Ask HN: My co-founder bailed on me What do i do now?
I did not want to bring this up but i feel HN offers the best advice. I am a 19 year old student in university and i build apps as a hobby. I built a survey tool to help you survey website visitors and still looking for ways to make it kick off. I got a co-founder on HN, who was supposed to help with the business and marketing side because i have had no luck in that area with my previous projects. He helped out for a while to organize the website properly, worked on the site's copy and bailed after 3 weeks without doing the main job i wanted a co-founder to help out with. So now i am stuck. I don't have an idea on how to market the site without spending loads of money or contacting bloggers (which i have had no luck before). What do i do HN?
18 comments
[ 3.3 ms ] story [ 40.7 ms ] threadYou should try to avoid a situation where he can return at some later point with a potentially legitimate claim to a part of any business that your company may have evolved into.
A friend of mine hired a contractor without a work for hire agreement. The guy came back later and claimed the software. It cost my friend $20k to get rid of him. And that was when $20k was real money.
So my non-lawyerly advice is to always have some sort of simple document to protect yourself.
And go watch The Social Network.
Which leads to the difficult question: what's there to love about your idea? I'm sure there are many of us reading this who are saying to themselves, "Another survey widget? Ho hum." To which you reply: "Yes, but this one is different. This one does X."
This "X", of course, is your secret sauce. Your "unique value proposition."
Now, if you don't know what X is, then figuring that out is what you need to be working on. It's going to be hard to attract co-founders or customers without it.
If you do know what X is, then pitch it around to other potential co-founders. Locally-- you want someone in the same city. Sure, it's possible to collaborate remotely, but I wouldn't recommend it, especially under your circumstances.
To summarize: define your "unique value proposition." Find a local co-founder who is passionate about it. And then, apply to YC.
Don't lead with "more affordable." Trying to be the cheapest in the market is a losing strategy, generally speaking.
"Simpler to use" is good. "Less annoying to end-users" is good, too.
I assume you've got pilot customers. If you don't, get some. I don't mean users-- I mean customers. Get five people to pay for your product. Get their opinions.
Now: think of a problem your product solves. I mean, one, specific, real life, concrete instance. You're looking for a story. Because that's what you want to pitch to bloggers/journalists. Features don't write stories-- anecdotes do.
Read Patrick's blog. Take his advice seriously.
And, good luck!
I've been in a vaguely similar position. Don't freak out, and don't think of yourself as desperate. Don't settle. Don't rush things either. University is a great place to meet people who could become cofounders, so meet people.
Partners are very over rated, but YC seems to like them. I've had several, all worthless. it's tough, you got to find someone with the same passion, or there will be significant differences down the road, especially with work load and responsibility.
watch out for going into business with family members - i've never seen that work out well either.
also, verbal agreements are just as enforceable as written ones, which is why you always get a written agreement. Contracts are a tool to prevent/protect future problems/litigation. Again, this is experience talking. I made over $1M in my first business, and then spent $250K defending it from a partner with a cocaine habit. I won, but it was tough and extremely expensive. You make money with this, he will comeback to haunt you.
If you do NEED a partner/founder, be very cautious. It can be good, but more often than not i've seen partnerships wreck friendships, marriages and families...