem with him.

I do think that having somebody else working with you makes a huge impact. Not only on the product itself but also on your mentality.

cperciva2• 18 years ago

"The second biggest danger with going solo is the loss of motivation."

I agree with this... however, there are ways to get motivation other than adding a co-founder.

For example, I find that living in my parents' basement and having them ask me every few weeks when I'm going to start making money is very good motivation. :-)

babul5• 18 years ago

...better still, they should give you a deadline upon which they will throw you out (in a nice way, of course) or charge rent :-)

For most people (atleast that I have observed), becoming independent really focused them and helped raise thier game and productivity^.

Nothing is as motivating as neccessity?

^n.b. not applicable to Putnam winners ;-)

habs2• 18 years ago

Good point, but your parents will never say to you "we need to drop certain functionality to improve the core framework in order to secure a stable release" or "private static long MAGIC_NUMBER = 1024*1024; ?!?! you crazy man!! what the hell does this do?"

I personally find it easier to work on a project when I have somebody to look things over with. It's very easy to get side tracked when you work on things by yourself, well thats what I find for myself any way.

teej3• 18 years ago

What if you're not looking for a technical co-founder? If I could find someone who (a) had a good idea of the Real Estate Technology landscape and (b) has relationships with local Brokers, I would drop everything and start my "next big thing" tomorrow.

apsurd• 18 years ago

"if only", "maybe i could", "well i would but"...

teej3• 18 years ago

I'm being honest. While I'm hoping to meet anyone that resembles a co-founder for that idea, I'm already working to build a business in a different industry. I'm not waiting for "just the right time", I just have some ideas in my mental queue that necessitate competent industry partners, and some that don't.

stevesmith155• 18 years ago

teej: Could you please send me an email?

s t e v e s m i t h 1 5 5 @ g m a i l . c o m

DaniFong• 18 years ago

I found my cofounder when he tried to hire me. :-)

elai2• 18 years ago

Yes, a way to find a co-founder that doesn't involve university.

kalvin• 18 years ago

I was looking for someone interested / with background in both "social entrepreneurship" (/nonprofits) and "consumer internet startups", which isn't exactly a huge intersection... I ended up finding a match through younoodle.com (it's a "social network for startup types", as far as I can tell). Still looking though...

It'd be great if there were a better way to find people with X set of skills and Y set of passions.

PStamatiou• 18 years ago

I met my cofounder at a Startup Weekend event here in Atlanta.

How to Meet Your Next Cofounder

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