I gave a talk to the Wharton MBA E-club (I think?) earlier today about the difficulties of finding a technical co-founder. If I find the time, should probably turn this into a post, but for now, slides for the curious
Also available at git.to/cofoundertalk
TL;DR:
Cheat Sheet
- Don't spend your time looking for a technical co-founder, it's not an efficient use of your time. Instead, either:
- Learn to code
- Step needing to rely on others for execution
- Meet technical people
- Managing technical people becomes way easier
- Get an external team
- Don't offer equity
- Agile:
- Weekly useful versions of the product
- Pay weekly or hourly
- A successful project doesn't 'end'
- Peanuts ==> Monkeys
- Avoid a 'tech play'
- Use white-labeled 'off the shelf' services where available
- Fake your back-end: launch with only a pretty design, do hard work manually
- License the tech from a company in a different vertical or geographic location
- Learn to code
- Other takeaways:
- No NDAs
- Get a technical advisor
- Ask for advice, not employment
- Co-founders are looking for competence and traction
PS. You should me on twitter @alexeymk
Tags: #entrepreneurship #talk