Attracting Potential Co-Founders
The Truth Why So Many People Struggle With This
“How do I find a co-founder?” is a question that seems to get asked at nearly every startup event. While browsing Reddit, I came across a post asking exactly this question. Quickly searching will provide solid examples of where to look for potential co-founders:
How do I find good technical co-founders? — Drew Houston, Dropbox
Where do you find co-founders? — Paul Graham, YCombinator
50 Ways to Find Co-founders — Bill Murphy, Inc
If there’re so many resources why do people struggle with finding them? The problem isn’t finding potential co-founders but instead convincing them to join.
1. You Don’t Have A Vision
Having just an idea is usually not enough when trying to convince others into joining your startup adventure. Think for a moment what you’re asking people when trying to convince them to become a co-founder, it probably sounds like this:
“Do you want to work non-stop for the next couple years? Give up climbing your career ladder? Have a near non-existent social life? etc. ”
Give up all of that just on an idea? I think not.
There is a simple exercise I use to come up with my company’s vision. The exercise is a simple question, “If tomorrow you had all the resources you could imagine for your company what is everything it would do?”.
My co-founders at GamerBet understand that the company isn’t just an esports betting company. Instead, GamerBet is a tech company that can be a media company and it just so happens that we started with building a betting platform.
I thought the idea of GamerBet was innovative.
- Sabrina, Co-Founder @ GamerBet
2. You’re Missing The Expertise
This section I feel especially true for non-technical founders that are not able to cover everything on the non-technical side of the business. There have been numerous non-technical founders who have approached me to join their idea as the technical founder and I have never considered any of those offers.
Those offers in the past were from non-technical founders who just didn’t bring enough expertise in all of the non-technical portions of the business.
If you’re a non-technical founder looking for a technical founder, there’s a lot expected for you to do. Personally I would expect you to have customers ready, and you’re going to deal with everything that doesn’t fall on the technical side.
The key was that you had sorted out how legal could work, and we had a team that I thought could pull it off.
-Phil, Co-Founder @ GamerBet
3. You’re Building Sh*t No One Wants
You might be drinking the ‘kool-aid’. Are there actual customers willing to use what you’re planning to build right now? You went and talked to them, right? Did you demand the money from them on the spot when they said yes?
If you answered no to any of the above questions, you are probably suffering from drinking the ‘kool-aid’. Damn you kool-aid drinker!
It is extremely hard to convince someone to spend their next +3 years of their life building a product if they do not see the potential market.
Most people will jump at the chance to be involved with anything that has real potential to change the landscape of an industry they’re passionate about.
It was a simple idea in a high growth industry.
- Collin, Co-Founder at GamerBet
Wrap Up
This is the era of being constantly connected, more events than time to attend them and social networks for all sorts of niches. I think it is easier than ever before to find potential co-founders to join you on your startup journey…if you’re building something of value.
Side note: I messaged each of my co-founders asking why they honestly joined GamerBet. Those are their real responses.
