How Do You Find Your Technical Co-Founder?
This is a really common discussion point in the startup community because it’s a really, really big challenge. There are many forums designed to find cofounder matches. Visit any of them and you’ll see the balance skews heavily toward non-technical founders looking for technical co-founders. Most founders aren’t independently wealthy and most startups aren’t funded. So, ideally a person with great business acumen and another with great technical skills comes together like peanut butter and jelly in some sort of perfect relationship. Together they go on to build the next unicorn. Investing their time and sharing the risk 50/50.
The pressure to find a technical cofounder is intensified if you’re looking for funding. Investors put that bar out there pretty quickly as one sign that a business is fundable. As a startup founder you often hear “did you find your technical co-founder”. No? Come back when you do.
The reality is, developers are hit up all the time by business folks who have a “great idea” and want them to join them for equity in the company. From what I hear there are cartoons mocking us for this. Developers are in high demand by large, small and yet to be formed companies and they command a pretty sizable salary. It’s not reasonable to expect someone to join you full time for a promise of some future income. And, unlikely to share your passion unless you jointly came up with the idea and have that magic partnership everyone expects.
Do you need a technical co-founder? In my opinion yes — and — no. If you are building a tech-based company it’s pretty hard to imagine that you’ll build a business without technical talent dedicated. But, there are options besides a technical co-founder. Here are some of the options I considered, and what I learned about the pros and cons of each option.
No — code. Very up and coming method of building software. I haven’t had personal experience with this but it would seem like a great option if your processes can be handled with these packages. From what I’ve seen a lot can be built with no-code. I would imagine it’s kind of like using SquareSpace or WordPress to create a website. You can get a polished product with minimal technical skills but customization is limited.
Out source to an (overseas) agency. I strongly considered this and have had conversations with other founders who have had success going this route to build at least an MVP. I didn’t go this route because I didn’t feel I could properly manage the development process and evaluate. Trusting our code to a 3rd party and not having the technical skills to lead, and evaluate the results seemed scary. Also, I was concerned about the next steps. We’re building a software product so once we had the MVP built who would maintain it and grow it afterward? I suppose if a founder is able to find the right agency the terms would include maintenance and careful transfer.
I did outsource our initial UX/UI design to an agency based in the U.S. The firm I used was really good and helped me think through the product quite a bit. I was really happy with them and their deliverables. But I found working with the agency to be slow and quite expensive. And, I was a bit removed from the project as it unfolded — I wouldn’t want to do that for an extended project
Hire a Freelancer from a Freelance Platform I tried this — and for all the reasons I stated I wouldn’t hire an overseas agency. I shouldn’t have hired freelancers without a technical person to lead them. Even though I tried I didn’t do a good job of vetting, managing or evaluating. I hired poorly — two times. The first being the worst the second better but still not good. These mistakes cost us dearly both in time and in cash — neither of which a bootstrapping founder can afford to waste. There are services for hire to be your overseer. I’d highly recommend engaging one if you don’t have someone in your company who can make sure things are done right.
I learned a lot from these mis-hires. Like what it means to hire slow in the dev world. I ask my friends who lead dev teams in large corporations how they know if a new hire can do what they say they can do. The answer? You really can’t. Large corporations can afford to absorb the effect of a poor hire. Startups feel the impact of a bad hire much more acutely. What I’ve learned to do is to start with a small task set that can be accomplished in a week or two. I set the expectations of the trial period to see how well we work together and to test technical skills. I can usually tell in a couple of days. Another thing I had to do is learn about development. The process, the lingo, the ins and outs so I can have a productive conversation that helps us work well together.
Find a group of fractional co-founders to side hustle for equity. This is what ended up working for us. I worked my network like mad to find a handful of people who were really good at one aspect of development (backend and data science) to come together in a part time capacity. I ditched the freelancer and found a full-time developer (paid) to lead the dev team. We meet weekly, set up sprints and move the project along. We’ve made a bunch of mistakes along the way and it isn’t always smooth sailing but it’s working. We trust each other, and are all committed (albeit part time) to making our project a success and no one had to give up their salary and go hungry. We haven’t been able to ship product as fast as any of us would like but we ship quality. This team isn’t wet behind the ears, they have years of experience which makes them really efficient and really good at their job. And, unlike having a single technical person we have a breadth of skills enabling us to handle the project like a proper technical team. (you can meet our team here.)
We can’t — and don’t want to do this forever. And we’re pushing hard to get to the next level so we can transition to a “real” company. But for now it’s working.
Hi there! I hope you found this useful.
I’m a non -technical founder of a tech startup. My dev team and I have successfully launched version one of our mobile platform Culineer. I’ve made some mistakes, did some things right and learned a ton. Lately, I find myself having conversations with other founders asking me how I did this or that. I’m glad to have these conversations because I’ve been fortunate to have similar support from founders further along in their journey.
I’ve noticed the same questions bubbling up. So, I decided to share some of my experiences in writing in the hopes that it’ll help someone in their process. It’ll also serve as a bit of a journal for me to reflect on. I’ll be sharing more of my journey — so if give me a follow if you want to read more.
You can reach me on Twitter @jlf717; https://www.linkedin.com/in/jodif/; or shoot me a message at https://Culineerapp.com/Contact
