Finding a Technical Co-Founder: Join the Startup Community
As we chat with new startup founders and budding entrepreneurs, especially those who do not have technical backgrounds, we find them looking for a quick fix, asking “hey i have this idea. do you know any developers?” or “hey i’m looking for a technical co-founder. interested in working for free?”.
Finding a technical co-founder, and even hiring a technical someone, requires building a relationship with them first.
You wouldn’t buy the car before test driving it would you? Or would you?
Let’s face it: it’s going to take a bit of hustle, some networking, and some relationship building. It’s going to take time.
If you are a technical person looking to partner up with non-technical founders, maybe looking to BE a technical co-founder, this applies to you, too.
Here are some ideas.
- Join the startup community (this post!)
- Talk about your idea
- Show your idea has legs
- Talk to people
- Try before you buy
- Be respectful of people’s time
- Learn a technical thing
Let’s kick it off with the first one!
Join the startup community
Insert yourself fully into the startup community. Whether you’re building your startup full-time during the days, nights, and weekends, or you’re trying to get it off the ground in your spare time, find the time do whatever you can to become a part of your local startup and tech community. How do you do that?
Attend events
Go to learn a new thing, go to meet new people, go to pitch your startup.
Volunteer at events
Volunteering is a low time commitment since you’ll be attending anyways. 😉
Join a co-working space
Go there to work, escape your corporate life one day a week, escape the coffee shops or work-from-home life a couple days a week, go to expand your network.
Join a Slack team
Join a Slack team and start by lurking, contributing, networking, talking about bikes or Minnesota weather, offering advice, asking for advice, meeting people in person to talk about their thing.
Remember this is about the long game, building a relationship. Next, we’ll talk about talking about your idea!