4 ms·

What about: "Who's looking for a co-founder?" I think a lot of YC applicants (myself included) are having problems with finding co-founders and HN is a great p

• primitivesuave 12y ago
  Word of advice here: only work with people you know really well, or look up to. The success of your startup will depend on that person, and a random person will most likely not share your motivation and can have any number of quirks that you will only find out over the course of many months/years. It's completely possible to pick up a brilliant hacker or business genius out of the blue, but the people who are brilliant hackers/business geniuses probably have friends who they'd start a company with rather than a stranger. Personal anecdote - I picked a cofounder who I had worked with in the past, but didn't really completely know. Incredibly bright guy, but no ability to get things done. He was delighted to blow money when we had it, but when things got rough he brought the whole atmosphere of the startup down with him and eventually left. Now I only work with people I've known for many years, and the success of my ventures with them speaks for itself.
  • fivedogit 12y ago
    It's a triple-edged sword: You give a huge chunk of your company away, take on a huge wild-card risk and to top it off, investors will now be wary of you... because they know co-founding is like a marriage and can go wrong in a multitude of ways. You wouldn't marry someone you just met, would you?
    • xiaoma 12y ago
      In many times and places such marriages have been common and carried lower divorce rates than modern western societies.
• alpeb 12y ago
  Agreed. Echoing primitivesuave's warning, I would give the partnership a test drive first with a small project.