Article · 15 min read

Looking for Love in All the Wrong Places: How to Find a Co-Founder

Steve Blank · First Round Review Free Intermediate

This piece pushes on the part founders skip: figuring out exactly which gaps a co-founder should fill before you go looking, then vetting for how someone handles conflict the way you would probe a serious relationship. It is a useful counterweight to just chasing any available engineer. Read it so your outreach is targeted at the specific person your company needs, not a generic technical body.

  • Name the specific skills and gaps you need filled before you start the search
  • Ask hard questions about conflict, money, and expectations up front
  • Complementary strengths beat a clone of yourself
Open on review.firstround.com ↗

It answers 2 questions

  1. How do I actually find a technical co-founder?
  2. My co-founder has the domain expertise and I don't. Do we split founder-market fit, or is only one of us 'the fit'?

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. YC partner Harj Taggar walks through where co-founders actually come from, when to bring one on, and how to run the search... Y Combinator Startup Library (Harj Taggar) Video · 20 min How to Find the Right Co-Founder Harj Taggar
  3. The ready-to-use questionnaire from the Founder Dating Playbook, covering roles, values, money, commitment, and how you each... First Round Review Template 50 Questions to Explore With a Potential Co-Founder Gloria Lin
  4. Video · 50 min How to Start a Startup, Lecture 2: Team and Execution Sam Altman
  5. The single best thing ever written on customer conversations. It teaches you to ask about the customer's life and past... momtestbook.com Book · ~130 pages The Mom Test Rob Fitzpatrick
  6. The definitive essay on where good ideas come from: notice problems you personally have, don't force it. Use it as the lens for... paulgraham.com Essay · ~20 min read How to Get Startup Ideas Paul Graham
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