Lecture
How to Find a Technical Cofounder - Michael Seibel
- Primary Sourcing Strategy: Identify technical co-founders first among current friends, specifically targeting those who enjoy coding daily as a primary job function.
- Offer Rigor: Convert informal inquiries into formal offers containing specific equity percentages and salary expectations; casual requests for weekend or side-project work are identified as ineffective recruitment methods.
- Secondary Sourcing Strategy: If friends are unavailable, apply the same ranking and formal offer process to current coworkers.
- Network Building via Employment: When direct networks are insufficient, secure employment at a technology startup with 50 or fewer employees to maximize proximity to engineers, as large corporations often insulate non-technical staff from engineering teams.
- Timeframe for Networking: Building sufficient engineering networks through employment may require 1–2 years, which is deemed acceptable given that startup careers typically span 10+ years.
- Alternative Path: Individuals can acquire coding skills via online resources (e.g., Codecademy, Lambda School) to become technical co-founders themselves.
- College Strategy: College is a high-yield environment for identifying future co-founders; non-technical students are advised to build relationships with peers learning to code, as demonstrated by the speaker's recruitment of co-founders for Justin TV.