How did you find your business partner?

João Paulo
24 replies
Well, I'm curious to understand how did you find a business partner for your side project/idea/startup. I'm struggling a lot to find a good developer :D Any ideas/suggestions?

Replies

Dan Edwards
Before PH I started an agency and a product company with a friend of mine who was a developer. It came about after we met at an event (both freelance at the time), we worked on projects together with clients before deciding we'd actually be much better off starting a company, it was great for 4 years and we became the best of friends. Being best friends can be a blessing and a curse, since you don't want to fight with your best mate when you disagree (which you will) but also, you have your best friend with you when things are tough. I'd recommend going to meetups and events, and just connecting with people and seeing what comes of it. It worked for me, but I must say, I wasn't actively looking for a partner at the time. Good luck!
João Paulo
@de Curious, I've had an agency with 2 of my best friends also. We almost killed ourself at some point, but we are friends yet :D hahaha I think I don't know how to approach a "stranger" to ask them to be partners. Thanks for the advice :)
Dan Edwards
@joaopvilla I wouldn't start with asking them to be a partner, but start a relationship with them, if they have the same ambitions and goals as you, perhaps then introduce the idea of working on something together?
Justin Jackson
@jonbuda (my business partner) and I discussed this on Build Your SaaS. We met in 2014 at XOXO in Portland. At the end of the festival we said to each other: “We should build something together some day.” We kept in touch, worked a few projects together, and hung out every year in Portland. Then, in 2018, Jon told me he was working on a little podcasting project called Transistor.fm. After 1-2 months of discussion, we decided to team up, and work on it together.
YouGro Media
Are you looking for an application developer or a website developer?
Ranvijay Singh
If you are open to discuss (in communities or groups where you think its relevant) what you are willing to work on. If you are open to see value of what next person brings in and respect it. If you trust what you are building and convince someone with your vision. If you could let next person feel that he/she will also own the product the same way you do. Believe me it will not take more than a week to get connected with your best match partner/co-founder.
Rising Star
tried hundreds lol will help you partner with amazon
Mitch Gillogly
I met one at a networking event and the other through LinkedIn. I only saw progress after making a pitch deck.
Tem Nugmanov
When I started my first company, I was a first year at NYU, so I leveraged the resources in my immediate surroundings. I found two of my co-founders at NYU's co-working space and another two through startup competitions. We didn't know each prior to this venture and they worked full-time, so it took a while to get comfortable with each other. On top of that, I worked and developed the "intellectual" basis behind the idea for ~9 months prior to them joining, so it always seemed like they were always lagging behind in really understanding the problem we were trying to solve. I "paid" with equity, so motivation and morale was hard to keep when we were making a bunch of product mistakes. As you might imagine, this venture failed after the momentum eventually died down. Despite the loss of time and money, this was an fantastic experience because it got me deeply embedded into NYU's venture ecosystem, which is exactly where I met my current co-founder @quinnrobertson1 (venture #2). Drawing lessons from the first go, I wanted one co-founder to start the company from ground zero who: 1) was someone I knew and trusted 2) could contribute as much time & energy as I 3) had the willingness to figure out what & how to startup At first, I thought that I need a technical co-founder because my idea was in the SaaS domain but I couldn't find someone that was available and fit the aforementioned bill. However, I realized that I worked really really well with Quinn in the leadership board of an entrepreneurship club at NYU. In fact, this only became clear when a new hire replaced her position AND I had the time/space to reflect on how the year went 🤯 At the same time, I heard a talk from Rich Fulop (Brooklinen.com Co-Founder) who advised to partner up with people with whom you work really well. Hence, I decided to forget the tech requirement even though both of us are non technical. So far (it's super early), it worked out well because our customer conversation has led us to start a consultancy before building anything!
Phillip Martin
Best advice I ever read on this and how I ultimately ended up working with a great developer was using Upwork. Start with some small paid jobs (which really helps build trust and strengthen the relationship) and if you find a developer you really hit off with move forward with more major milestones. It's a great way to get to know how people work and whether you're a "culture fit" for each other without having to commit too much time or money. You might have to go through a couple of developers to find what you're looking for but once you do you're all set!
Philipp Manokhin
One of them was my roommate, and the second one was living in the same building as we did :D The third one reached out to us and really wanted to join our team, we tried to ignore this guy for about a year unlit we gave up and agreed for a meeting. Later on this guy proved himself to be a vital team member.
Merrill Reisemberg
I'm having the same issue, still today it's really hard to find the right business partner. I think PH should create a space especially for that purpose, that would be a great improvement!
Tyler Nass
https://cofounderslab.com/dashboard -- Great resource for finding and connecting with tons of entrepreneurs and technologists in cities all across the world! You can filter results on the skills you are looking for, location, previous startup experience, etc. I highly recommend -- I have yet to find a cofounder on here yet, but am meeting and networking with some very talented people!
Colin Lau
My co-founder and I were in the same engineering course at university
Cory Decker
Went to several coworking spaces to meet people over a year ago. He and I clicked instantly and talked every day for 6 months before deciding to start a business together. Go network and develop friendships. They pay off.
Stormageddon
Geralmente eu procuro em fóruns por pessoas com mesmo nome que o meu. Cola em mim que tu brilha, o que vamos desenvolver?
Pranav Gupta
@joaopvilla For my startup I considered github to be an organic lookup tool. If you understand what language stack might be useful and have a demographic in mind - maybe for possible meetup and getting on it full-time - think of such keywords and try going through some profiles. Look them up on LinkedIn, or directly shoot a mail and get to talking. One good metric is to see contributions in the past year and ignore forked projects. I am a strong believer of vetting somebody as early in the process as possible. This method can seem daunting and more of a hit and trial approach and I wouldn't disagree, IT IS! I decided to trust it because I got to witness what they had previously worked on, I played with a few apps, had fun and more importantly - was able to figured out whether they are the kind of person that take up side-projects time and again. Hope you find somebody soon and get to working on that idea! Cheers!
David Jamison
RocketFuel, EOS > read this: https://www.markcwinters.com/rfn (maybe you are familiar)
Matthew Snyder
*I am a non-technical founder, and my only business experience was 3-years in a fraternity and 1-year consulting for the headquarters. 1. I researched every company around charlotte until I had a list of the top ten people I wanted. I messaged them asking, "I am a non-technical founder, and I am looking for engineers to take to a meal or whatever I said to practice communicating because it was my biggest weakness. The number one guy was a big Xbox guy and told me to hit him up when I have the funding or want to chill. 2. 8-months of 130hr grinds every week, I got funding. I called him, and he said awesome. I'll start in two weeks, and I already have the database done.
Paroma Indilo
Angellist! Had to go through quite a lot of people before finding my cofounder, but the effort was worthwhile!