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If you want to be my technical cofounder, you are going to tick most of these boxes: 1. You have at least 8-10 years of experience in the technical domain, wit

If you want to be my technical cofounder, you are going to tick most of these boxes: 1. You have at least 8-10 years of experience in the technical domain, with some of it in a leadership position (e.g., lead developer or CTO). 2. You have a significant portfolio or demonstrable projects. Especially important if this is a SaaS product or B2C. Not as crucial if this is hard tech (e.g., biotech). But if we're launching a software for HR, I expect you to have built scalable platforms before. If it's a martech startup, show me the sophisticated algorithms or tools you've developed that can handle big data. 3. You have already collaborated with or led at least 25 people in technical projects, collecting feedback on your work, understanding user needs, and iterating on your solutions. These collaborations are documented and easily shared with me. 4. You preferably have been a key technical lead in at least 1 successful startup, or a few that didn't make it is okay too (but I would need references to ensure they failed for legitimate technical challenges)—the worse is 0 years of experience in startup environments. 5. You are a code commit and problem-solving junkie. Because you will OWN product development in the early days. I want to see your 100 lines of code per day, your daily problem-solving on GitHub, or your 100 weekly commits pushing our product forward, asking for feedback, iterating on the platform, or preparing for our beta.

triceratops 3y ago
I know you think you're making a point here but you aren't. Half your list is sensible table stakes for a technical co-founder especially the technical and leadership experience. A serious business-side founder shouldn't team up with a green technical co-founder; they'd be better off finding a contractor to build their specific idea. But #3 and #5 on your list are dumb. Their equivalents for the "ideas" co-founder were about validating that specific business idea and problem. Whereas you're just trying to score cheap points.
- threatofrain 3y ago
  Also, some people really are superstars. If you want work with them when they're already celebrities in the field, then sure, that's who you want to work with. Once you're in the celebrity sphere you can stop thinking of checkboxes.
- jerf 3y ago
  Part of the reason potential technical co-founders get so frosty is precisely that airstrike's list is pretty much what the ideas guys are looking for, plus as others have mentioned the "6. You will agree to put in a good 6 months work up front for no pay to create something while I get 50-80% of the equity more or less smiling and nodding." Of course, there's good non-technical co-founders out there, too, but just as in the job market, the good candidates disappear but the bad ones circulate endlessly, resulting in every hiring managed seeing almost all bad candidates, it's the bad "ideas guys who want 80% equity while you do the work" who we all encounter.
kikimora 3y ago
There are plenty of people I know who would qualify. None would be interested to work for free.
- danielmarkbruce 3y ago
  And ~zero of them are wandering around looking for a "business guy" to help them make their dreams come true.
danielmarkbruce 3y ago
The thing is, there aren't a bunch of technical people going around looking for a "business guy". A business guy should pull out his supply demand chart and see where the intersection is... the price is going to be low for the business guy.
jeltz 3y ago
Totally reasonable demands and I mostly tick all of them off: 1) yup 2) yup 3) mostly reasonable but weirdly written 4) they didn't make it, but yes 5) 100%. And since I fulfill most of those requirements I have the same demands on non-tecchnical cofounders. I honestly do not think they are that high.
groestl 3y ago
I check those, and I don't consider myself special at all. There must be half a million technical people out there checking those boxes.
idontpost 3y ago
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barfbagginus 3y ago
What is your monthly contribution level to open source software projects? Are you able to prove theorems relevant to solving business problems? Give me an example. Do you have good ideas for improving the accuracy of geometric reverse engineering pipelines? Can you mathematically design optimal pricing strategies? The technical challenges we face are too great to solve on my own. I need a second technical founder.

triceratops 3y ago

I know you think you're making a point here but you aren't. Half your list is sensible table stakes for a technical co-founder especially the technical and leadership experience. A serious business-side founder shouldn't team up with a green technical co-founder; they'd be better off finding a contractor to build their specific idea. But #3 and #5 on your list are dumb. Their equivalents for the "ideas" co-founder were about validating that specific business idea and problem. Whereas you're just trying to score cheap points.

threatofrain 3y ago
Also, some people really are superstars. If you want work with them when they're already celebrities in the field, then sure, that's who you want to work with. Once you're in the celebrity sphere you can stop thinking of checkboxes.
jerf 3y ago
Part of the reason potential technical co-founders get so frosty is precisely that airstrike's list is pretty much what the ideas guys are looking for, plus as others have mentioned the "6. You will agree to put in a good 6 months work up front for no pay to create something while I get 50-80% of the equity more or less smiling and nodding." Of course, there's good non-technical co-founders out there, too, but just as in the job market, the good candidates disappear but the bad ones circulate endlessly, resulting in every hiring managed seeing almost all bad candidates, it's the bad "ideas guys who want 80% equity while you do the work" who we all encounter.

kikimora 3y ago

There are plenty of people I know who would qualify. None would be interested to work for free.

danielmarkbruce 3y ago
And ~zero of them are wandering around looking for a "business guy" to help them make their dreams come true.

danielmarkbruce 3y ago

The thing is, there aren't a bunch of technical people going around looking for a "business guy". A business guy should pull out his supply demand chart and see where the intersection is... the price is going to be low for the business guy.

jeltz 3y ago

Totally reasonable demands and I mostly tick all of them off: 1) yup 2) yup 3) mostly reasonable but weirdly written 4) they didn't make it, but yes 5) 100%. And since I fulfill most of those requirements I have the same demands on non-tecchnical cofounders. I honestly do not think they are that high.

groestl 3y ago

I check those, and I don't consider myself special at all. There must be half a million technical people out there checking those boxes.

idontpost 3y ago

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barfbagginus 3y ago

What is your monthly contribution level to open source software projects? Are you able to prove theorems relevant to solving business problems? Give me an example. Do you have good ideas for improving the accuracy of geometric reverse engineering pipelines? Can you mathematically design optimal pricing strategies? The technical challenges we face are too great to solve on my own. I need a second technical founder.