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If I could emphasize one thing I said in this interview, it would be the importance of cofounders. More of the interview dealt with that topic than it seems fr

by pg 17y ago

If I could emphasize one thing I said in this interview, it would be the importance of cofounders. More of the interview dealt with that topic than it seems from these notes. That's what someone thinking of starting a startup should be thinking most about, not the idea. I talked afterward to a guy who wanted to apply to YC, but didn't have a cofounder. I suggested he just apply 6 months later, and spend the intervening time finding a good cofounder. He didn't want to hear it. For some reason founders seem to think that the set of potential cofounders is a given they can't change. But surely if you made finding a cofounder your main priority and worked at it like a job for 6 months, you could find people.

follower 17y ago
This is an issue I'm dealing with in relation to a possible YC application. My assumption has been that the best co-founder is one you have some history with so you know that you're compatible for the long term. Is it realistic to expect that you can find a person and accurately make that assessment in six months? Particularly if it's from a different mindset (e.g. sales/bizdev cf. tech) and/or location. Are there any successful examples from YC? FWIW my concept is embedded hardware-based, in a toy/education market, I have technical experience and am looking for someone with financial, business development, marketing and sales experience & knowledge.
- pg 17y ago
  More time would be better. I suggested 6 months because there's a new YC cycle that often, but a year would be better. Though in fact 6 months of working together is probably enough to bring most problems to the surface. Just make sure you work together on stuff that's demanding enough to put some strain on your relationship. It's more important to have a good cofounder than to have one with particular skills. So if I were you I'd simply try to find someone you work well with, whether he/she's a business person or not. Two hackers can figure out how to do sales eventually, as long as they don't give up.
  - jayliew 17y ago
    Good tip .. I will keep that in mind in my search
  - chrischen 17y ago
    What advice would you give a younger person like me? I don't have the network built up yet and my main pool of potential cofounder is whoever responds to my online ads. Finding nice cofounder for me could potentially take much longer than 1 year for me if it requires building a network. At the same time I feel I'm ready, and I'm in the moment right now (this isn't even my first startup). I've moved forward irregardless of a cofounder and have even taken this semester from school off. Waiting could mean losing the ability to work on this idea and the idea is very dear to me. Plus I can't wait--that's how excited I am. I only took school off because I knew the startup would win if they got in a fight. I'm not sure what to do if not having a cofounder makes me immensely unattractive to fund, because I'd have to go back to school in the summer or I lose health insurance. Conflicts will probably arise then, and it would prevent me from spending the time I want with my startup.
- DaniFong 17y ago
  I had the experience of finding the right person and being able to make that judgment call in just a month. It just felt right. He was really exceptional. On the other hand, I guessed wrong twice. YMMV.
jayliew 17y ago
Paul, the guy you spoke to afterwards is me :) Jay Liew, the guy who also posted the cofounder spreadsheet on Google Docs that spread like wildfire a few weeks ago. I do not want to be the stereotypical stubborn child who won't listen (that would be like trying to shoot my way into YC); I completely agree with your reasoning why having a co-founder is best, and I highly respect your analytical skills, but I would like to respectfully assert that you're missing the point. My write up below is not an attempt to get you to agree with me, but to merely understand my reasoning (and perhaps readers here can tell me if I am off-course). My end goal is not to have a "YC" notch in my belt (I don't need a resume stuffer). My end goal is a successful startup that will make $ by creating so much value for everybody (the founders, the investors, the customers) - I want to absolutely maximize the value pie for everybody. And having a co-founder will increase my odds of success. I am not a parent, but here is a generalized statement based on statistics: "Divorce rates in the US is some of the highest in the world, and statistically, children with parents still married fare much better than single parents." This assertion is true, when your sample size of married people is global, and when your sample size is all children who grew up with single and divorced parents in this country or world. The point that I am trying to make is that being a good parent is a choice to the individual. If I was a single parent (fyi, I view my startup as my baby), I will either take my son to soccer practice, or not. I will either spend time reading books at night to her. Or not. I will take the good in with the bad - or I can throw my hands up and say "I'm too busy for this crap, here's a baby-sitter instead". That was all I was saying. I believe in the benefits of a co-founder, but my search has been distracting me from my #1 goal of running my startup; and a co-founder is just means to an end. Just as YC is just means to an end (yes, I plan on applying - which I know I may not get in, but I still plan on succeeding with or without YC - because if my startup fails simply because I didn't get into YC, then I have a bigger problem). Note that this is different from saying "1 in 3 women will have breast cancer" (or whatever the actual number is). Because a perfectly health-conscious woman can get cancer due to pure bad luck. The difference is, being a good parent who will do anything for his child, is an individual entrepreneur's choice. He will either do it, or go watch tv. It's much tougher to say "Damnit, I'm not going to get cancer" (if I'm already a health nut) The other thing I want to mention is your investor bias. An entrepreneur has an only-child, an investor as a portfolio of children. So investors can say, X% of startups die from Y. Therefore I can completely understand when you say, "therefore, I will not bother reviewing with startups with Y". It is logical - you are optimizing your portfolio's success. I understand that statistically there are less single founders like Bezos and Patzer, and there's more cofounders like Woz-Jobs, Hewlett-Packard. Statistically that is true and unrefutable. But using Chaos Theory as an analogy, I speak for any single co-founders applying, I hope you will not write us off as "goners", and that you really look inside of that one person who is trying his hardest and pulling the weight of 2 co-founders today on top of his day job and current responsibilities, before pulling the trigger "you're fired" trigger, Donald Trump style. All said, as an investor, your goal is to optimize your portfolio. My goal is to do anything humanly possible within my means to increase the odds of success, and definitely remove any obstacle, one after another that will keep me from success. And on this one co-founder point, we may disagree on the tactics but the fact is that we do have a common end goal. I respect your choice, and I still very much respect you and want to be in YC. I just hope you understand why I cannot completely agree for the reasons mentioned above. Consider the converse: If I thought that getting into YC wouldn't "move the needle" in helping me get to success, I wouldn't be writing this comment and 3/3/10 would mean nothing to me ;) However - that would also imply that I am indifferent to you, and Jessica, who I first met in person at the Anybots party before the day of the 1st SUS. That is not true, you guys rock, and are people I look up to. So I do care about the people behind YC and I'm not a 1-dimensional robot. You have to admit, it feels good to be benevolent (isn't that YC is built on?) - and I too, wish I could be benevolent in return. I am still continuing my search for a co-founder, while minimizing the distraction as much as I can. It's tough.

by pg 17y ago

follower 17y ago

This is an issue I'm dealing with in relation to a possible YC application. My assumption has been that the best co-founder is one you have some history with so you know that you're compatible for the long term. Is it realistic to expect that you can find a person and accurately make that assessment in six months? Particularly if it's from a different mindset (e.g. sales/bizdev cf. tech) and/or location. Are there any successful examples from YC? FWIW my concept is embedded hardware-based, in a toy/education market, I have technical experience and am looking for someone with financial, business development, marketing and sales experience & knowledge.

pg 17y ago
More time would be better. I suggested 6 months because there's a new YC cycle that often, but a year would be better. Though in fact 6 months of working together is probably enough to bring most problems to the surface. Just make sure you work together on stuff that's demanding enough to put some strain on your relationship. It's more important to have a good cofounder than to have one with particular skills. So if I were you I'd simply try to find someone you work well with, whether he/she's a business person or not. Two hackers can figure out how to do sales eventually, as long as they don't give up.
- jayliew 17y ago
  Good tip .. I will keep that in mind in my search
- chrischen 17y ago
  What advice would you give a younger person like me? I don't have the network built up yet and my main pool of potential cofounder is whoever responds to my online ads. Finding nice cofounder for me could potentially take much longer than 1 year for me if it requires building a network. At the same time I feel I'm ready, and I'm in the moment right now (this isn't even my first startup). I've moved forward irregardless of a cofounder and have even taken this semester from school off. Waiting could mean losing the ability to work on this idea and the idea is very dear to me. Plus I can't wait--that's how excited I am. I only took school off because I knew the startup would win if they got in a fight. I'm not sure what to do if not having a cofounder makes me immensely unattractive to fund, because I'd have to go back to school in the summer or I lose health insurance. Conflicts will probably arise then, and it would prevent me from spending the time I want with my startup.
DaniFong 17y ago
I had the experience of finding the right person and being able to make that judgment call in just a month. It just felt right. He was really exceptional. On the other hand, I guessed wrong twice. YMMV.

jayliew 17y ago

Paul, the guy you spoke to afterwards is me :) Jay Liew, the guy who also posted the cofounder spreadsheet on Google Docs that spread like wildfire a few weeks ago. I do not want to be the stereotypical stubborn child who won't listen (that would be like trying to shoot my way into YC); I completely agree with your reasoning why having a co-founder is best, and I highly respect your analytical skills, but I would like to respectfully assert that you're missing the point. My write up below is not an attempt to get you to agree with me, but to merely understand my reasoning (and perhaps readers here can tell me if I am off-course). My end goal is not to have a "YC" notch in my belt (I don't need a resume stuffer). My end goal is a successful startup that will make $ by creating so much value for everybody (the founders, the investors, the customers) - I want to absolutely maximize the value pie for everybody. And having a co-founder will increase my odds of success. I am not a parent, but here is a generalized statement based on statistics: "Divorce rates in the US is some of the highest in the world, and statistically, children with parents still married fare much better than single parents." This assertion is true, when your sample size of married people is global, and when your sample size is all children who grew up with single and divorced parents in this country or world. The point that I am trying to make is that being a good parent is a choice to the individual. If I was a single parent (fyi, I view my startup as my baby), I will either take my son to soccer practice, or not. I will either spend time reading books at night to her. Or not. I will take the good in with the bad - or I can throw my hands up and say "I'm too busy for this crap, here's a baby-sitter instead". That was all I was saying. I believe in the benefits of a co-founder, but my search has been distracting me from my #1 goal of running my startup; and a co-founder is just means to an end. Just as YC is just means to an end (yes, I plan on applying - which I know I may not get in, but I still plan on succeeding with or without YC - because if my startup fails simply because I didn't get into YC, then I have a bigger problem). Note that this is different from saying "1 in 3 women will have breast cancer" (or whatever the actual number is). Because a perfectly health-conscious woman can get cancer due to pure bad luck. The difference is, being a good parent who will do anything for his child, is an individual entrepreneur's choice. He will either do it, or go watch tv. It's much tougher to say "Damnit, I'm not going to get cancer" (if I'm already a health nut) The other thing I want to mention is your investor bias. An entrepreneur has an only-child, an investor as a portfolio of children. So investors can say, X% of startups die from Y. Therefore I can completely understand when you say, "therefore, I will not bother reviewing with startups with Y". It is logical - you are optimizing your portfolio's success. I understand that statistically there are less single founders like Bezos and Patzer, and there's more cofounders like Woz-Jobs, Hewlett-Packard. Statistically that is true and unrefutable. But using Chaos Theory as an analogy, I speak for any single co-founders applying, I hope you will not write us off as "goners", and that you really look inside of that one person who is trying his hardest and pulling the weight of 2 co-founders today on top of his day job and current responsibilities, before pulling the trigger "you're fired" trigger, Donald Trump style. All said, as an investor, your goal is to optimize your portfolio. My goal is to do anything humanly possible within my means to increase the odds of success, and definitely remove any obstacle, one after another that will keep me from success. And on this one co-founder point, we may disagree on the tactics but the fact is that we do have a common end goal. I respect your choice, and I still very much respect you and want to be in YC. I just hope you understand why I cannot completely agree for the reasons mentioned above. Consider the converse: If I thought that getting into YC wouldn't "move the needle" in helping me get to success, I wouldn't be writing this comment and 3/3/10 would mean nothing to me ;) However - that would also imply that I am indifferent to you, and Jessica, who I first met in person at the Anybots party before the day of the 1st SUS. That is not true, you guys rock, and are people I look up to. So I do care about the people behind YC and I'm not a 1-dimensional robot. You have to admit, it feels good to be benevolent (isn't that YC is built on?) - and I too, wish I could be benevolent in return. I am still continuing my search for a co-founder, while minimizing the distraction as much as I can. It's tough.