4 ms·

I know pg says you need co-founders, but I have a feeling that partnering with a stranger will hurt your chances of success more than it will help. I remember

I know pg says you need co-founders, but I have a feeling that partnering with a stranger will hurt your chances of success more than it will help. I remember Jessica saying a major cause of death in startups was founder disputes (link: http://www.grid7.com/archives/189_podcast-28-jessica-livingston-of-y-combinator.html http://www.grid7.com/archives/189_podcast-28-jessica-livings..., around the 14 minute mark).

sharpshoot 19y ago
how do you turn a stranger into a partner? You try working together and see if it works out... What's the reason you don't have a cofounder? because you haven't done what's stated above.
apexauk 19y ago
I co-founded our startup after reading an ad for a hacker and convincing the other guy to take me on as a partner instead of employee - we met for the first time 2 years ago to talk about the startup that would be, today we've got an angel-backed team. Meet new people and start work with them - it can work, you'll soon find out if it doesn't. Keep in mind looking for people with complimentary qualities though - I put our success 100% down to how we each have a responsibility for well-defined "halves" of the company - me product & tech, him sales, marketing, community, legal, biz dev etc.
- sharpshoot 19y ago
  right on. Jesse's excuses above can be attributed to a lack of balls in changing his situation. Don't sit on the fence. Make stuff happen. This president's day weekend is finding a cofounder weekend...
davidw 19y ago
I have similar suspicions... the best co-founders seem to be people that were already good friends or partners in something, so it's sort of a catch-22: if you don't already have that person in place, rushing out to try and find someone is certainly not going to find you anyone that you've known for a long time...
kajecounterhack 19y ago
Just never forget the derek powazek and JPG mag episode...

sharpshoot 19y ago

how do you turn a stranger into a partner? You try working together and see if it works out... What's the reason you don't have a cofounder? because you haven't done what's stated above.

apexauk 19y ago

I co-founded our startup after reading an ad for a hacker and convincing the other guy to take me on as a partner instead of employee - we met for the first time 2 years ago to talk about the startup that would be, today we've got an angel-backed team. Meet new people and start work with them - it can work, you'll soon find out if it doesn't. Keep in mind looking for people with complimentary qualities though - I put our success 100% down to how we each have a responsibility for well-defined "halves" of the company - me product & tech, him sales, marketing, community, legal, biz dev etc.

sharpshoot 19y ago
right on. Jesse's excuses above can be attributed to a lack of balls in changing his situation. Don't sit on the fence. Make stuff happen. This president's day weekend is finding a cofounder weekend...

davidw 19y ago

I have similar suspicions... the best co-founders seem to be people that were already good friends or partners in something, so it's sort of a catch-22: if you don't already have that person in place, rushing out to try and find someone is certainly not going to find you anyone that you've known for a long time...

kajecounterhack 19y ago

Just never forget the derek powazek and JPG mag episode...