As a tech fellow, I've been to a lot of cofounder dates. I want to share some perspective from the other side of the table.
Here are the requirements quoted to me by the founders I met:
This is quite an insane list and I don't think any person on this planet qualifies. And if this mythical person does exist, why would they work with you?
A person has around 6000-7000 conscious thoughts per day. Multiply this by the whole population over the last 10 years, you have 189,000,000,000,000,000 ideas.
So the chances that yours is unique is somewhat low.
The value in a startup isn't the idea but the ability to execute and build on that idea. For every very successful startup in X space there were 10 more X's with the same general idea but that failed to execute.
And so please believe that ideas really don't matter that much. Anyways, people like Kobe didn't become great because they thought of playing basketball. They became great because they did it every day.
There is no idea equity, only sweat equity.
And if you really did find someone who gave you 20% extra equity for your idea, then they would be forever resentful to you. Why should they work two years extra to get the 20% equity, which you have earned in a single thought. This would create distrust and sabotage the startup from the very beginning.
Jordan Belfort made it by selling scams. Then he sold movie rights of him selling scams. Now he makes it by selling courses on how to sell scams. A good salesman can be selling 10 different crap easily. You need to show you are the one.
Every person who is recruited must be convinced that he/she is going to get something out of the deal. And you have to sell the idea of the company to win labour.
If you're a dentist, or a store manager, please understand, those skills are irrelavant to this role. Maybe your experience is a plus, but your primary current role will be selling.
There are no dentists in a NBA team. and there are no dentists in a startup.
Build it, or sell it, there's no third seat on this ride.
People keep using the word “bootstrapping” like it's a cheat code. Bootstrapped companies are significantly more likely to fail. More so because no one ever vetted their plan with some of their money on stake.
I might be biased but most cofounders who want to bootstrap was because they were afraid to do actual work. Raising funding requires hard rejections which they want to avoid as much as possible.
If you can't sell even the whole enterprise, how would you sell the individual product\s built by the company?
Is it bootstrap if you sit around and ask others to do all the work. That's like me saying I want to construct a house, ask someone else to build it for us and when asked for funds, just say the magic word “bootstrap”. When the house is built, I'll maybe sell it. Maybe not.
There is a lot of upfront risk that the technical co-founder takes. They are the one putting all the time upfront before the business co-founder does.
The business cofounder essentially gets more leverage the more work the technical cofounder does -- because now there is sunk-cost and a psychological shackle. The technical cofounder just wants to be done with the build-out so the business can proceed and make money -- but the business cofounder has every incentive to expand the MVP more and more since they are putting in no effort (possibly have not quit their job either) and wants more and more before the system can be sold.
My family, health, and social circles would qualify as assets and I'm definitely putting those on the line as an engineer.
So, the business co-founder needs to take equal amount of risk. That means quitting their day job and either selling the product full time or essentially putting all of the money that they earned from the job into the company.
I should be hearing about how I just need to write some code for an year, then I'll be cruising in my private yacht. Instead all people talk about is back-breaking work that I need to do.
From the ages of 19-21, I spent my time as a missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, popularly known as the Mormon church. I worked 12 hours a day for two years straight with only Christmas and Mother's Day off.
During that time, people tried to stab me, passersby in the street screamed in my face, and I helped people get through some of the worst life has to offer (disease, drugs, abuse, and other crises). For this job, I was paid a total of 0 dollars. In fact, I used money that I had saved since I was 11 to pay for it myself. It was the best and worst and best experience of my life; it shaped everything about me.
So you will have to forgive me if I laugh when people say their company is “mission-driven.” As someone who was literally a missionary, a startup selling productivity software is a business, not a calling.
- Not Me
You are not competing with other founders for technical people. You're competing with companies. I can get 100K salary working 30 hours a week with good food, social life and overall general happiness, or I could be working in your startup for 100 hours a week with zero pay. What do you think a reasonable person would pick?
So what you actually need to do is build a compelling case for a technical cofounder to want to join you. You have to show that you and your idea will succeed, and that it's inevitable.
A compelling case to join you consists of two things:
You should prove to the other party that this is happening and the train is departing. They can have a ticket to the ride if they join you right now.
Thanks for Reading!!