Finding a Technical Co-Founder: Talk to People
We last talked about how to show people the value of your idea and why it’s important to finding your technical someone. In this post, we’ll cover talking to people, and not just talking about your idea. Getting to know people and building a relationship goes beyond your idea.
To review, here are our other ideas for finding your technical co-founder:
- Join the startup community
- Talk about your idea
- Show your idea has legs
- Talk to people (this post!)
- Try before you buy
- Be respectful of people’s time
- Learn a technical thing
Talk to people and get to know them
Seriously. No joke. Get out there and talk with people. And not just about your idea.
- Attend meetups that technical people attend and just listen and learn. It might not be your cup of tea and you don’t need to become an expert, but it goes a long way if you show genuine interest in learning about the topic.
- Attend meetups that are specifically designed for tech people and founders to meet and network.
- If you’re in a position to, sponsor events. Mingle. Talk to people. With no expectations.
- Buy someone coffee and have a chat with no expectations for the end of the conversation. Do it to learn about what they are working on. It might end in a business marriage, it might end in a referral TO you, it might end in a referral FROM you, it might end in you meeting again in a week or a month to continue the conversation, it might end in the two of you parting ways and never speaking again.
- Network with other founders (yes, I said founders). For many of them, this is not their first rodeo. They may not be able to give you the answers to your problems, but they can share their experiences. And they may eventually share referrals. If they are first time founders, they are likely going through the same experiences you are and it would be good to have them on your side for support.
- Join a Slack team and talk shop. Don’t just sit there and lurk (that’s ok for a bit to figure out what the conventions are) — start a conversation. Join channels that are interesting to you. Ask questions, throw out your favorite cat gif or emoji, but be real with people and talk to them.
- Engage in conversation with technical people on social media. They are real people, with real interests outside of writing code. Get to know them for who they are outside of their work life. You like coffee. They like coffee. Do you like biking? Maybe they do too! Do you like long walks on the beach at sunset? They do too! Oops… wrong blog post.
Next, we’ll cover the try before you buy method of working with someone new.