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Ask HN: Is it always difficult to find co-founders?

8 points by tnsn ↗ HN
Does everyone here feel it's super difficult to find the right co-founders at the right time? I attended top universities, worked at FAANG, have strong networks, but still find it super difficult to find a co-founder at the right time, with the right culture fit and with the right interests on the startup I'm working on.

Any hacks would be really appreciated!

6 comments

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paogli
I can relate to this 100% In a lot of cases, it’s that the other person doesn’t feel strongly about an idea or is risk averse.

I am still looking for a cofounder. Top public uni... interned at great places and now working at a well-known late stage startup in the Midwest. Want to chat? sauzciok at outlook dot com. Hit me up.

i_v
I've found my past cofounders at hackathons like Startup Weekend and in general, around tech events and meetups focused around startups and entrepreneurship. From there, we worked on fun side projects together and eventually started companies with each other.

It isn't the worst thing ever to be a solo founder. In fact, I'd recommend you reframe your goal as, "I need to find someone with domain expertise in X, Y, or Z," instead of "I need a confounder." You're very likely to find someone who can help you with a few hurdles who might not necessarily be interested in having the weight of a company on their back. It's also less of a burden for you too since you can take your time vetting and won't be jumping into a "marriage" as it's often related to. ;)

Out of curiosity, what stage are you in? What skillset do you have? What areas could you use some extra hands in?

zapstar
I'm always confused by questions about finding co-founders... Why do you need to find a co-founder? When it doesn't happen naturally, why not go it alone?
rococode
Agreed. It's often said that being a solo founder is harder than having a co-founder and you'll face more challenges - fundraising issues, heightened stress, knowledge gaps, etc. And those are pretty true. But all those problems pale in comparison to the ultimate problem, a broken co-founder relationship that can't be repaired because you never had a strong connection in the first place.

It's certainly possible to "force" a co-founder relationship, but you've gotta be prepared to spend a lot of time making sure it's the right fit. Unless you have a pressing reason for finding a co-founder, that time could probably be better spent building or selling instead.

dnh44
For me it was that the business could only exist in the intersection of our respective skill sets, and would have been impossible otherwise. This made it feel like a natural fit.

Neither of us went to top schools or worked at well known places (we’re both slackers at heart) but we were good in our respective niches.

We’ve not executed anywhere near as good as we should have but we still have no competition which has allowed us to survive quite a few mistakes and outright screw-ups.

I don’t think we would have got as far as we have if it was a case of one person following another persons vision. We may have a totally different perspective on how to get to our end goal (which causes lots of conflict), but our vision of the end goal is very similar and has been from the beginning. This kept us going through some really hard times.

If I had to offer advice(which I’m not because everyone has a different experience) I’d say don’t look for someone to work on your startup with you. That’s what employees are for. Make sure that it’s clear you’re looking for a co-parent and not not an au pair.

But that’s just my experience and I’ve got more questions than answers. I’m pretty sure there’s no silver bullet though.

pkrotich
It’s like finding a spouse - you’ve got to date a little before deciding and also remember they’re also judging you - so perhaps asking yourself how can I be found is the right approach to take instead of sticking to your checklist like culture fit etc.