How To Find a Right Cofounder For My Startup?
It’s taken you a long time to brainstorm, research, and test before finding the right idea for your startup.
You need to find a co-founder. You need a co-founder.
You are hopelessly and utterly cofounderless.
What can you help with?
Congratulations! Congratulations!
Today you will discover five proven methods for finding co-founders for your new startup.
Let’s get started.
Leverage Your Network
To find a co-founder you can start with your existing network.
It is important to have someone who will stick with you through the startup process. Co-founders help you set the vision for the business and execute that vision, even in the toughest times.
Someone who trusts you, and is fond of you, will be a great help. You can choose a friend or acquaintance to be your co-founder.
Stephen Covey stated that trust was the glue of all life. It’s the principle underpinnings every relationship. “
Don’t limit yourself to people in your network. Find someone who has the skill set that you don’t have.
A co-founder can do things that you simply cannot. For example, if you’re a techie you will need someone with business experience to find investors and promote your company. This is also true for those who are looking to attract investors.
A group of researchers found having complementary skills was a major consideration for several Harvard Business School graduates when starting up a startup.
According to one of the respondents:
A 24-year-old can’t acquire the necessary skills in five years. You need to know how to create a founding team that will fill the gaps. Every founder must be able to assess his or her own weaknesses, strengths, and motivation.
When you’re researching your network on LinkedIn, Facebook, or in your contacts list, you should not only look at people you know well, but you also need to consider their skills.
Attend networking events
A co-founder can be found through your existing network. But what if no one can provide the necessary skills? So, then what?
Social media can be used to find cofounders.
This is a great way to meet potential co-founders. Startup events take place every couple of weeks in major cities. You will have many opportunities to network with potential co-founders.
Meetup.com (owned by WeWork) and Events on Facebook are two sites where you can learn about the latest startup events.
If you’re in an area where there are many startups, such as Barcelona or Sydney, it will be easier for you to find a co-founder. It’s a huge asset to have so many people looking to launch their own businesses.
It may be necessary to attend events and search in more cities for a potential co-founder. Don’t lose hope.
Because of the specificity, it is easier to find a co-founder.
You will find it easier to search for co-founders if you create a well-defined, powerful elevator pitch. It is an elevator pitch that summarizes your startup’s value proposition and allows others to better understand it.
Geoffrey Moore’s position statement can be used to develop your elevator pitch.
- For (target customer)
- Which of the following is not happy with current alternatives on the market?
- Our product is (new product category).
- It is a powerful tool for solving problems.
- This product is different from (the original product).
- Our Product (Describe key features of our product).
You can use this pitch for your new startup. For example, if you wanted to start a company that would help track people’s weight you could do so as follows.
- Losing weight is an option that overweight people should consider
- Who are not satisfied with MyFitnessPal?
- A product is available that acts as a weight-loss motivational tracker
- Provides accountability and support
- MyFitnessPal and MyFitnessPal are not the same.
- Feel great and reduce weight with our product
Would anyone like to participate in my idea?
Attend a Founder Dating Event
Although it may sound strange, finding a partner and dating share many similarities.
In my earlier article, I mentioned that trust is a very important quality in dating. You need to have a certain level of trust to get someone to date you.
Because of these similarities, speed dating has become a popular way for people to meet potential co-founders.
Get their number, and you go out on a first date.
The founder-dating event is similar, except that there are no niceties. All you have to do is pitch your idea.
When you leave an event for cofounders, make a list of people that you’d like to talk with about a potential partnership.
Malcolm Gladwell writes in his book Blink: “A blink of an eye can be as valuable as months of analysis.” “
Outsourcing specific needs is possible
When you think about co-founders, you will likely picture famous duos like Bill Gates and Paul Allen. Or Sergey Brin and Larry Page.
Be honest. You don’t want to be like them. At least, not right now. Your goal is to build a company that serves niche audiences and solves unsolved problems.
Robert Walser once said, “Money can move the world.” “
Outsourcing is an excellent way to grow your business if you can afford it.
Outsourcing has two major options:
- Hire specific freelancers
- Hire an agency
Websites such as Upwork offer the most effective way to locate freelancers of all levels, skills, and budgets.
You can hire freelancers to complete a specific task. However, hiring individual freelancers is not the best option for a complex or large project.
An agency will enhance your skills. If you’re a marketer, you may hire an agency. You might also hire a group if you are a designer to develop your marketing message and brand.
Solutions that are offered by agencies today are more comprehensive. Costs reflect the complexity of their services.
Start with a local business that you can visit in person. Sharing your ideas is easier.
Freelancers may not be 100% dedicated to your company, since they do not have a stake in it.
Gray Skinner CEO Droplr told that had brought it home.
When we outsourced our marketing, we had a bad experience with the consultant. The consultants didn’t share the same passion as the founders of their company. After three months we stopped working with the consultants and we learned an important lesson.
Outsourcing is most effective when you can control the result. For example, you could hire a graphic designer to create a new logo. To make this happen, you just need to hire someone.
You can save the future of your business and make it progress if you consider hiring quality people.
Get help if you want to start alone
Entrepreneurs say: “Ask for money, and you’ll get advice.” Asking for advice will earn you money.
You may get the wrong co-founder if you are chasing people.
A certain kind of person wants to launch a technology company to become the next Evan Spiegel – a billionaire young man who leads a glamorous lifestyle.
You will be working with individuals who have very different values and goals if you work with others motivated by a completely different motivation. It is not a good way to begin.
It may be better to launch your business on your own if you cannot find a partner within the first few weeks.
You may not be able to build the next unicorn. You can at least start by creating the MVP to gain feedback and traction.
You can also build a basic software tool with the help of a service like href=”https://www.appypie.com/”> AppyPie/a> ora href=”http://www.shoutem.com/”> Shoutem/a>. You can build a simple software tool using AppyPie and Shoutem.
While you’re building your MVP, you can ask for assistance. Attend events or post a question on a Reddit subreddit. Or hire a Clarity.fm Coach. Richard Branson and Gary Vee are not the right people to ask for help. Someone who mentors entrepreneurs in your locality.
If your MVP is unique and useful, many people are willing to assist you. You may even receive an offer of investment. But that’s not the outcome you desire at this stage.
It is important to have others help you. Who knows, the person who assisted you in creating your MVP might become a co-founder.
You may receive a recommendation. If they don’t want to help you out, they will gladly refer you to someone who is.
Before you know it, you will have found the co-founder you’ve been looking for.
How to Find a Co-Founder
Use these maps to get started.
Check out your current network. Browse through LinkedIn or Facebook to find people who you trust and who complement your abilities.
Attend startup speed-dating events and meet as many founders as possible.
You will slowly build up relationships with those who can help you to launch your new business.
Outsource certain tasks that you can’t do but know need to be done. Consider your logo, your website’s look, and a fully-functional MVP.
You can ask for help from mentors and experts. You may also be introduced to co-founders.
