Questions

I'm looking for a co-founder for a non-tech company, specifically a designer. Somebody young, with no kids. Here is my hypothesis of where I can find a co-founder. Top Companies (Google,Faceook,DropBox,AirBnb) Top Design Schools (Bently,RID,Carnige Mellon) UX Conferences ,Top Design Agencies. Do you have any thoughts on where I should go about recruiting a co-founder? Also im pretty confident to say that really talented people always have options so they rarely attend "MEETUPS," Thanks

Here's what you need to do to recruit any cofounder:

1) Prove or at least instill *high* confidence that you can fund the business or raise the funds required;

2) Demonstrate that you are someone worth following. What have you done previously that clearly shows to others that you have what it takes to succeed?

3) Credibly demonstrate that your idea can create massive success. An idea by itself, no matter how interesting is woefully insufficient.

4) Spend every day making outreach (cold emails, LinkedIn, dribbble, etc) to people, meeting at least 3 a week. You will "kiss many frogs." It's likely you have to meet at least 100 people to find the right person and that assumes you have 1-3.

By the way, in order to actually *meet* 100 good people, you'll have to make outbound to at least 400 people.

5) Negotiate equity and compensation (pre and post funding) and ensure written alignment on how decisions are made between the two of you.

Cofounder relationships are as intense as marriages. And just like getting married, it requires a lot of dating to build the trust.

I'm *totally* unconvinced that two people can find a person they haven't known previously, and become effective cofounders. I think you're better off finding the money to hire someone than actually find a cofounder. The main reason? You probably won't find someone as passionate as you are about what you're building. And keep in mind, I have no idea who you are or what you're building so that's no judgement on you or the idea, just the reality I've observed over 20 years of startups.


Answered 9 years ago

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