How to actually solve the “technical co-founder” problem
Today I got an email from someone looking for advice on finding a technical cofounder for his consumer app. Here’s what it said:
It struck a nerve with me, because I was in a similar situation a couple years ago, and I’ve seen a lot of friends struggle with the same problem.
Hundreds of blog posts have been written with advice for people seeking a technical co-founder, and most come to the same conclusion: it hardly ever works to try and recruit a technical co-founder. But most of them do an astoundingly poor job explaining why. And hardly any of them give practical advice about what you can actually do about this problem.
So I figured I’d add my 2¢. I hope it helps.
Hey [redacted]!
First, I’m sorry to hear your tech co-founder left — that’s a bummer :(
I’m glad you emailed me, because I was in the exact same position as you a couple years ago. I spent a long time trying to find an engineer to build ideas with me, but it was really tricky — people were willing to help some, but kept flaking out and none were committed. Which makes sense, if you think about it. They had their own ideas they wanted to build, and I didn’t have much to offer them.
I’ve honestly only seen three ways people get around this problem:
- Pay an engineer/agency a ton of money.
- Work with a friend or family member who is as passionate about the idea as you are.
- Learn to do it yourself.
The first option almost never works, unless you are willing to shell out hundreds of thousands of dollars. And even then, it often fails, especially for consumer products. Consumer apps are kinda like music — people can tell if it has a soul or not. That might sound kind of weird, but I think this quote from Jony Ive explains it perfectly:
We [try] to make the very best product we can because we know someone is going to sit down and stare at this screen. He will sense… he won’t be able to articulate it, but we hope that he will sense the care that went into it, and I do believe that we are capable of discerning far more than we are capable of articulating.
So that leaves you with the two remaining options: start with a friend who is as passionate about the idea as you, or learn to build it yourself.
If nobody immediately comes to mind that would want to start it with you, then number two probably isn’t an option. You could spend a lot of time trying to meet people and convince them to build it for you, but that almost never works. I’ve tried myself, and I’ve watched a lot of friends try. If you think about it from their perspective, why should they drop everything and work with you when they could build their own thing? The only reason to do it is that they feel like it is their own thing. The risk and pressure is so intense, you almost certainly need a pre-existing relationship to make it work.
So, if you don’t have hundreds of thousands of dollars, and there’s no obvious friend or family member that can build it, the only thing that’s left is to learn to build it yourself.
That’s what I did a couple years ago, and honestly it’s been one of the best decisions I’ve made in my life.
There are three reasons why:
1. Building software is the best way to develop your taste, which is crucial for consumer software (see the Jony Ive quote above).
2. In the process of learning, I developed a lot of genuine relationships with other engineers and designers (one of whom is now my co-founder at Hardbound!).
3. The most important thing to learn: coding is fun!
I won’t lie, when I first started coding I wasn’t doing it for fun. It was just a last resort, because I couldn’t find anyone else to build it for me. But once I got started, I realized it was a lot of fun. Coding is like playing with legos, except wildly more complex (read: interesting), and the things you build can have real societal and economic value.
Of course, there is a downside to learning to code: it’s kinda hard. But especially in 2016, this point is overstated. Learning to hack together basic apps has roughly the same level of difficulty as learning to play the guitar. People do it all the time.
I think the main thing that gets in most people’s way is that they build up learning to code as some huge career decision. They think of it as wandering down a path that will define their entire future, rather than picking up a simple skill.
This causes people to get really discouraged when they run into difficulties. They think to themselves “Who am I kidding? I’m not going to be an engineer! This is a waste of time, I should just find a technical co-founder.” (That thought has popped into my head several times throughout my career, and if you decide to learn to code, I guarantee it’ll pop into yours at some point).
When it does, just remember to separate the small problem from the big problem. The small problem is the bug in your code that got you discouraged. You can fix that — you might need to ask for help from someone, but that’s OK! Every programmer has to ask for help sometimes.
The big problem is that you are seeing coding merely as a means to an end. You want the result, and you’re frustrated because the process isn’t going as quickly as you’d like. If you try it and you find that you genuinely don’t enjoy the process, and you only care about the result, then maybe you should rethink whether you actually want a career in software. That’s the big problem.
So anyway, I hope this helps! If there’s anything I can do to help, just ping me on Twitter. I’m @nbashaw.
Edit: I should also mention that if you want to learn to make websites, the best place to start is almost certainly https://dash.generalassemb.ly/. Although I might be a little biased, since I made it :)
