Finding a cofounder for your startup is always challenging but arguably finding a technical cofounder is even more challenging. In this post, will cover the tips on finding a technical cofounder for your startup. Here are some ways to tackle this challenge early on:
Get traction by building up your audience.
The thing that gets people excited is traction! How do you get traction?
You can throw a pre-launch landing page to start getting sign ups. For tips on this, you can check out our course on how to build a website in one hour
You can start a blog
Some MVPs can be: Blog, Facebook groups, newsletter or Slack channel
Get at least mocks up done with a designer.
A great designer can also attract a great developer. Additionally, ideas in mock ups look way better than thin air. No one cares about an idea in thin air! Do mock ups instead.
Know the competencies for the role and terminology.
We have a free on hiring a web developer. Start learning all the terminologies right away!
Plugin into startup communities.
These can be communities like this:
FoundersBeta Facebook Group
FoundersCoffee
Startup Events
FoundersBeta Online Events
Meetups
Hackathons
Incubator Open House
Ask for introduction from friends and network.
This sometimes works and other times is pretty useless.
Reach out via Direct Cold email.
Find out exactly who is your ideal candidate and reach out. This email has to be highly customized to get good responses rate.
Connect with University professors for the specific programs.
Some professors send our job postings and newsletter to students. Ask them to include your job postings in their newsletter. This is a great hack and generate many leads!
Write a compelling job description.
A compelling job description can help you attract the right cofounder. Check out how to write a compelling job posting.
Post and advertise your postings in different channels.
Putting a bit of advertising budget can help. Here are some places you can post your opportunity:
FoundersBeta
Universities/and colleges career centres
For the list of all the places to post download our Recruitment Tool Spreadsheet.
Connect with Engineers.
This one is recommended by YC is to work at a tech company to start building up your network with engineers. This might take couple of years and sometimes might not work. But there are also other ways such as online communities and Facebook groups.
Universities and Colleges are a great spot if you’re still student.
Your old classmates can be potential cofounders down the road.
Learn to code or use non-coding resources to start building up your MVP.
There many resources to get started with coding. Also you can start building your MVP using non-coding resources and frameworks.
Try the Networking websites and apps.
Of course, I have to biased here to say to try out our FoundersCoffee. The best thing about is that it’s a vetted community so you won’t get messages from people trying to sell you stuff! There are these places you can look into:
Bumble for Business
Shapr
Github
Make an Offer.
This is one of the best tips I heard from YC is that you need to make an offer. In the beginning there won’t be salary most likely but make an offer based on equity. “Hey Janice, I will offer 40% equity of this startup and will offer x for compensation when we raise money.”
Finding a technical cofounder requires great recruiting skills and great recruiting skills requires marketing skills. Be proactive and get out there and start connecting.
In Pursuit of World-Class Excellence. Eric is founder of FoundersBeta with a wealth of expertise in startups, building high-performing teams, and product development. He is a top ranked tennis player and always up for a conversation about startups. Connect with Eric here.