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How Chicago entrepreneurs actually found their technical co-founders
When reading about how to find a technical co-founder, you tend to see some pretty consistent advice. Thou shalt go to networking events! Thou shalt first build an MVP! Etc etc. But do those strategies really work? And why is everyone talking in Old English?
I took this question to the streets, and here's what I found:
“Last June, I pretty much begged Harper (Reed), one of our advisers, to send me great candidates he didn’t hire for the Obama campaign technical team. A week later he calls me and says, “This guy Brantley turned me down. He’s a beast. You should hire him.” So I did. And he is indeed a programming beast. This January he came on as CTO and technical cofounder.” – Jason Goodrich, CEO of Shortlist
“Back in 2008, Craig Ulliott and I met at his travel startup, Where I’ve Been. He was the co-founder and CTO. I was the Social Media Manager. Soon after I started working there, we began dating! August 2010, I decided to embrace my entrepreneurial spirit and start SocialKaty. Craig loved the idea so much that he built the first version of the site AND became my co-founder. Let’s just say, I am one lucky gal!” – Katy Lynch, President of SocialKaty
“My co-founder Ryan is a fantastic developer and had been a good friend of mine for years, I would constantly come to him with business ideas, he would constantly shoot them all down. That is until I pitched him on Snapclass.” - Scott Mandel, CEO of Snapclass
“ My big secret was being in an incubator. And using Twitter. Our incubator tweeted that we needed a CTO. The fact that a top 10 incubator tweeted about it prequalified us in the applicants’ minds.” - Ariane Fisher, COO of Storymix
“I found my co-founder at a Chicago Social Dev Camp hackathon. After working on the product together and seeing how each other worked over 54 hours of high stress development, we knew we could work together and build something special.” -Imran Ahmed, CEO of Edit Huddle
“The MsTech group facilitated my introduction to the partners I had always dreamed of!!! From one amazing Stella Fayman to another amazing Marcy Capron and BOOM… PrettyQuick had the technical, design, and digital strategy horsepower it needed to finally get of the ground.” - Coco Meers, CEO of PrettyQuick
“George and I have known each other for 24 years. Kindergarten is how we found each other” – Will Del Genio, CTO at WeGather
And last but not least, Project Fixup, I met my co-founder after Starr Marcello at the Polsky Center introduced us because we were working on two somewhat similar startups. We had an amazing 2-hour coffee conversation and a few weeks later decided to ditch our old ideas to come together to transform dating.
So, there you have it. Not actually the most encouraging of news. Needing to have known someone for years and/or participating in an elite accelerator to find a technical co-founder is kind of like needing a billion dollars and an eccentric butler to become a superhero. Startup Weekend style events and friends of friends perhaps a bit more reasonable.
And who knows, I am sure there are some tales of serendipitously meeting at networking events out there. What’s your story of how you met your technical co-founder?
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Sarah Press is co-founder of Project Fixup, perhaps the first dating startup ever with more girls than guys currently signed up. She also started a personal blog today called Project Sarah and is rather excited about it. Holler back at sarah@projectfixup.com anytime to grab coffee and chat.
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Comments
Great success story highlights! Here are the problems I see: people that go to events in the startup space tend to be 1. selling something or 2. looking to build their own team.
Everyone wants to be their own captain but then struggle to find a team to row the boat. You have to figure out where to find strong, core team members at non-startup events - that target a skill set you need.
It also doesn't help that there is a surge of recent grads too eager to put on the captain's hat without learning how to row first through a year or 2 of experience under another startup.
And I agree with Tom on building the relationship. Find a way to work together on a trial - participate at a startup weekend or in a competition that has a limited time with defined expectations. I found my new co-founder after meeting at CodeAcademy and entering the Chicago Lean Challenge. I've already won the challenge in my mind for finding an amazing partner in the process!
Hey Jen -- saw your latest website design -- looks very polished! Great job. Hope all is well.
Great topic, Sarah! I get asked all the time where can I find a great CTO!?
Sarah, nice work on a much needed topic. Thanks!
Good post, Sarah. As OKCupid founder Sam Yagan would say, "It's all dating."
My biggest hurdle finding Brantley was not knowing where and how to even begin. So you rely on recommendations and referrals from friends. (Just like Project Fixup!)
Whining seems to be most people's starting point, which is OK because it surfaces your desire. It's important to get past that ASAP and treat it like the business problem it is. This separates the entrepreneurs from the wantapreneurs.
Go out there and get 'em!
Sweet article Sarah! I think it always helps for non-technical founders to learn some technical skills too, if only to better facilitate the networking
Thanks Paul! Yeah, I think that is good advice, although sometimes the time tradeoffs can be challenging. Are there any successes from Code Academy where a business founder went from zero to competent and then found a partner?
Great topic, Sarah! Very relevant.
Agree with Paul and Jennifer above. There are several success stories from Code Academy. Couple of them are -- http://www.leasemaid.com/ and http://datetracks.com/. Also, Ezra recently funded a CA alumni who's building a marketplace for user furniture (can't recall the company).
By the way, here's a nice article that the readers here might like: http://techcrunch.com/2012/04/15/stop-looking-for-a-technical-co-founder/
Good stuff, Sarah! Been thinking a lot about this topic lately, looking forward to more comments to see other ways folks are finding their co-founders.
Thanks Marc, glad you found it useful! Yes, it's definitely a topic that's near and dear to my heart as well - for my previous startup I spent two+ years searching for a technical co-founder to no avail. Got lucky this time, so I look forward to hearing from others about more strategies that work!
Thanks so much for including my story in this post, Sarah! Great reading the other responses, too!
Of course - it's a great story :). Thanks so much for sharing it!
These stories don't correlate with the majority of "normal" startups looking for CTOs.
Some went to an incubator, others have known their CTOs for years, then the usual suspects that went to Kellogg or Booth.
These are all the exception to hundreds of startups looking for CTOs who didn't go to an incubator, didn't spend $80K in a private college or don't have childhood friends who are now programmers.
Thanks for your comment! I absolutely agree with you - it's definitely a little troubling as most people can't meet technical co-founders through many of these channels.
But I am not sure if it's because of a skewed sample or because getting a technical co-founder is even harder than it seems (and it already seems hard!) for all the "normal" startups out there that are led by non-technical folks.
Again, I am sure there are more encouraging anecdotes out there too. Do you know any examples of success stories where people met their technical co-founders at Technori Pitch or Code Academy Demo Days or things along those lines?
as many folks have said "Do you marry the first person you see at a bar?" or "Do you date a couple of people until you know your match".
Many non-tech founders come with the idea they are going to find their match on the first date and marry that person. The biggest pains in the butts are those people who don't share their ideas unless you sign their NDAs or don't share much. I met a bunch of them.
The only way to find a match is by talking to people, getting to know them, telling your stories and dreams. It is a process and not just a one night stand.
I don't know many of the above because "normal" startups are not doing it right.
Yep, there are definitely a lot of communication challenges on both sides. Perhaps that's a topic for a future blog post!