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How did you find your technical co-founder?

Article news.ycombinator.com

How did you find your technical co-founder?

Honestly, this has been the hardest part for me in building a startup.

Especially interested in personal stories of people who found a technical co-founder or technical co-founders who were enticed to join another person's company.

In my own learning - and in contexts like this (hacker news), I find that my strategies are best informed by hearing other people's stories. I've read all the books and blogs, but it's also useful to hear personal examples.

Things I've tried -lots of networking -messaging engineers on LinedIn at similar companies and having coffee -asking incredibly well connected people who support my work (CTOs at some of the most successful companies in the world) to make intros. -doing trial projects with people -asking advisors who are techies -asking friends who just sold their companies -asking engineers from companies that just had big layoffs

Things I haven't tried -asking a sibling/childhood friend

Pro of not having a technical co-founder: I've had to ramp up a lot on my own knowledge of technology and not build up too soon

Con: Much better to have someone with in-depth years of experience, vision for scaling technology to reach millions of users.

One of the biggest challenges has been someone quitting after six months to return to a 9-5 job. In the beginning, the idea of building a company was exciting for them, but when they saw the reality of it, the possibility of failure and the potential of massive success, they got scared.

Not everyone has the stubbornness and appetite for risk necessary to be a founder.

So, in a nutshell, I'm curious to hear your stories if you had success in this, especially if it was hard in the beginning.

I am fully aware that this may be entirely due to some personal failing, but some mentors have suggested that it's just hard and I need to keep trying, which is why I'm asking for stories.

Also open to not having a technical co-founder. I've built the whole platform myself and it works and is growing. But still...

Thanks so much for your insights - and especially personal stories in this area.

Discussion 5 comments · 1 points · actfrench · 2022-10-12
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