3 ms·

Ask YC: Founders and Paradoxes (Paradoxen?)

2 points by DaniFong 19y ago

Dear YC, I'm trying to figure out how to resolve the following paradoxes. It's difficult to find a cofounder without funding. It's difficult to find funding with a cofounder (apparently). Projects are unlikely to succeed without brilliant people. Brilliant people are likely to be very busy with their own projects. For a few weeks, talking to people and getting them interested has been a full-time commitment. I've heard universal expressions of support, and many, many people have offered to help, but thus far I haven't managed to get anyone to commit. The brilliant people are almost all fighting their own worthy battles (or are tied down in Canada, where I come from), while some of the others have impressively bad ideas they treat as sacred. I have some inkling that it might be more effective to secure some seed funding first (and not necessarily through YC), and try to find cofounders thereafter. For example, there are specific people that I'd love to have onboard -- experts in computer vision. However, they're busy enough that I suspect they'd be unwilling to participate is business things, and could only be lured to work with actual cash. What do you think? Should I try to apply alone to YC? Should I forget about the 11th deadline and just treat YC as another potential source of funding? Or, might you suggest I aim with full force toward finding the perfect cofounder, hopefully by that deadline? --Dani

davidw 19y ago
I really get the impression, from reading this site, reading PG, listening to the interview with Jessica, that they are much happier if you have a co founder that you've known for a while, so just finding someone to plug into that role isn't as likely to work, even if they're good. Maybe I'm wrong though, because my mind reading abilities leave a lot to be desired.
- DaniFong 19y ago
  That would be my choice as well. It's just really fairly to get someone to join in a cofounder capacity, because the people I know well are all on the east coast or Canada, and I have a lot of pull them away from. I've had a lot of people willing to work part time. It's just all of the people who are likely to be interested in my project are also likely to be very, very busy -- part time is all I think I can get in the short term. On the other hand, in the design stages many companies (Apple, Microsoft, Yahoo, for example) had only one person working on things. Turning it into a business before a prototype emerges might be premature.
  - aston 19y ago
    Apple had Jobs and Woz. Microsoft had Bill and Paul. Yahoo had Jerry Yang and David Filo. Dani and ?
    - DaniFong 19y ago
      Woz did the Cream Soda Computer, and the Apple I and II on his own (though he had Job's support after Apple I). Bill did BASIC for the Altair on his own, and Yahoo was just David's list, to start. There's a distinction between the seed stage and the regular early stage that I'm trying to point to.
aston 19y ago
It's possible to find a cofounder without funding. Almost everyone does. Keep looking for folks. You need to convince brilliant people that your idea rocks enough to have them leave whatever they're doing. I doubt this is as hard as it would sound, since most brilliant people are wasting their talent.
cstejerean 19y ago
Well, to quote PG, if you can't convince at least one other person to commit to your idea then perhaps your idea is not that great (or you haven't talked to right people). I wouldn't call myself "great" but while I'm always busy working on something I'm willing to drop everything else and stick to something if I believe in the potential of the idea. The only times I turn something down is if I'm working on something that I believe has a higher chance of success (or that I enjoy a lot more). Perhaps you need to work at your idea more and get something that you can show potential co-founders. Be careful however of picking just anyone as friction between founders can be fatal. It might not be a bad idea to get someone to help out part time for a mix of cash and equity (I'm guessing more equity than cash since you say you need funding). Once this person gets more familiar with what you are doing he/she might become interested in joining you full-time and at that point you will have had a chance to evaluate how valuable of a co-founder this person would be. I wouldn't worry about the October 11th deadline, focus on your idea, you can always apply next time.
DaniFong 19y ago
I don't know if fortune decided to smile upon me or what, but since I posted this the three people I've been trying to get to join me all spontaneously decided to do it. Thanks for the encouragement =)

2 points by DaniFong 19y ago

davidw 19y ago

I really get the impression, from reading this site, reading PG, listening to the interview with Jessica, that they are much happier if you have a co founder that you've known for a while, so just finding someone to plug into that role isn't as likely to work, even if they're good. Maybe I'm wrong though, because my mind reading abilities leave a lot to be desired.

DaniFong 19y ago
That would be my choice as well. It's just really fairly to get someone to join in a cofounder capacity, because the people I know well are all on the east coast or Canada, and I have a lot of pull them away from. I've had a lot of people willing to work part time. It's just all of the people who are likely to be interested in my project are also likely to be very, very busy -- part time is all I think I can get in the short term. On the other hand, in the design stages many companies (Apple, Microsoft, Yahoo, for example) had only one person working on things. Turning it into a business before a prototype emerges might be premature.
- aston 19y ago
  Apple had Jobs and Woz. Microsoft had Bill and Paul. Yahoo had Jerry Yang and David Filo. Dani and ?
  - DaniFong 19y ago
    Woz did the Cream Soda Computer, and the Apple I and II on his own (though he had Job's support after Apple I). Bill did BASIC for the Altair on his own, and Yahoo was just David's list, to start. There's a distinction between the seed stage and the regular early stage that I'm trying to point to.

aston 19y ago

It's possible to find a cofounder without funding. Almost everyone does. Keep looking for folks. You need to convince brilliant people that your idea rocks enough to have them leave whatever they're doing. I doubt this is as hard as it would sound, since most brilliant people are wasting their talent.

cstejerean 19y ago

Well, to quote PG, if you can't convince at least one other person to commit to your idea then perhaps your idea is not that great (or you haven't talked to right people). I wouldn't call myself "great" but while I'm always busy working on something I'm willing to drop everything else and stick to something if I believe in the potential of the idea. The only times I turn something down is if I'm working on something that I believe has a higher chance of success (or that I enjoy a lot more). Perhaps you need to work at your idea more and get something that you can show potential co-founders. Be careful however of picking just anyone as friction between founders can be fatal. It might not be a bad idea to get someone to help out part time for a mix of cash and equity (I'm guessing more equity than cash since you say you need funding). Once this person gets more familiar with what you are doing he/she might become interested in joining you full-time and at that point you will have had a chance to evaluate how valuable of a co-founder this person would be. I wouldn't worry about the October 11th deadline, focus on your idea, you can always apply next time.

DaniFong 19y ago

I don't know if fortune decided to smile upon me or what, but since I posted this the three people I've been trying to get to join me all spontaneously decided to do it. Thanks for the encouragement =)