Article · Curated essay + video collection

Finding a Co-Founder (YC Startup Library)

Y Combinator · YC Startup Library Free Beginner

A curated collection of YC's best primary guidance on how to find, evaluate, and test a co-founder, straight from the people who've seen thousands of founding teams. It's practical, opinionated, and free.

  • Prioritize people you've worked with over strangers
  • Run a paid trial project before making it official
  • Have the hard money and equity conversations early, not later
Open on ycombinator.com ↗

It answers 5 questions

  1. Do I actually need a co-founder, or can I go solo?
  2. Where do I actually find a co-founder if I don't already know one?
  3. What should I look for in a co-founder, and what are red flags?
  4. How do I 'date' a potential co-founder before committing?
  5. As a non-technical founder, how do I find a technical co-founder?

Read with it

  1. The largest and most credible free co-founder matching platform in the world, with vetted founders and 100,000+ matches made.... ycombinator.com Tool · Free platform, ongoing Y Combinator Co-Founder Matching Y Combinator
  2. The definitive, data-driven book on early founding-team decisions, drawing on quantitative research covering nearly 10,000... Princeton University Press Book · ~480 pages The Founder's Dilemmas Noam Wasserman
  3. A concrete, tactical guide to presenting yourself well to potential co-founders, useful whether or not you use YC's platform.... YC Startup Library Article · Short read How to make your co-founder matching profile stand out Y Combinator
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