3 ms·

I can quickly tell you why you've had 0 luck finding a co-founder. My background: I am both a web hosting industry veteran, with a successful high-end hosting

I can quickly tell you why you've had 0 luck finding a co-founder. My background: I am both a web hosting industry veteran, with a successful high-end hosting company under my belt (see http://www.erica.biz/2009/the-end-of-an-era/ http://www.erica.biz/2009/the-end-of-an-era/ for my story)...and my current co-founder and I also did a presentation at SXSW this year on "How to Find the Perfect Co-Founder." You've made 2 classic mistakes here: 1) You haven't started building the business without your co-founder. There is absolutely 0 reason why you need a developer co-founder to build what is essentially a high-end hosting company. Put up a WordPress site, set up a Stripe account, collect payment (3 months in advance for new customers will help you buy the server) and you're in business. This is EXACTLY what I did when I started my hosting company. There are many options available to lease high-end hardware (I'm not talking about leasing hosting; I'm talking about leasing the hardware and colocating it) and there's no reason for you to not build and prove out this business. 2) You are looking for a co-founder and not a particular skill set. When my co-founder of my current startup and I met in June 2010, I wasn't looking for a co-founder; I was looking for a developer. We worked together for several months and I paid him to develop the site and back-end for our customers. We signed our first customers and only then did I offer him a co-founder position with equity. But I paid him the entire time. Can't afford to pay someone? See my first piece of advice. You don't need anyone else. When I built my hosting company in 2001, I had just started to learn how to write code. I taught myself PHP, wrote my own shopping cart, set up an integration with Payflow Link (now owned by Paypal), and I was in business. You need to do the same thing here. The bottom line is that no one wants equity in an idea. You have to prove the model. Things like WordPress themes and Stripe make it easy to do so, so anyone even remotely technical who doesn't do that doesn't appear to be serious about the business. (I'm not making a judgment call here, but that is the perception when you don't even have a simple website with products for sale and a checkout process before looking for a co-founder.) On top of that, the hosting industry is exceedingly difficult (I've written about it on my blog at http://erica.biz http://erica.biz extensively) and you're really going to have to prove that you have something awesome and different to succeed in that business. Think you've got it? Here's the challenge: Get a site up with a checkout process in the next 24 hours. When the first order comes in, put that server on a credit card and deliver to the customer. Then repeat 100x more in the next 6-12 months. You may find you don't need a co-founder, or you may find your business idea was wrong. Either way, you won't be banging your head against the wall saying things like "I can't move forward without a co-founder!"--you will have taken control of your business and moved forward to prove the idea with the skills you have right now.

cdvonstinkpot 13y ago
I don't have a credit card, but in the next 90 days, I expect to have access to enough funds to buy server #1. I'll get on a way to sell it in advance. I had an idea to market a special where I would sell an annual deal on the server for 25-33% off which wouldn't make much money for that year, but would provide enough capital up front to buy another server & expand right off the bat, so I wanted the website to feature that special. I also wanted the website to feature a permission marketing campaign & collect email addresses of interested parties to go onto a waiting list since our initial server capacity is limited, but I guess I can achieve the same thing with a facebook page with people 'Liking' us & adding our announcements to their news feeds. I saw an interesting social commerce app that allowed for one-click facebook purchasing, that would make the storefront part easy & free of up-front capital. Thanks again for your reply.
- ericabiz 13y ago
  > I'll get on a way to sell it in advance. Awesome. Really glad to hear you're ready to take the initiative. > where I would sell an annual deal on the server for 25-33% off You may not get people to commit to a year up front if you're brand new, but 3 months in advance can be pretty effective and still pay for most of the server. > I also wanted the website to feature a permission marketing campaign & collect email addresses of interested parties Okay, this is easy. I've used both Mailchimp and Aweber and like them both; I'd recommend Mailchimp in your case since it has a free plan for you to start with. It is easy...literally copy and paste. You will be surprised how simple it is to integrate this. > I guess I can achieve the same thing with a facebook page with people 'Liking' us & adding our announcements to their news feeds. This will work; for me, conversions have been much stronger from my email list than from Twitter/FB. Again, Mailchimp makes this easy. Facebook also makes this pretty easy. > I saw an interesting social commerce app that allowed for one-click facebook purchasing, that would make the storefront part easy & free of up-front capital. Use Stripe. Again, copy-and-paste simple. Mailchimp + Stripe + a shared hosting account + a WordPress install + a theme and you've got everything you need to sell your first server. Best of luck!
  - tmzt 13y ago

cdvonstinkpot 13y ago

I don't have a credit card, but in the next 90 days, I expect to have access to enough funds to buy server #1. I'll get on a way to sell it in advance. I had an idea to market a special where I would sell an annual deal on the server for 25-33% off which wouldn't make much money for that year, but would provide enough capital up front to buy another server & expand right off the bat, so I wanted the website to feature that special. I also wanted the website to feature a permission marketing campaign & collect email addresses of interested parties to go onto a waiting list since our initial server capacity is limited, but I guess I can achieve the same thing with a facebook page with people 'Liking' us & adding our announcements to their news feeds. I saw an interesting social commerce app that allowed for one-click facebook purchasing, that would make the storefront part easy & free of up-front capital. Thanks again for your reply.

ericabiz 13y ago
> I'll get on a way to sell it in advance. Awesome. Really glad to hear you're ready to take the initiative. > where I would sell an annual deal on the server for 25-33% off You may not get people to commit to a year up front if you're brand new, but 3 months in advance can be pretty effective and still pay for most of the server. > I also wanted the website to feature a permission marketing campaign & collect email addresses of interested parties Okay, this is easy. I've used both Mailchimp and Aweber and like them both; I'd recommend Mailchimp in your case since it has a free plan for you to start with. It is easy...literally copy and paste. You will be surprised how simple it is to integrate this. > I guess I can achieve the same thing with a facebook page with people 'Liking' us & adding our announcements to their news feeds. This will work; for me, conversions have been much stronger from my email list than from Twitter/FB. Again, Mailchimp makes this easy. Facebook also makes this pretty easy. > I saw an interesting social commerce app that allowed for one-click facebook purchasing, that would make the storefront part easy & free of up-front capital. Use Stripe. Again, copy-and-paste simple. Mailchimp + Stripe + a shared hosting account + a WordPress install + a theme and you've got everything you need to sell your first server. Best of luck!
- tmzt 13y ago