How to hire a tech co founder

13 replies
Where are some good places to find technical co founders. I've come up with some ideas myself.

1. local meet up groups
2. linkedin network
3. warrior forum and similar

Must be awesome with php and front end. Perhaps there are specific forums for this. Any help is appreciated.
#founder #hire #tech
  • Profile picture of the author Sid Hale
    Originally Posted by crendon2854 View Post

    Must be awesome with php and front end.
    When you say that you are looking for a "co-founder", I assume that it's a business partner you're looking for - i.e. someone to develop the site and the back office management functions.

    What, besides ideas, do you bring to the table?
    Why would I (for example) want to partner with you?

    "Awesome" developers are probably pretty adept at coming up with their own ideas and will need you to bring more to the table. Less capable "developers" can be outsourced (i.e. Fiverr, etc.)
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    • Profile picture of the author crendon2854
      Yes I'm looking for business partner. Someone with programming experience as the software is developed in PHP.

      I've got 5 years of extensive marketing experience helping online and offline businesses generate leads. Dozens of satisfied client testimonials. My strengths are facebook ads, adwords, everything retargeting between facebook and google audiences. Autoresponders and sales funnels. Influencer outreach. Plus a few other channels.

      The software suite consist of 3 solutions. I'm not reinventing the wheel. Simply taken already proven software and I've given it a unique twist. I've outsourced the software abroad to development agency. I've funded the entire project. Tens of thousands of dollars spent.

      I"m looking for co founder with strong passion who would aligned visions with me. Basically i'm bringing the complete project funding and my 5 years of successful marketing experience.
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  • Profile picture of the author santi x
    I read your post over a few times and I have a couple questions for you. It sounds like you have a strong background and no doubt you are an expert in what you do.

    Why are you looking for someone awesome with php and front end?

    If you think of your business as a machine, with the main components being generalized areas of your startup(HR, sales, marketing, Product dev, operations, etc), what would you say the areas you are weakest in? Be honest.

    I'm sincerely interested in your response.

    Santi
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    • Profile picture of the author crendon2854
      The whole software is on php, main reason why. My weakest areas are HR, accounting and the programming side obviously. Sales and marketing are my strengths. Been selling since I was 18 years old and been doing digital marketing at least 8 years. Solid business for 5 years. Product development for me is my playing field . Marketing plan, concept generation, the overall process of strategy and organization is what I fuel.
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  • Profile picture of the author discrat
    Warrior member anayb might have some insight for you
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    • Profile picture of the author anayb
      Originally Posted by discrat View Post

      Warrior member anayb might have some insight for you
      Ok, Discrat

      Here are some general tips for the OP:

      It's fine that you plan to work with tech people to build some awesome products. Tell you the truth, all talented people want to work for a winner, who understand what really excites them about their work that they'll work tirelessly and ask for more. You need that functional ability to hire and retain talent.

      I don't know your expereice, and if you have ever managed a function of some sort like marketing, product development, whatever, so I can't give you a precise answer.

      In short, you can make anyone your co-founder, but if you want him/her stick around and help your venture to become successful, you have to play your cards right. You have to figure out how to motivate your people to work together like a well-oiled machine, and remember, if your idea motivates you, it will also motivate others like you. Good luck.
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      • Profile picture of the author crendon2854
        Hiring and retaining talent. Not and old strategy for me. I was also thinking about reaching out to some of my previous hires. After over dozen projects on freelancer and upwork there were some that really stood out. The excitement, the obsession, the proven record, and all the Love is there. Good points!
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  • Profile picture of the author DURABLEOILCOM
    You could posts in Jobs listing.
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  • Profile picture of the author Jason Kanigan
    Partnering with a co-founder is not like going to the grocery store for some fruit.

    Late last year I partnered with my co-founder and it was a huge change. It was something I deliberately avoided for the previous six years. I had said, "No! The business is mine, under my control: people hire me to do things my way...I cannot dilute myself and partnering will only get me into trouble."

    So what changed?

    My co-founder came to me. He was someone I'd been connected with on social media for years, but we hadn't interacted all that much. We knew who the other was, and appreciated that person. But we had never talked about working together.

    He approached me with the idea and we talked. We talked A LOT. We shared our opinions about every topic under the sun. Why? We wanted to make sure, temperamentally, we were a good fit.

    Getting a co-founder is like getting into a marriage.

    My co-founder has shown me 100% trust over and over and over again. He has demonstrated he will show up and continue to show up, and show up beyond when hell freezes over. I do not spend an iota of one second worrying about him or his contribution.

    Pick up a co-founder willy-nilly like a one night stand at the bar and I guarantee you'll have a completely different experience.

    You have to be able to rely on your co-founder.

    The flip side of this is that it is DELIGHTFUL to know that you can assign a task and something will be done! Not only that, but it'll probably be done better and more interestingly (is that a word?) than you would do it!

    I have seen so many horror stories from one co-founder complaining that the other left them in the lurch, never did anything, took all the money, or some other disastrous outcome. And when I ask a couple questions, I found they leaped into business with this other person having done next to no bonding or finding out what the other person is really like.

    I have another market I'm interested in, a highly technical one, in which I've been told in information interviews (do you do those?) I should get a tech co-founder. So OK, maybe I do need one. But I'm proceeding SLOWLY. I'm not in a rush. If I need a co-founder there, I'll find the right person...and I don't care if it takes me six months or two years. Whatever. However long it takes. Because the price of making a bad decision is crippling.

    My TCE co-founder "gets this":

    Jason's Rule One: Don't Die.

    If you die, you don't get another chance, another at-bat, to try to do better.

    He takes Rule One as seriously as I do. Some people have laughed Rule One off. Funny ha ha funny: they run out of cash and die. Their business dies and they don't get another chance. Oh well. Ha ha.

    The same people laugh at what an old builder told me almost 15 years ago now: "Most accidents are planned."

    And they are. Where you put that coffee cup down. Where you put your foot. Nearly every time, you could have avoided that problem with a little forethought.

    Why am I talking about these things? Because they're directly relevant to your choice of a co-founder. This is not casual. This is life and death. And most accidents--your disaster with the co-founder you chose in 15 minutes because they talk real good, but then took the first $25K you made in your business, cleaned you out and disappeared--are planned.
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    • Profile picture of the author crendon2854
      Interesting stuff. Thanks for that feedback. I would do anything to avoid those mishaps you mention.

      Brings to mind the legality issues. Founding advisors could really help here im certain. I've read vesting agreements are almost always the best way to go about co founding a company. It's some sort of milestone based startup agreement.

      Any cost associated with the legal issues would be well worth the investment. But then international co founders come to mind where the rules might not apply say in a 3rd world country. They could run off with a copy of my software later to found on a warez site haha.
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  • Profile picture of the author Chris Brindamour
    crendon2854,

    Not sure why are are looking for a technical co-founder? What do you want to do. You can hire technical people, if you have something really good, do you want to give that away to a stranger?

    If you have a current friend or acquaintance that would be one thing, but to partner with a complete stranger? Some of the greatest entrepreneurs, such as Bill Gates and Steve Jobs started out in a garage with some friends.

    I would suggest going to upwork to find someone with the technical skills you are looking for.

    But is you are looking to meet people in the industry there is no better place than a event. You will find like-minded people and industry experts. Just find one in your niche.

    Chris
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    • Profile picture of the author crendon2854
      Hey Christ,

      This will be my first time launching a software. Outsourcing software developers has been a learning experience for me. Every new project allowed me to execute the next project better but I went from development agencies to freelancers and then back to development agencies. It's costly but most importantly, there's not an aligned vision for my project goals.

      There will be issues during beta testing and im sure they will be after launching. Budget and timing also come to mind. Not to say it's not possible to succeed without tech co founder because there are tons of stories proving otherwise.

      I did forget to add events. Depending of the event, most are attending for joint venture partnering at least in my experience with marketing events. Perhaps you're referring to a sort of Code Con event where programmers gather for the Love of coding and not to exchange promotions.
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  • Profile picture of the author TrickyDick
    Originally Posted by crendon2854 View Post

    Where are some good places to find technical co founders. I've come up with some ideas myself.

    1. local meet up groups
    2. linkedin network
    3. warrior forum and similar

    Must be awesome with php and front end. Perhaps there are specific forums for this. Any help is appreciated.
    There are some challenges....

    1. You need someone who knows how to get results...

    "Awesome with php and front end" programmers are a dime a dozen. Being able to quickly and reliably create software is an art mastered by few.

    2. You need to be aware of the amount of time involved.

    Even if you spend thousands of dollars to create the first version, your "Technical Co-Founder" will be spending hundreds of hours each of the first few months to work out each and every little issue... That is only fixing bugs... in the initial phase.

    You also have the "Production Support" time... When the web server goes down at 2:00 AM, your partner will be up fixing the issue... sometimes for hours. Meanwhile, you'll be sleeping soundly.

    3. You need to setup your business and software development processes.

    Not doing this will waste tons of time, make you pull your hair out... and it will cost you thousands in lost revenue. Remember, most customers don't complain, they simply go away...

    These are some food for thought...

    If I were in your shoes, I'd be offering a contract where the "Technical Co-Founder" has a minimum guaranteed payout... If that amount isn't met, you go your separate ways... each with rights to use the source code in your own projects.
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