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Ask HN: What would you do?

I'm a regular reader of hackernews using a throwaway account for soon to be obvious reasons. I don't mean to bring up the hacker vs. business major co-founder debate once again but I'm concerned about my startup's future and what I should do. You guys are the only group of people I know that could provide insightful input to this situation (or have experienced it yourselves). Here's the context: I'm the tech end of the website based business. I code the backend, frontend, main idea and the majority of the design concepts are primarily mine. My co-founder is a business major with little experience in the web or funding space. We are splitting it down the middle and we have spent most of the time of the business with him waiting for the product to be finished. With a working prototype we are now considering seeking funding. I feel like he feels as if the business is more his than my own, ready to become the head and that I'm merely the replacable wheel in his money makeing machine. I'm concerned that I may be going down the wrong path here or that my cofounder may cost us investment from outside. Are my concerns unfounded? What would you do in my shoes?

us 16y ago
I've been on both ends of the startup spectrum so allow me to elaborate a bit. 1. No one wants to partners with a guy that can't code and hope he can learn to become a technical cofounder from scratch. Typically speaking, you find someone with coding chops. The same is true of business cofounders BUT unfortunately most idiots don't realize they don't have the business knowledge needed to be a good business cofounder. 2. Your cofounder should NOT be waiting around for the product to finish to do his part. There is a SHIT TON of stuff a business cofounder can do while waiting for the prototype to finish. In my honest opinion, if he doesn't know what to do, he should be hauling ass to figure this out or he's not pulling his weight. I'd argue that in the long haul, while the technical guy mostly codes and do some of the other stuff, the business guy got a lot on his plate. If he sucks now, he'll do even worse as time progresses. 3. I hope to god you guys formed a business, have vesting in place, and so that if things don't work out, you're not going to run into more issues than necessary to make this separate clean. And no, just because you guys agree to separate on good terms does not make it clean. There is a process for this.
- whatwouldyoudo 16y ago
  1. I don't think he wants to learn to code, he views that as my job. 2. He thinks we need a product complete before there's anything really to do. 3. We have not yet incorporated.
  - us 16y ago
    1. I wasn't referring to him learning how to code. You missed the analogy completely. I was arguing that he wouldn't want to work with you if you didn't know how to code so why are you working with him if he knows nothing about business. Each partner needs to bring a certain level of skill set to the table. 2. He thinks wrong. A good business cofounder, even if he doesn't know something, would strive to figure it out and get things moving. Not wait till you should have something to do. 3. You should do this part asap. You'll regret it later if things go sour. Look up vesting if you're not sure what that is.

us 16y ago

I've been on both ends of the startup spectrum so allow me to elaborate a bit. 1. No one wants to partners with a guy that can't code and hope he can learn to become a technical cofounder from scratch. Typically speaking, you find someone with coding chops. The same is true of business cofounders BUT unfortunately most idiots don't realize they don't have the business knowledge needed to be a good business cofounder. 2. Your cofounder should NOT be waiting around for the product to finish to do his part. There is a SHIT TON of stuff a business cofounder can do while waiting for the prototype to finish. In my honest opinion, if he doesn't know what to do, he should be hauling ass to figure this out or he's not pulling his weight. I'd argue that in the long haul, while the technical guy mostly codes and do some of the other stuff, the business guy got a lot on his plate. If he sucks now, he'll do even worse as time progresses. 3. I hope to god you guys formed a business, have vesting in place, and so that if things don't work out, you're not going to run into more issues than necessary to make this separate clean. And no, just because you guys agree to separate on good terms does not make it clean. There is a process for this.

whatwouldyoudo 16y ago
1. I don't think he wants to learn to code, he views that as my job. 2. He thinks we need a product complete before there's anything really to do. 3. We have not yet incorporated.
- us 16y ago
  1. I wasn't referring to him learning how to code. You missed the analogy completely. I was arguing that he wouldn't want to work with you if you didn't know how to code so why are you working with him if he knows nothing about business. Each partner needs to bring a certain level of skill set to the table. 2. He thinks wrong. A good business cofounder, even if he doesn't know something, would strive to figure it out and get things moving. Not wait till you should have something to do. 3. You should do this part asap. You'll regret it later if things go sour. Look up vesting if you're not sure what that is.