from Hacker News

You can now use YC's Startup School directory to find a cofounder

by kevin on 7/10/19, 8:29 PM with 120 comments

• by pbiggar on 7/11/19, 12:33 AM

  Looks like a good time to write my guide on how to find a cofounder and what to do when you do.

  Quick summary:

  - based on 3 failed cofounder relationships, 1 successful company (CircleCI)

  - current cofounding (https://darklang.com) very strong

  - spoke to 50 potential cofounders (not 2-3 like before)

  - 50% of my pipeline were founders with underrepresented backgrounds

  - after first 10 had a profile that I was looking for (PM in consumer or devtools)

  - had a 40 part questionnaire that potential cofounders filled in, took about 90 mins, sent them my answers after I got theirs

  - prioritize chemistry and company value alignment (eg questions like when do you want to sell the company)

  - worked together on small company-building projects for a few weeks to assess fit

  - went to cofounder therapy (still going, it's been two years)

  - getting 50 is hard, I asked for recommendations from friends, colleagues, investors, posted on social media and linkedin, used angellist, went to meetups, cold emailed people, cold linkedin messaged. All produced good leads and lots of bad leads

• by kevin on 7/10/19, 8:31 PM

  If you register now for Startup School 2019, you can now start using the directory to find other single founders looking for a cofounder. Filter by proximity, vertical and company description. This is a really great free resource to help you do the single best thing to help your startup.

  Over 11K founders have already signed up for Startup School. Classes start July 22nd. https://startupschool.org

• by ekc on 7/10/19, 9:54 PM

  "Cofounder dating" is a bad idea. Cofounders should be friends before starting the company.

  - pg

  https://twitter.com/paulg/status/852493839176785921

• by priyankt on 7/11/19, 2:16 AM

  Just like “Who is hiring” thread, a “Looking for co-founder” thread every quarter or 6 months might be helpful to the community? That can help start the conversation which is the first step towards finding the right co-founder. You can also get a good idea about a person by looking at their submission/comment history on HN.

• by burtonator on 7/11/19, 2:08 AM

  Screw that... I'm going to find a co-founder right here! :)

  https://getpolarized.io/

  I need someone really awesome in product + growth OR an amazing React + frontend developer.

  We've made GREAT progress so far..

  Here's the rough elevator pitch.

  Polar is a tool for managing knowledge which is kind of a hybrid of Kindle, Github, and Slack. Polar allows you to keep all your knowledge and reading material in one place. You can easily suspend and resume reading complex technical material and annotate and take notes directly without ever having to leave your reading platform.

  More specifically, Polar implements spaced repetition, is a technique from cognitive science to prevent the user from forgetting the material they've read. This same technology is used in other platforms like Duolingo but we apply it to other areas outside of just language learning.

  ... and here's what I'm struggling with at the moment.

  1. The long term vision is large but I have to do a better job of explaining the short term vision.

  2. I need to do a much better job of conveying the 'aha' moment to our users who visit the site.

  3. Marketing right now can definitely be improved. Huge opportunity there.

  I've nailed a LOT but of course everyone has limited talents and time. The areas where Polar shines:

  - our users that 'get it' LOVE Polar.

  - we have a lot of users that STILL love Polar but are waiting to come on board due to one or two smaller missing but critical features. Like Firefox support or mobile or something along these lines. They users LOVE the app once they get the aha moment.

• by baby_wipe on 7/11/19, 12:47 AM

  This works great as a reality check to see how my idea isn't as original as I thought.

• by claudiulodro on 7/11/19, 2:36 PM

  So, the part I don't get is how you need to have already started working on your startup to get access to the directory. Like, if you find a co-founder on it, won't one or both of the founders have to shut down their start up to work together?

• by andrewstuart on 7/11/19, 2:21 AM

  PG both highly recommends having a cofounder and also identifies cofounder conflict as a leading reason for company failure.

  So what's the "right" thing to do?

  Have a cofounder to greatly increase your chances or success, or endanger your company by getting a cofounder?

• by friendscallmejw on 7/11/19, 2:28 PM

  As someone with two acquisitions under their belt (now technically three since IBM acquired Red Hat, though I wasn't part of that deal in any significant capacity) I can say that the next time I look for a cofounder, I'm going straight to the YC Startup School directory.

  Nothing like a cofounder with no real world experience, YC level entitlement, and a history of running/failing out of an overcapitalized tech-startup.

• by holoduke on 7/10/19, 10:11 PM

  A little bit off topic and a bit pessimistic, but I have just started a new company and I am surprised how high the rates are for services related to job postings/cofounders. Linkedin, angellist etc. If you don't watch out you can easily spend 50k on zero result. Unfortunately not all startups are backed by 5m. Wonder how much this service costs.

• by zafka on 7/10/19, 10:48 PM

  Are there many young hungry lawyers who go to startup school? I have always felt if I could hook up with a good lawyer who liked dealing with the bureaucratic stuff the sky would be the limit.

• by segmondy on 7/11/19, 6:12 PM

  If you're an amazing frontend design who can write nice HTML/CSS from scratch, ping me.

• by m0zg on 7/11/19, 1:59 AM

  This is a _profoundly_ bad idea. Cofounders should have a strong personal relationship before they start a company. They need to actually _know_ and _trust_ each other. I'd rather start a company without a co-founder than bring in someone I don't know as an even remotely equal partner.

• by azhenley on 7/10/19, 9:26 PM

  This is great! I've been looking for a way to find a cofounder.

• by andrewstuart on 7/10/19, 9:50 PM

  Is this an official Ycombinator project or something else?

• by OrgNet on 7/11/19, 5:08 AM

  he tells you that you have to have a cofounder to get funding and then tells you how to get a cofunder... thanks pg

• by crimsonalucard on 7/10/19, 10:24 PM

  I'm a senior developer. I'm up to quit my job and start something for anyone who's looking for a technical cofounder. Specifically though I prefer people who compliment what I lack in areas of salesmanship and social engineering.

• by devteambravo on 7/10/19, 11:02 PM

  I'm a passionate born entrepreneur with a powerful story and a weirdly extended network. I'm a warrior, a recruiter, and I believe in violence of action.

  Are your a chess player with a taste for risk? I'm interested in creating the company of the future, heavy on processes and UX. Let's mix empathy and Sun Tzu's the Art of War to create a global conglomerate?