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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

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 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

EllenChisa 7y ago
@pbiggar's cofounder here! +1 to everything Paul said, especially cofounder therapy. The other thing that really helped me was understanding what I wanted from a cofounder (philosophically, skills-wise, ideology) before I was making a this person-or-not decision. Feels less personal. I got that knowledge by doing many hackathon/intense sprints with other people to figure out when people tended to not work for me: https://blog.ellenchisa.com/startup-lockdown-day-0-576d2d7d40b2 https://blog.ellenchisa.com/startup-lockdown-day-0-576d2d7d4.... I also had a good sense of traits that others found annoying (esp when they quit other jobs) that I felt fine with. Other useful things: - Explicitly naming "red flags" and things we were worried about. - Calling Paul's previous cofounder (who graciously agreed to talk to me). As a random thing I still find interest, I said no when someone tried to warm intro me to Paul, but agreed to meet when he sent me a cold email. Felt more sincere somehow.
rmac 7y ago
Can you share the questionnaire?
- atlasunshrugged 7y ago
  I'd also love to see the questionnaire if you're willing to share it
  - natrik 7y ago
    Me as well (There needs to be a way to save comments)
    - simonebrunozzi 7y ago
      Common problem for many HN readers. Some partial solutions in an old thread: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17637835 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17637835
- pbiggar 7y ago
  Email me personally for now. I do plan to publish broadly later.
simonebrunozzi 7y ago
This absolutely deserves a long blog post on its own. You and Ellen should consider writing it. Many founders (including my past self) would have wildly benefited from something like this.

EllenChisa 7y ago

@pbiggar's cofounder here! +1 to everything Paul said, especially cofounder therapy. The other thing that really helped me was understanding what I wanted from a cofounder (philosophically, skills-wise, ideology) before I was making a this person-or-not decision. Feels less personal. I got that knowledge by doing many hackathon/intense sprints with other people to figure out when people tended to not work for me: https://blog.ellenchisa.com/startup-lockdown-day-0-576d2d7d40b2 https://blog.ellenchisa.com/startup-lockdown-day-0-576d2d7d4.... I also had a good sense of traits that others found annoying (esp when they quit other jobs) that I felt fine with. Other useful things: - Explicitly naming "red flags" and things we were worried about. - Calling Paul's previous cofounder (who graciously agreed to talk to me). As a random thing I still find interest, I said no when someone tried to warm intro me to Paul, but agreed to meet when he sent me a cold email. Felt more sincere somehow.

rmac 7y ago

Can you share the questionnaire?

atlasunshrugged 7y ago
I'd also love to see the questionnaire if you're willing to share it
- natrik 7y ago
  Me as well (There needs to be a way to save comments)
  - simonebrunozzi 7y ago
    Common problem for many HN readers. Some partial solutions in an old thread: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17637835 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17637835
pbiggar 7y ago
Email me personally for now. I do plan to publish broadly later.

simonebrunozzi 7y ago

This absolutely deserves a long blog post on its own. You and Ellen should consider writing it. Many founders (including my past self) would have wildly benefited from something like this.