4 ms·

I was telling a guy I sometimes do contract work for about one of my projects and he asked if I was interested in bringing him on as a cofounder (which I need)

I was telling a guy I sometimes do contract work for about one of my projects and he asked if I was interested in bringing him on as a cofounder (which I need) to take care of the UI/UX stuff and balance out my development load (which I also desperately need). I told him I'd think about it, but I'm honestly very hesitant to take on a cofounder at this point. My main hesitation with him is that he lives in another country and I worry about all of the complications involved with that (although I heard it worked out well for 37Signals). Another issue I have is that my project is still kind of my baby, and I hate to hand even a part of it over to anyone else just yet. I guess I need to do more networking before I make any decisions. It's lonely working alone, but it's scary trusting other people. Perhaps that means I haven't met anyone that I trust enough to work with as a cofounder.

johnrob 17y ago
If you want a founder, pick someone you already know and trust. The next best thing is to hire someone, and down the road promote them to effective founder status.
- gte910h 17y ago
  But who's not a friend. The secondary relationship makes the primary relationship hard when it has issues.
webwright 17y ago
WordPress is just about entirely a distributed company, with employees all over the world... It doesn't work for everyone, but clearly works for 37s and WP. On the other front, it sounds like you care more about your control/ego than you do about the success of your product/company. That's a bad sign, I think. Success is elusive enough. Note: I'm not saying you should take the guy on as a co-founder. But your reasons SHOULD be "I don't know him well enough and he's far away" (both surmountable)... Not, "I can't share my PRECIOUS!" :-)
- megamark16 17y ago
  Yeah, I guess it sounds like I have a control problem, but I'd like to think it's a combination of the two; I don't want to share my PRECIOUS with someone who I don't know or trust well enough.
  - webwright 17y ago
    That totally makes sense- don't blame you. There are vesting plans and cliffs for that. i.e. you could say, "you're a provisional owner for 6 months and after than you vest n% per month to a maximum of x%". That way you can date before you marry and there is a provision for punting him any time in the process (or him wanting to quit).
    - jacquesm 17y ago
      I'd make that years not months.

johnrob 17y ago

If you want a founder, pick someone you already know and trust. The next best thing is to hire someone, and down the road promote them to effective founder status.

gte910h 17y ago
But who's not a friend. The secondary relationship makes the primary relationship hard when it has issues.

webwright 17y ago

WordPress is just about entirely a distributed company, with employees all over the world... It doesn't work for everyone, but clearly works for 37s and WP. On the other front, it sounds like you care more about your control/ego than you do about the success of your product/company. That's a bad sign, I think. Success is elusive enough. Note: I'm not saying you should take the guy on as a co-founder. But your reasons SHOULD be "I don't know him well enough and he's far away" (both surmountable)... Not, "I can't share my PRECIOUS!" :-)

megamark16 17y ago
Yeah, I guess it sounds like I have a control problem, but I'd like to think it's a combination of the two; I don't want to share my PRECIOUS with someone who I don't know or trust well enough.
- webwright 17y ago
  That totally makes sense- don't blame you. There are vesting plans and cliffs for that. i.e. you could say, "you're a provisional owner for 6 months and after than you vest n% per month to a maximum of x%". That way you can date before you marry and there is a provision for punting him any time in the process (or him wanting to quit).
  - jacquesm 17y ago
    I'd make that years not months.