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Ask HN: YC co-founder matching is bad

88 points by amir734jj 4y ago

I'm wondering is there a monthly or periodically post on HN where we could actually learn about other people's ideas or people who are just in development phase or maybe just researching and are looking for co-founders. I'm wondering what everyone thinks.

andrewfromx 4y ago
You mean like the "Who's hiring?" posts but instead "Who's building and needs co-founder?". I like it.
- amir734jj 4y ago
  Exactly
m348e912 4y ago
Just do what Brian Armstrong did. It seemed to work out pretty well for him. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3754664 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3754664
- shanebellone 4y ago
  Now that's a gem. Thanks for the share.
- fortylove 4y ago
  What was the outcome of that, did he find his cofounder from that thread?
  - bmelton 4y ago
    The outcome of that was that he went on to found Coinbase. He did not find his co-founder from that thread, but rather Reddit.
- swamp40 4y ago
  Incredible. Looks like he finally found his co-founder on Reddit[0] though. Both billionaires now. [0] https://entrepreneurshandbook.co/how-coinbases-founder-turned-an-idea-that-looked-like-a-scam-into-an-86-billion-company-e2759f1c907c https://entrepreneurshandbook.co/how-coinbases-founder-turne...
- yieldcrv 4y ago
  interesting, he was 31 at the time, bitcoin did not get outlawed by the US government and he got to sell shares of his new company after a direct listing at a $100bn valuation for a little while hm. does look like any other pie in the sky idea.
Zetice 4y ago
Your network is going to help you with this 10x as much as random matching would. I doubt random matching is even very successful, compared to organically finding a partner. Ask around, see what people in your network know about folks who are building new things. They may even have ideas about folks who would build something if the right partner were to help them.
- shrimpx 4y ago
  I don't think it's 10x. Your network is likely to be limited. Coworkers, buddies from school, friends of family? When you filter out all the ones with careers/no interest in starting a company, and then the ones you don't want to work with, you think you're left with highly relevant matches?
  - Zetice 4y ago
    [dead]
PaulHoule 4y ago
Could be fun to try matching with a large language model, using some technique like cross encoders https://sbert.net/examples/applications/cross-encoder/README.html https://sbert.net/examples/applications/cross-encoder/README...
mtmail 4y ago
Such threads exist, but users don't upvote them "Ask HN: What Are You Working On? (Feb 2023)" (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34613562 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34613562) "Ask HN: Who is looking for a co-founder?" (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34817765 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34817765) "Ask HN: Co-Founder? Seeking Co-Founder?" (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34629357 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34629357)
- bombcar 4y ago
  They apply to a small subset, so they'd have to be artificially inflated.
  - notpushkin 4y ago
    I think “what are you working on” is pretty much the widest possible thread where you can find a cofounder.
personjerry 4y ago
It's a harder problem to solve than you might think. Because the success metric is difficult.
- 8f2ab37a-ed6c 4y ago
  That's an accurate point in my experience. My suggestion is to prioritize the quality of partners over the specific idea you are working on. Someone capable of moving mountains and chewing glass is a truly rare ally, and there are countless people who pick sexy startup ideas and are incapable of executing at the level that a startup requires. You'll likely pivot anyway, so the idea doesn't matter too much to begin with, but you'll be stuck with someone who's either incredible to work with, or not. Most people aren't cut out for the founder role, you learn this the hard way eventually, and that's ok. Just don't end up stuck for years with someone who's not meant for it. Unfortunately high potential founders are rare and you have to spend a few months working with someone who looks good on paper to find out if they're one. Takes a lot of time, and unlike a VC you only have one pipe to run experiments with, but that's the nature of the game. And there's a non-trivial chance that you yourself are not exceptional, meaning that it's unlikely you'll end up pairing with someone stellar because they know they can do much better. Overall a really hard problem, but serendipity still happens regularly in this space, so it's worth giving it a shot, but be prepared for this to possibly take a while. Personal networks and vetted connections are a godsend here if you have access to them.
dpifke 4y ago
Is your title, "YC co-founder matching is bad", saying that https://www.ycombinator.com/cofounder-matching https://www.ycombinator.com/cofounder-matching is bad? Or is it meant as a general complaint about finding a co-founder for YC? If you've had a bad experience with YC's co-founder matching platform, I'd love to hear why you think it's bad. I haven't used it, but I've heard OK things about it from folks who have. If you're suggesting that HN should do something else, in addition to—or instead of—YC co-founder matching, what would this accomplish that the co-founder matching platform isn't currently?
andrewstuart 4y ago
I tried the YC founder matching thing several years ago. It was terrible. It asked all sorts of irrelevant questions and then used the answers to disqualify me from the service. They overthought the problem. All thats needed is a list of people who are looking to connect plus their resume and a summary paragraph. Like a dating website basically. To keep it fresh and focused it should require you click a”still looking” email link once a week. Maybe fields for location/are you technical. It might have changed in recent years but I never went back.
- billllll 4y ago
  I'm curious, how did you get disqualified? I've been using the platform and wasn't even aware it was possible to get disqualified. The questions seemed very fair, though I know they've been iterating on them so it may be different from when you used it.
  - deleted 4y ago
    [deleted]
- amir734jj 4y ago
  It's terrible indeed. The dating app style doesn't work + its full of buzzwords (blockchain and etc.).
unusualmonkey 4y ago
I'm curious why the assertion that YC co-founding matching is bad? Anecdotally, I used it, matched with a co-founder, and now the business is doing well. I spent nearly a decade looking for the right person, and with YC matching found them in a couple of months.
NickC25 4y ago
I wish there was a monthly post like this! There should be a monthly project post "Hey, I'm working on X, I need help with Y" or something like that. Example: I'm not very technical, but I'm very much into the product, operations, and market-fit/research side of things, and have access to funding. I want to join a team where I can grow and learn things, but also do cool shit with cool people. Currently, I'm running a small business as a side-hustle to build a bit of capital, but want to jump back into tech/startups as soon as I can. I would imagine a monthly post highlighting skills and projects would be great - would be great for people who need something to do, project work, upskilling work for CV building, etc... I've actually had a few conversations that started from HN posts about what other folks are working on, and they were really enjoyable and I was fortunate to learn interesting things.
exolymph 4y ago
Cofounder matching is a market for lemons, much like online dating. The best prospects are either never on the open market, or get snapped up very quickly. So it's always a problem of sorting through many low-quality options to find diamonds in the rough (and if you can find one, upgrading a rough diamond to a shiny diamond is still a nontrivial process). Point being, cofounder matching is inherently a frustrating grind.
- 999900000999 4y ago
  To be fair, I've met plenty of idea guys in real life. I can't imagine the internet somehow being worse. It's always ' I want Multi billion dollar company X combined with multi billion dollar company Z. Build this for me in exchange for 2.5% equity vested over 5 years.' Then if you do waste a weekend on a POC you'll hear it doesn't match their vision. You don't even get a thank you from these jerks. TBH I've given up on starting a tech company completely, I work a 9-5 and then make small games afterwards.
  - lagniappe 4y ago
    Make the POC your business, call yourself a market-fit engineer and "yes, right away" all the way to early retirement.
    - thecleaner 4y ago
      Jesus Christ. This is such an amazing idea.
      - itronitron 4y ago
        I'm willing to offer lagniappe 2.5% equity vested over 5 years if they build this for me. Which reminds me of something I read once on the internet, paraphrased ... "build the thing that you want or be forced to build the thing that somebody else wants"
    - solarmist 4y ago
      I think this is what many technical serial-founders do essentially.
glass3 4y ago
It would be helpful if the ideas are clustered. Only non-focused founders will spend their time on reading all ideas, which is needed to find matches in specialized areas. YC could offer hierarchical subreddits for business sectors. It would be possible to collaborate with founders who are attracted to the same topic and it would be possible to offer opportunities to people who want to work in the broader area.
codazoda 4y ago
Is there a place to match with microfounder types? I’d love to build a business but I don’t want to build a billion dollar business. I also have no plans to quit my day job anytime soon. I don’t really know what the best idea is and need someone who can brainstorm the right idea and then keep me grounded on it. I can build MVPs and launch. I lean toward absurdly simple, launched too early prototypes. I’m a web developer with 25 years of professional experience. These days I’m a director, mostly managing other devs, but I still love to get my hands dirty. Anyway, I always thought the YC stuff was for people with bigger ambitions than mine. I have tried YC founder school, which is cool. Reach out if you wanna chat.
- altdataseller 4y ago
  The best micro-founder partnerships are where both people have some knowledge of the industry they want to build a product in. But one of them is an engineer and the other is into sales.
  - dewey 4y ago
    I also believe that and it's something I'm looking for in general (as a technical person), even if not actively at the moment. There's always the trope about the "ideas guy" out there that wants someone to build them the tech for free or for equity. So far I have yet to meet such a person, but if the idea is good and interesting I'd be more than willing to give it a shot.
- robertlagrant 4y ago
  This might be one of those "MBA grads always think of startups that would help MBA grads" things but it might be fun to dip your toe in the water with a website that collects microbusiness ideas that people don't want to do, but might like to see
- ChrisMarshallNY 4y ago
  Might have a hard time, finding that, in this venue. Most VCs are betting for The Big One, and microstartups are probably not gonna deliver that. I would be a "microstartup" kind of guy. I hang around here for the community, not the opportunity.
robust-cactus 4y ago
I've heard it works and it has caused companies to form and get funded. I signed up like 1 week ago and I'm a 2nd time founder. It depends on your expectations and how you configure it is my read. For me, even though I'm technical, I'm mostly looking for other technical founders. Other than that, the thing I mainly want to feel when I read a profile is a sense of "oh this person would be fun to jam on ideas with" and in addition, "yea I think they got the same level of hustle/urgency as I do." Concurrently, I want to get a sense of the person's motivations - are they all about the $$, I'm a pass usually in that scenario. I just want to build something people love. I think I've already seen a few people who match that criteria. Aside: kinda worried about how many people are looking to start an "ai startup" rather than solve a problem which might involve AI.
- threeseed 4y ago
  > and it has caused companies to form and get funded I am far more interested in what percentage fail because of a breakdown in the founder relationship. It's easy to start a company and get funded, when you have a great team. It's very difficult to maintain that relationship for a decade or more.
  - deleted 4y ago
    [deleted]
  - jacquesm 4y ago
    > I am far more interested in what percentage fail because of a breakdown in the founder relationship. In my experience this happens far more often than issues with tech, but less frequently than running out of cash due to failure in product market fit for pure software plays. Hardware companies tend to be rough for the founders, unless they are extremely savvy at raising funds. The longer a start-up remains in the start-up phase the bigger the chance for co-founder conflicts due to differences in expectations and changing life circumstances.
  - robust-cactus 4y ago
    Separating signal from noise is going to be interesting here. Startups founded by friends, former co-workers or network all fail. Exiting isn't guaranteed, nor is product market fit or any amount of success. Most startups fail. Yes it will be cool when we can see stats like "co-founder matching has created X startups, and you're Y% more likely to succeed." Those stats take time to reach significance. For now, it's OK for it to ride on vision + early indicators like "# of startups founded".
ENadyr 4y ago
So I’ve matched with 2 cofounders on there. And while I think finding a good cofounder is inherently hard, I’d say it’s the best platform that I’ve seen. It’s similar to relationship dating I guess. One of the questions that I would add though, is whether the founder is married to a solution or is in search of a problem. First co-founder I worked with was great overall but he was married to a solution, that after talking to prospective users, I realized nobody really wanted.
todd3834 4y ago
The idea of co-founder matching feels like a dating app for rushing into marriage. It is definitely possible it can work out but it seems like a long shot. If I were going to start a startup today, I'd want to do as much as I could to validate the idea and use that data to persuade some people whom I've had great working relationships with. Whether that's in school or the workplace etc… If you are unable to do that, you're going to have a really hard time recruiting good talent. You also want to know what it's like to have a disagreement with the person you're going to be in kind of a marriage with. Don't have your first fight after marriage.
- shrimpx 4y ago
  There's no reason to emphasize "rushing". Lots of people who meet on dating apps end up married. A high percentage don't work out. After they go on a few dates, they move on. Similar dynamic with cofounder matching.
  - todd3834 4y ago
    Yeah, but I don't think people finding co-founders on a co-founder matching website generally plan on a _dating_ period. My opinion… yours is valid too but feels like a marriage app more than a dating app to me.
lee101 4y ago
[dead]
snowmaker 4y ago
Hello - I'm one of the people at YC who work on YC's co-founder matching site (which, if you aren't familiar with it, is at https://www.ycombinator.com/cofounder-matching https://www.ycombinator.com/cofounder-matching). It's not totally clear to me if OP is referring to that product specifically or something else, but I figured I would take the opportunity to get feedback anyway! We are very actively working on the co-founder matching site and would love to hear from people who have used it - what your experience was and how we could make it better. We've been running the site for about two years now, since we launched it here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27750298 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27750298. Coincidentally, the idea actually grew out of open threads just like the ones OP suggested. We started by experimenting with those threads on HN and our Startup School forum, but nobody ever found an actual co-founder that way. So we decided to build it as an actual product. Since we launched, over 20 teams that met on the site have gotten funded by YC, and many of them are doing quite well. So we think the early results are overall promising. That said, co-founder matching is a very hard problem. It's a multi-sided marketplace with complex dynamics, and we know we have a lot of work to do to make it work for everyone. We'd love your feedback if you've tried it.
- amir734jj 4y ago
  Thank you so much for the reply. Can you please add a search or filtering? I don't want to keep clicking "next"
  - snowmaker 4y ago
    Yes, this is one of the things we're working on next.
    - BadassFractal 4y ago
      Excellent, thank you! The swiping model didn't feel like an ideal solution for the task.
  - danvoell 4y ago
    This. Also could you add a not interested in matching up because field option when someone tries to connect. And/or if you want to poke someone by letting them know you like what they are up to but you wouldn’t be good co-founder material.
ezekg 4y ago
I've thought about this too. I tried YC's co-founder matching, looking for a co-founder for my current company. But it's all new founders (i.e. no experience running or even building a company). It's kind of like Indie Hackers -- it's full of wantrepreneurs (nothing wrong with that!), with very little entrepreneurs. There's gotta be a better way.
- fakedang 4y ago
  Every entrepreneur was a wantrepreneur once.
  - ezekg 4y ago
    Nothing wrong with that. YC's co-founder matching program just seems to be skewed one way, so it wasn't for me.
grepLeigh 4y ago
I've met some pretty cool people through YC's co-founder matching tool. The people I've met helped by making intros inside their network. I've provided similar intros, referrals, and a bit of technical advice. I don't have any expectation that I'll meet a co-founder, but it's nice to chat with people who really "get it." Most of my friends, family, and former colleagues think I'm batshit for trading a cushy salaried gig for my own startup.
iamleppert 4y ago
The crux of the issue is that YC funnels its rejects into "YC Startup School" which gets the associated marketing for "YC Co-Founder Matching". Beyond a basic form, there isn't really much (if any) consideration for matching. I did it and noticed that there were three types of users on the platform: - Those who had been rejected by YC and funneled into Startup School w/co-founder matching. Not sure what the intent of this was...a bunch of people with their rejected startups all mushed in together? - Those who never applied, but were under the impression that doing YC Startup School or co-founder matching somehow would increase their odds of getting into YC. Everyone from this group thought of it as some type of admissions process to YC. - Outright scams and people who had blank LinkedIn profiles and 0 experience (tells me that there is no or very little quality control on who is accepted to the matching) Everyone I met from the first two groups already had their own startup going and wanted me to join, and also said everyone they talked to had their own startups and were trying to recruit from within the same pool. I met some interesting people through the process but overall it was ineffective. I would think a more focused search using traditional tools and platforms (LinkedIn, etc) and marketing would be a lot more effective.
Brajeshwar 4y ago
I found my current co-founder on HackerNews. He is lurking somewhere here. This indeed was along the timeline where YC was introducing the co-founder matching. Startup School already was testing it and I was part of that. I was matched with quite a few good ones but were on different agendas in life. Two of the ones I know are part of YCombinator now. Quite a lot of them were also pretty shallow and spammy/scammy. But then I think that is part of the deal. I already had a co-founder (business) and I'm fairly technical. But I needed a hard-core Machine Learning Geospatial person who have meddled with the pigs in the AI mud. I remembering writing about it more like a job here on Hackernews and we ended up talking about satellites, precision agriculture, climate, and sustainability. After two years, we are still struggling together to building something that we are very proud now and in future, not just for us but for our kids and their friends. :-) Btw, my prior co-founder got a Government Job in a reputed institute in India. We are no longer co-founders but continue to be friends, hoping that we will something to work together on. P.S. I'm not actively looking but would love to talk to someone who loves finding ways to curb climate change and is extremely good at sales. I'm getting better at it but far from what I want to be. I want to learn more together and we still have a big chunk of equity reserved for the right person. :-)
- desaiguddu 4y ago
  Excellent insights!
_iobt 4y ago
Like many social or networking platforms especially in startups, you get back what you make of it. There is a such a spectrum of ideas and approaches that you're unlikely to get a better product out of confining people to any category or stage. Personally I think its a great platform if you put your VC hat on (you're contributing effort rather than capital). If you don't find a the right idea or person to work with then you'll likely learn a lot from seeing what everyone else is doing and how they are thinking (positive or otherwise). All the big VCs do periodic posts but it takes a bit more work to find the truly novel ideas and projects. With YC co-founder matching, you start with a varied pool of people who have set out to be founders - its up to you what you do with that.

88 points by amir734jj 4y ago

andrewfromx 4y ago

You mean like the "Who's hiring?" posts but instead "Who's building and needs co-founder?". I like it.

amir734jj 4y ago
Exactly

m348e912 4y ago

Just do what Brian Armstrong did. It seemed to work out pretty well for him. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3754664 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3754664

shanebellone 4y ago
Now that's a gem. Thanks for the share.
fortylove 4y ago
What was the outcome of that, did he find his cofounder from that thread?
- bmelton 4y ago
  The outcome of that was that he went on to found Coinbase. He did not find his co-founder from that thread, but rather Reddit.
swamp40 4y ago
Incredible. Looks like he finally found his co-founder on Reddit[0] though. Both billionaires now. [0] https://entrepreneurshandbook.co/how-coinbases-founder-turned-an-idea-that-looked-like-a-scam-into-an-86-billion-company-e2759f1c907c https://entrepreneurshandbook.co/how-coinbases-founder-turne...
yieldcrv 4y ago
interesting, he was 31 at the time, bitcoin did not get outlawed by the US government and he got to sell shares of his new company after a direct listing at a $100bn valuation for a little while hm. does look like any other pie in the sky idea.

Zetice 4y ago

Your network is going to help you with this 10x as much as random matching would. I doubt random matching is even very successful, compared to organically finding a partner. Ask around, see what people in your network know about folks who are building new things. They may even have ideas about folks who would build something if the right partner were to help them.

shrimpx 4y ago
I don't think it's 10x. Your network is likely to be limited. Coworkers, buddies from school, friends of family? When you filter out all the ones with careers/no interest in starting a company, and then the ones you don't want to work with, you think you're left with highly relevant matches?
- Zetice 4y ago
  [dead]

PaulHoule 4y ago

Could be fun to try matching with a large language model, using some technique like cross encoders https://sbert.net/examples/applications/cross-encoder/README.html https://sbert.net/examples/applications/cross-encoder/README...

mtmail 4y ago

Such threads exist, but users don't upvote them "Ask HN: What Are You Working On? (Feb 2023)" (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34613562 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34613562) "Ask HN: Who is looking for a co-founder?" (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34817765 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34817765) "Ask HN: Co-Founder? Seeking Co-Founder?" (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34629357 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34629357)

bombcar 4y ago
They apply to a small subset, so they'd have to be artificially inflated.
- notpushkin 4y ago
  I think “what are you working on” is pretty much the widest possible thread where you can find a cofounder.

personjerry 4y ago

It's a harder problem to solve than you might think. Because the success metric is difficult.

8f2ab37a-ed6c 4y ago
That's an accurate point in my experience. My suggestion is to prioritize the quality of partners over the specific idea you are working on. Someone capable of moving mountains and chewing glass is a truly rare ally, and there are countless people who pick sexy startup ideas and are incapable of executing at the level that a startup requires. You'll likely pivot anyway, so the idea doesn't matter too much to begin with, but you'll be stuck with someone who's either incredible to work with, or not. Most people aren't cut out for the founder role, you learn this the hard way eventually, and that's ok. Just don't end up stuck for years with someone who's not meant for it. Unfortunately high potential founders are rare and you have to spend a few months working with someone who looks good on paper to find out if they're one. Takes a lot of time, and unlike a VC you only have one pipe to run experiments with, but that's the nature of the game. And there's a non-trivial chance that you yourself are not exceptional, meaning that it's unlikely you'll end up pairing with someone stellar because they know they can do much better. Overall a really hard problem, but serendipity still happens regularly in this space, so it's worth giving it a shot, but be prepared for this to possibly take a while. Personal networks and vetted connections are a godsend here if you have access to them.

dpifke 4y ago

Is your title, "YC co-founder matching is bad", saying that https://www.ycombinator.com/cofounder-matching https://www.ycombinator.com/cofounder-matching is bad? Or is it meant as a general complaint about finding a co-founder for YC? If you've had a bad experience with YC's co-founder matching platform, I'd love to hear why you think it's bad. I haven't used it, but I've heard OK things about it from folks who have. If you're suggesting that HN should do something else, in addition to—or instead of—YC co-founder matching, what would this accomplish that the co-founder matching platform isn't currently?

andrewstuart 4y ago

I tried the YC founder matching thing several years ago. It was terrible. It asked all sorts of irrelevant questions and then used the answers to disqualify me from the service. They overthought the problem. All thats needed is a list of people who are looking to connect plus their resume and a summary paragraph. Like a dating website basically. To keep it fresh and focused it should require you click a”still looking” email link once a week. Maybe fields for location/are you technical. It might have changed in recent years but I never went back.

billllll 4y ago
I'm curious, how did you get disqualified? I've been using the platform and wasn't even aware it was possible to get disqualified. The questions seemed very fair, though I know they've been iterating on them so it may be different from when you used it.
- deleted 4y ago
  [deleted]
amir734jj 4y ago
It's terrible indeed. The dating app style doesn't work + its full of buzzwords (blockchain and etc.).

unusualmonkey 4y ago

I'm curious why the assertion that YC co-founding matching is bad? Anecdotally, I used it, matched with a co-founder, and now the business is doing well. I spent nearly a decade looking for the right person, and with YC matching found them in a couple of months.

NickC25 4y ago

I wish there was a monthly post like this! There should be a monthly project post "Hey, I'm working on X, I need help with Y" or something like that. Example: I'm not very technical, but I'm very much into the product, operations, and market-fit/research side of things, and have access to funding. I want to join a team where I can grow and learn things, but also do cool shit with cool people. Currently, I'm running a small business as a side-hustle to build a bit of capital, but want to jump back into tech/startups as soon as I can. I would imagine a monthly post highlighting skills and projects would be great - would be great for people who need something to do, project work, upskilling work for CV building, etc... I've actually had a few conversations that started from HN posts about what other folks are working on, and they were really enjoyable and I was fortunate to learn interesting things.

exolymph 4y ago

Cofounder matching is a market for lemons, much like online dating. The best prospects are either never on the open market, or get snapped up very quickly. So it's always a problem of sorting through many low-quality options to find diamonds in the rough (and if you can find one, upgrading a rough diamond to a shiny diamond is still a nontrivial process). Point being, cofounder matching is inherently a frustrating grind.

999900000999 4y ago
To be fair, I've met plenty of idea guys in real life. I can't imagine the internet somehow being worse. It's always ' I want Multi billion dollar company X combined with multi billion dollar company Z. Build this for me in exchange for 2.5% equity vested over 5 years.' Then if you do waste a weekend on a POC you'll hear it doesn't match their vision. You don't even get a thank you from these jerks. TBH I've given up on starting a tech company completely, I work a 9-5 and then make small games afterwards.
- lagniappe 4y ago
  Make the POC your business, call yourself a market-fit engineer and "yes, right away" all the way to early retirement.
  - thecleaner 4y ago
    Jesus Christ. This is such an amazing idea.
    - itronitron 4y ago
      I'm willing to offer lagniappe 2.5% equity vested over 5 years if they build this for me. Which reminds me of something I read once on the internet, paraphrased ... "build the thing that you want or be forced to build the thing that somebody else wants"
  - solarmist 4y ago
    I think this is what many technical serial-founders do essentially.

glass3 4y ago

It would be helpful if the ideas are clustered. Only non-focused founders will spend their time on reading all ideas, which is needed to find matches in specialized areas. YC could offer hierarchical subreddits for business sectors. It would be possible to collaborate with founders who are attracted to the same topic and it would be possible to offer opportunities to people who want to work in the broader area.

codazoda 4y ago

Is there a place to match with microfounder types? I’d love to build a business but I don’t want to build a billion dollar business. I also have no plans to quit my day job anytime soon. I don’t really know what the best idea is and need someone who can brainstorm the right idea and then keep me grounded on it. I can build MVPs and launch. I lean toward absurdly simple, launched too early prototypes. I’m a web developer with 25 years of professional experience. These days I’m a director, mostly managing other devs, but I still love to get my hands dirty. Anyway, I always thought the YC stuff was for people with bigger ambitions than mine. I have tried YC founder school, which is cool. Reach out if you wanna chat.

altdataseller 4y ago
The best micro-founder partnerships are where both people have some knowledge of the industry they want to build a product in. But one of them is an engineer and the other is into sales.
- dewey 4y ago
  I also believe that and it's something I'm looking for in general (as a technical person), even if not actively at the moment. There's always the trope about the "ideas guy" out there that wants someone to build them the tech for free or for equity. So far I have yet to meet such a person, but if the idea is good and interesting I'd be more than willing to give it a shot.
robertlagrant 4y ago
This might be one of those "MBA grads always think of startups that would help MBA grads" things but it might be fun to dip your toe in the water with a website that collects microbusiness ideas that people don't want to do, but might like to see
ChrisMarshallNY 4y ago
Might have a hard time, finding that, in this venue. Most VCs are betting for The Big One, and microstartups are probably not gonna deliver that. I would be a "microstartup" kind of guy. I hang around here for the community, not the opportunity.

robust-cactus 4y ago

I've heard it works and it has caused companies to form and get funded. I signed up like 1 week ago and I'm a 2nd time founder. It depends on your expectations and how you configure it is my read. For me, even though I'm technical, I'm mostly looking for other technical founders. Other than that, the thing I mainly want to feel when I read a profile is a sense of "oh this person would be fun to jam on ideas with" and in addition, "yea I think they got the same level of hustle/urgency as I do." Concurrently, I want to get a sense of the person's motivations - are they all about the $$, I'm a pass usually in that scenario. I just want to build something people love. I think I've already seen a few people who match that criteria. Aside: kinda worried about how many people are looking to start an "ai startup" rather than solve a problem which might involve AI.

threeseed 4y ago
> and it has caused companies to form and get funded I am far more interested in what percentage fail because of a breakdown in the founder relationship. It's easy to start a company and get funded, when you have a great team. It's very difficult to maintain that relationship for a decade or more.
- deleted 4y ago
  [deleted]
- jacquesm 4y ago
  > I am far more interested in what percentage fail because of a breakdown in the founder relationship. In my experience this happens far more often than issues with tech, but less frequently than running out of cash due to failure in product market fit for pure software plays. Hardware companies tend to be rough for the founders, unless they are extremely savvy at raising funds. The longer a start-up remains in the start-up phase the bigger the chance for co-founder conflicts due to differences in expectations and changing life circumstances.
- robust-cactus 4y ago
  Separating signal from noise is going to be interesting here. Startups founded by friends, former co-workers or network all fail. Exiting isn't guaranteed, nor is product market fit or any amount of success. Most startups fail. Yes it will be cool when we can see stats like "co-founder matching has created X startups, and you're Y% more likely to succeed." Those stats take time to reach significance. For now, it's OK for it to ride on vision + early indicators like "# of startups founded".

ENadyr 4y ago

So I’ve matched with 2 cofounders on there. And while I think finding a good cofounder is inherently hard, I’d say it’s the best platform that I’ve seen. It’s similar to relationship dating I guess. One of the questions that I would add though, is whether the founder is married to a solution or is in search of a problem. First co-founder I worked with was great overall but he was married to a solution, that after talking to prospective users, I realized nobody really wanted.

todd3834 4y ago

The idea of co-founder matching feels like a dating app for rushing into marriage. It is definitely possible it can work out but it seems like a long shot. If I were going to start a startup today, I'd want to do as much as I could to validate the idea and use that data to persuade some people whom I've had great working relationships with. Whether that's in school or the workplace etc… If you are unable to do that, you're going to have a really hard time recruiting good talent. You also want to know what it's like to have a disagreement with the person you're going to be in kind of a marriage with. Don't have your first fight after marriage.

shrimpx 4y ago
There's no reason to emphasize "rushing". Lots of people who meet on dating apps end up married. A high percentage don't work out. After they go on a few dates, they move on. Similar dynamic with cofounder matching.
- todd3834 4y ago
  Yeah, but I don't think people finding co-founders on a co-founder matching website generally plan on a _dating_ period. My opinion… yours is valid too but feels like a marriage app more than a dating app to me.

lee101 4y ago

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snowmaker 4y ago

Hello - I'm one of the people at YC who work on YC's co-founder matching site (which, if you aren't familiar with it, is at https://www.ycombinator.com/cofounder-matching https://www.ycombinator.com/cofounder-matching). It's not totally clear to me if OP is referring to that product specifically or something else, but I figured I would take the opportunity to get feedback anyway! We are very actively working on the co-founder matching site and would love to hear from people who have used it - what your experience was and how we could make it better. We've been running the site for about two years now, since we launched it here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27750298 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27750298. Coincidentally, the idea actually grew out of open threads just like the ones OP suggested. We started by experimenting with those threads on HN and our Startup School forum, but nobody ever found an actual co-founder that way. So we decided to build it as an actual product. Since we launched, over 20 teams that met on the site have gotten funded by YC, and many of them are doing quite well. So we think the early results are overall promising. That said, co-founder matching is a very hard problem. It's a multi-sided marketplace with complex dynamics, and we know we have a lot of work to do to make it work for everyone. We'd love your feedback if you've tried it.

amir734jj 4y ago
Thank you so much for the reply. Can you please add a search or filtering? I don't want to keep clicking "next"
- snowmaker 4y ago
  Yes, this is one of the things we're working on next.
  - BadassFractal 4y ago
    Excellent, thank you! The swiping model didn't feel like an ideal solution for the task.
- danvoell 4y ago
  This. Also could you add a not interested in matching up because field option when someone tries to connect. And/or if you want to poke someone by letting them know you like what they are up to but you wouldn’t be good co-founder material.

ezekg 4y ago

I've thought about this too. I tried YC's co-founder matching, looking for a co-founder for my current company. But it's all new founders (i.e. no experience running or even building a company). It's kind of like Indie Hackers -- it's full of wantrepreneurs (nothing wrong with that!), with very little entrepreneurs. There's gotta be a better way.

fakedang 4y ago
Every entrepreneur was a wantrepreneur once.
- ezekg 4y ago
  Nothing wrong with that. YC's co-founder matching program just seems to be skewed one way, so it wasn't for me.

grepLeigh 4y ago

I've met some pretty cool people through YC's co-founder matching tool. The people I've met helped by making intros inside their network. I've provided similar intros, referrals, and a bit of technical advice. I don't have any expectation that I'll meet a co-founder, but it's nice to chat with people who really "get it." Most of my friends, family, and former colleagues think I'm batshit for trading a cushy salaried gig for my own startup.

iamleppert 4y ago

The crux of the issue is that YC funnels its rejects into "YC Startup School" which gets the associated marketing for "YC Co-Founder Matching". Beyond a basic form, there isn't really much (if any) consideration for matching. I did it and noticed that there were three types of users on the platform: - Those who had been rejected by YC and funneled into Startup School w/co-founder matching. Not sure what the intent of this was...a bunch of people with their rejected startups all mushed in together? - Those who never applied, but were under the impression that doing YC Startup School or co-founder matching somehow would increase their odds of getting into YC. Everyone from this group thought of it as some type of admissions process to YC. - Outright scams and people who had blank LinkedIn profiles and 0 experience (tells me that there is no or very little quality control on who is accepted to the matching) Everyone I met from the first two groups already had their own startup going and wanted me to join, and also said everyone they talked to had their own startups and were trying to recruit from within the same pool. I met some interesting people through the process but overall it was ineffective. I would think a more focused search using traditional tools and platforms (LinkedIn, etc) and marketing would be a lot more effective.

Brajeshwar 4y ago

I found my current co-founder on HackerNews. He is lurking somewhere here. This indeed was along the timeline where YC was introducing the co-founder matching. Startup School already was testing it and I was part of that. I was matched with quite a few good ones but were on different agendas in life. Two of the ones I know are part of YCombinator now. Quite a lot of them were also pretty shallow and spammy/scammy. But then I think that is part of the deal. I already had a co-founder (business) and I'm fairly technical. But I needed a hard-core Machine Learning Geospatial person who have meddled with the pigs in the AI mud. I remembering writing about it more like a job here on Hackernews and we ended up talking about satellites, precision agriculture, climate, and sustainability. After two years, we are still struggling together to building something that we are very proud now and in future, not just for us but for our kids and their friends. :-) Btw, my prior co-founder got a Government Job in a reputed institute in India. We are no longer co-founders but continue to be friends, hoping that we will something to work together on. P.S. I'm not actively looking but would love to talk to someone who loves finding ways to curb climate change and is extremely good at sales. I'm getting better at it but far from what I want to be. I want to learn more together and we still have a big chunk of equity reserved for the right person. :-)

desaiguddu 4y ago
Excellent insights!

_iobt 4y ago

Like many social or networking platforms especially in startups, you get back what you make of it. There is a such a spectrum of ideas and approaches that you're unlikely to get a better product out of confining people to any category or stage. Personally I think its a great platform if you put your VC hat on (you're contributing effort rather than capital). If you don't find a the right idea or person to work with then you'll likely learn a lot from seeing what everyone else is doing and how they are thinking (positive or otherwise). All the big VCs do periodic posts but it takes a bit more work to find the truly novel ideas and projects. With YC co-founder matching, you start with a varied pool of people who have set out to be founders - its up to you what you do with that.