Finding a technical co-founder
What non-technical people should do to meet a co-founder
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I often hear from people that they’re looking for a technical co-founder or trying to hire a founding engineer. I think that most people go about this process in a pretty ineffective way, and that they could make even just a few changes to get better outcomes. So here’s what I would do differently in hopes of increasing your odds of success.
You are probably familiar with the “I can handle the business side” meme. If you’re not, you should watch this short video and report back.
The meme gets some laughs because it’s rather true—there’s a lot of people roaming around Startupland (networking events, Slack groups, business schools, etc.) searching for a technical cofounder but not really making much progress. This can last years!
But here’s the reality: many great, very successful founders are not software engineers. That’s because “handling the business side” (or all the aspects of building a business outside of, for example, writing code) can actually be extremely valuable.
The thing I think so many “non-technical” people get wrong is that they’re not effectively presenting themselves (or perhaps actually executing) as an effective founder would. They are not demonstrating that they are actually good at “handling the business side.”
Because I think if you are able to be highly effective, and do a reasonably good job of communicating that, you’ll be able to attract great people to work alongside you (whether that be a co-founder or founding team).
So what’s going on? Why are so many people stuck searching for a co-founder for so long?
To be blunt - I think that the common trap non-technical people fall into is one of rather low agency. This sounds a bit direct but please do not take it as personal. It’s just a trend I see amongst people searching for co-founders. They start quite optimistic but over time they start making excuses for their slow progress.
They blame it on their inability to code. Or perhaps they are living in the wrong city. Or because they cannot get funding. Or some other excuse.
I agree that starting a company is hard. Finding people to work with is hard. Life is hard!
But, especially in this day and age of technological advancement, I think not knowing “how to code” is a very bad excuse for not being able to make progress on your ideas.
And yet, I very often hear people say things like: “I’m blocked by not having a technical co-founder who is going to build the product” or “I am waiting to close this funding round before I can go out and get more customers.” And so what I think is going on is that this sort of limited mindset is not attractive to potential teammates. It becomes a sort of self-fulfilling prophecy, where you can get stuck searching for years because nobody really wants to work with someone who is not very productive and constantly making excuses.
If this is you, or you know people like this, there is good news. You can change!
I put together some thoughts that should be helpful to anyone looking for a co-founder. They should hopefully help increase your odds of finding a great match, and generally inspire you to take more control over your journey. Reach out to hi@nextplay.so if we can be helpful.
Discovering fit
If it were me, the first thing I would do is actually stop advertising yourself as someone who is non-technical or someone who can only handle the business side. What does that phrase really even mean? I think the days of so cleanly separating responsibilities are over. There are so many tools and ways to build products that you should be able to get pretty far (more on this below) without coming in with a highly technical background.
Yes you should answer honestly if people ask you your skillset (and precisely define it!). Misrepresenting yourself as someone who is technical is also a really bad idea for lots of pretty obvious reasons.
In addition to the above, I would stop framing what you’re looking for as someone who is simply a “technical co-founder.” I think you should expect a great co-founder, someone who is open to dedicating a large chunk of their life to working with you, to be potentially interested in all aspects of your future business. I would not put them off upfront by saying something like: I’m going to handle X and you handle Y and together things will just get done. Yes you can divvy up responsibilities. Yes you can compliment each other well. But there’s something off putting to me about drawing very rigid lines in the sand, especially upfront as you’re just getting to know each other.
The next thing I would do is be extremely honest with yourself. You have nothing to gain by lying or inaccurate. This sounds obvious but you’d be surprised. It’s so so easy to lie to yourself about what’s important to you and what you are actually looking for. You may not be doing this intentionally but the time to stop is now.
A huge chunk of the learning that goes on with finding people to work with is actually answering questions about yourself and your preferences. What types of people do you like to work with? What types of working styles are important to you? What are the values that matter to you? Etc. You don’t have to wait to talk to people to start figuring this out. Write yourself a personal memo of sorts, and in that, try to answer for yourself: who are the people that you really think would be a good fit? Having that clarity will save you (and the people you meet in the future) lots of time. This understanding will evolve over time as you meet more people and get more feedback.
As I said in the beginning, I think very clearly the number one thing you can do to make yourself attractive to people to work with is to actually be a very productive person.
Very productive people attract other very productive people.
If you already have a startup idea, this means actually working on your company. Making progress. Even without knowing how to code, there’s so much you can do to move things forward - whether that be talking to potential customers, doing great research on the problem space and developing a customer roadmap, and even starting to earn revenue. It may, and often does, turn out that you can get quite far in your business well before you’ve actually built a polished product. It may even turn out that you don’t need a true co-founder, maybe an early founding team member would make more sense pending how far along you get.
And if you don’t yet have an idea, and are just looking for great people to potentially work with, then there’s still so much you can do to attract like-minded people.
There’s no one way to do this but here are some quick thoughts.
One of the most straightforward things you can do is start writing publicly on the internet. Write about your idea, for example.
Another thing you can do is start reading blogs and tweets and finding people with similar ideas to you.
Another smart related thing you can do is to send people who you think you’d get along with things you’ve written or read that they may find interesting.
Another thing you can do is send people interesting questions. Literally ask them interesting questions about themselves and their companies.
Think of all of these ideas as simply tools you can use to spark interesting and useful conversations. You’ll likely need to try lots of them before figuring out which one makes the difference.
With all of the above tactics, a thought exercise that I think is worth considering is putting yourself in the shoes of your potential co-founder.
You don’t know who it is yet, but they are out there. And you need to empathize with them. What would be a really interesting proposition to this person?
Here’s one way I like to answer that question: Think about a business or project or startup as a bucket of risk.
When you’re exploring a new idea, that “thing” is full of risk. Some of the biggest upfront risks are: Do people or businesses actually want this thing? How badly? Would they pay for a solution? And can I actually build a solution? And can I scale it?
Now put yourself in the shoes of a person you’d maybe want to work with.
If I’m them, the number one thing I’m looking for, in addition to the interpersonal connection and trust, is an understanding of the risks ahead.
Make this process easier for them. You can do this by writing a great business memo or presentation that articulates all the risks with your business. Remember that you do not win this situation by fooling someone into working with you. You really want to make sure this is the right fit. So be upfront about what you see as the risks to the business, and then, if you believe in this of course, convince them you have a path to de-risking/solving them.
One of the most important aspects to de-risk is the “market risk” question. In other words, if you build this thing, will anybody actually care? This is especially important to a potential co-founder who wants to be focused primarily on building the product. It’d be a shame really for them to help build a great product only for no one to want it. This happens all the time with startups so it can be useful to convince them you’ll avoid that from the very beginning. Find a way to prove to them you have a path to building something people want. Talk to customers. Get revenue. Make progress. Be productive!
If you want advice on how to write a great memo, I would check out Bezos’s framework which he discusses here.
Finding the person
Now that you’ve made yourself more legible and attractive to a potential-cofounder hopefully, there are some additional things you can do to make yourself more visible and also discover the right person. It’s unlikely this person is just going to show up at your doorstep, just like its unlikely for your early team to actually apply to work at your mini startup. You may need to get out there and send some messages.
One thing you can do is join Friends of Next Play. When you join, you get invited to our private Slack group designed to help you meet like minded people.
Another thing you can do is go on Product Hunt, HackerNews, IndieHackers, or X and try to see who is working on interesting side projects. These could be projects from years past but scan through a bunch of them and see who stands out. Reach out to people that you think could be interesting.
Another thing you can do is to be public with your work. Create a newsletter documenting your learnings. Share it on Twitter and Reddit. Build from the ground up.
Another thing you can do is google around and try to find essays written about the topics you’re exploring. Email the authors. They could be a good fit.
Another thing you can do is be helpful to people and companies you know. Help them find customers. Help them hire people. Through this process and just getting more reps in, you’re likely to open new doors for yourself and your product. This may lead to introductions and could also lead to more customers for your business.
Another thing you can do is talk to your customers and see if any of them would actually be good cofounders. It turns out that people who have industry expertise could make for really productive people to work with on problems in that domain.
There’s more you can do: talk to investors and ask for introductions (they want to fund great companies!), talk to your friends and ask for introductions, and much more. The point is that you’ll likely want to try lots of things and see what sticks. You can treat finding a cofounder a bit like finding customers.
Now remember, finding a cofounder can be really productive. It could quite literally change your life! But it also comes with lots of difficulties. Most startups fail. A big reason for this is most cofounders do not get along forever. Even successful companies have cofounder troubles.
Beware of small things you observe that show you that this person is not a fit. Do not try to convince yourself into working with someone who may be great only because of their background maybe having fancy logos. I recommend doing a work trial with someone well before any long-term commitments. Vibes matter a lot. The little things matter a lot. Figure out if it’s the right long-term fit. You will not regret taking the extra time.
Coincidentally, I am a technical co-founder reading this post and can attest to what’s been mentioned.
Also open to any such discussions and hearing ideas
Any tips for the opposite? I can build but want to work with someone who has a vision lol