4 ms·

Ask HN: Co-Founder(s). Do I need any? How would I even find them?

• dabinat 16d ago
  You don’t need a co-founder, but doing everything yourself while you have another job will be slow. Competitors may be able to get around your patent and scale up faster than you. Having someone else also means you’re accountable to them, which puts a bit more urgency on getting things done, in addition to being a sounding-board for your ideas.
• skyberrys 16d ago
  You only have 12 months after filing the provisional application to get the full patent application in. You might not need a cofounder, but you definitely need a plan with a timeline. If it's a choice between being too slow, losing the market timing and the provisional patent protections or finding a co-founder, then find a cofounder. Is it more work to find the cofounder vs develop it yourself? You can try posting a linkedIn job ad for a cofounder, someone found me that way, and yes it was upfront about the salary situation but there are people out there who might be in the right circumstances to take you up on what you can bring to the table.
• d--b 16d ago
  Don't listen to those other people who tell you you can do it alone. You can't. You have 4 kids, there is no way you have that kind of time. Regarding the patent: I know this is going to sound harsh, but what is likely is that it's going to be harder to find someone who finds your invention cool than to defend against anyone who might want to steal it. Patents defend technical inventions useful in the industry, a social media gizmo not so much. Filing a patent will take a lot of time, and you won't have the money to litigate anyone who steals it anyways. In your position, I would just throw the idea out there, make a kickstarter campaign or something. Try and get anyone interested. If there is interest, then it's easier to find a cofounder who might want to be in with you on this. There is a good chance that the kickstarter result is a giant "meh" from the world. And you can go back raising your children and chase that GS15 (Idk what that is). Also if you do this just to scratch your own itch, build the stuff just for yourself (LLMs and 3D printers make everything quite simple these days), and post a youtube video about it. Anyways my take is: - you need a cofounder to launch something - but you need to validate the idea before finding a cofounder. also don't be greedy with your cofounder, split 50 50 or close to that, it may be your idea, but you can't do it without the other person.
  • bhollan 16d ago
    Well, the patent attorney was very clear that a kickstarter (at least any that offer anything remotely like a 'sale' or anything) 'voids' a lot of the protections of the provisional, and maybe even the full patent.
    • toast0 16d ago
      I don't know anything about provisional patents, but if selling a product that embeds patented ideas voided the protections of a patent, patents would be pretty useless. Maybe there's some context or nuance that didn't get conveyed that I'm missing. I would imagine you can't get treble damages from willful infringement on a provisional patent, given that they're not published... so if you publicize your item on kickstarter while the patent is provisional and/or pending, less potential damages from infringers ... but I dunno how many people get treble damages anyway.
• ra0x3 16d ago
  You don't NEED one, but you probably SHOULD have one. It just helps speed things up immensely and lowers the chances that you'll burnout. "If you want to go fast, go by yourself. If you want to go far, go together."
• motawakol 16d ago
  [dead]
• lyfeninja 15d ago
  As a solo founder in the thick of it right now, I would consider it. Given your constraints (fulltime job, side gigs, family) it could help balance the workload, and if you find the right one, maybe offload things you don't like or aren't good at. Not to mention the comradery component and having someone to go through the difficult times with you. I'd find the ying to your yang, so if you the technologist, find someone good at business, sales, marketing, product, etc. That's my two cents.
• bumjin 15d ago
  I built something on my own while I had a day job too. Mine is software, so it's a different situation, but AI helped with building it. Getting people interested is still hard. I can see why you'd want help with marketing. If I were looking for a partner, I'd look for someone who enjoys the work I find hardest. But I'd first try to find a few people who actually want to use the thing.
• notahacker 15d ago
  To be blunt, you're more likely to find cofounders, partners or investors if your approach to asking somewhere you might actually find one is less "I've invented a new type of thing but I can't tell you what it is or even what vague market it's in". Whether you need cofounders/advisers/contractors depends a lot on whether your idea is, "widget I can get made in bulk in China sell on Amazon", "mechanism that needs a lot of R&D to make it work" or "perfect solution to niche problem" and what the gaps in your own skillset and network are.
  • bhollan 15d ago
    To be clear, I don't actually know if my "patentability" is sufficiently "non-obvious" or not. So I didn't want to talk about the invention/details _here_. I would obviously say more about the gizmo w/ potential cofounders.
• plainjar 14d ago
  [flagged]
• Zaraif13 14d ago
  Here's my $0.02. On a Co-Founder: 1) Like raising kids as a single parent, it's possible but it's far better with a partner. Same thing goes for being a Solo Founder vs having a Co-Founder. The magic number, in my opinion, is 2 total Co-Founders for a startup. 2) The right cofounder will complement your expertise. It's basically "the whole is greater than the sum of its parts". 3) Make a list of everyone in your friend group, those you've worked with in the past 3 years and maybe even a few you went to college with. Mark those who are formidable, reach out to all the ones you marked and just have a conversation with each of them to see where it takes you. But have those conversations with the intent that any one of them could potentially be a Co-Founder. On getting started: 1) There's literally no hard and fast rule. But I think it's a good idea to keep your day job, and spend evening and weekends working on pulse checking your product with potential customers/users. Prioritize heavily on getting in front of customers. Patents don't matter much. 2) See how far you can take this as a business on your own while looking for a Co-Founder. Do both in parallel. 3) Limit yourself to a fixed time period, maybe a month, to lift this off the ground. And tell yourself, if you haven't seen any progress in a month after trying hard then maybe it's not worth it. Traction matters most, try and get some in any form within that month. For example, I know of people who are building electric motorbikes who got initial interest just by taking a detailed 3D printed model to potential distribution partners. Good luck! :) PS: Counterintuitively, I think having a supportive family gives you more purpose to build something enduring and meaningful.
• rahuljha0403 13d ago
  One of the main challenge is, building trust takes time. Even if you feel you have got one, it will take time to develop faith in your partner. When I left my job in 2024 to work on my idea or join someone else's idea, I tried working with many people, but none worked out. It's way different than what it seems from the top. As of now, I still believe finding a cofounder and it makes things easier especially when you have a job and a family which takes most of your time. You just need to be practical and see red flags which will tell you it won't work out. I think best is to try without compromising important details of your project, when you feel you can trust, then go 100%.
• lostdog 13d ago
  Most people's cofounders are someone they worked with at a previous job, or went to school with.