I've noticed that many of you are looking for a technical/business co-founder. Give a description of what you are looking for in a co-founder and for what.
I'd like a co-founder for like.fm (Social music discover: twitter meets music). After ping launched I rode the press wave. Getting around 50 new signups/day now (up from about 1 or 2) and it's going up fast. I'd like someone technical. I've got code in c++, c#, php, python, JavaScript, and objective-c. Using mongodb. Will need to use lucene soon (non-search related use) and possibly solr for search. The last two I've never used so if you know them that's a huge plus. Also I have no CS degree so if you do, that would complement my skills. And if you've scaled apps before, another plus. Contact me at chris@like.fm for more info.
Yea Flixa was why I took hiatus from school. But the filmmaker I was working with wasn't too enthusiastic. I started Like.fm as a side project so I can revisit songs I hear from iTunes radio and noticed after the first day I put it up (the version that allowed signups) many eons ago, people were spontaneously signing up. And this was back when it looked ugly(ier) and even less functional. So I took the path of least resistance.
Hi Chris, for your interest, Foxytunes was acquired by Yahoo and allows the control of media players while showing metadata all from within the browser.
I'm looking for someone focused on marketing with an interest in family and social networks. The startup is a family sharing/storage app called Genevine http://genevine.com -- almost 100% built and on 2.0 but need a marketing-focused co-founder. mark@markbao.com
Mark is a genius, awesome guy, and can build a product like nobody's business. Sadly, I've had opportunities I can't pass up come along in the past couple months. Genevine is going to be a hit and I hope someone great can come along to fill this role here. I'll still be heavily advising and involved to a good degree as well.
I just wanted to say that I clicked over to genevine, and while I honestly don't know if I have even a remote need for this application, I'll almost certainly be using it (and just registered) because it's gorgeous, and very thoughtfully put together.
I keep pretty good tabs on most HN'ers that are more than just 'talk', and there are a couple that stand out, you guys couldn't hide it if you wanted to :)
There are others too though, maybe I should do a bit of a write-up on the 'hidden gems', it's very easy to lose track of who does what with the number of announcements here. Some people really deserve a bit more of the spotlight because of their achievements.
Mark, I'm pretty impressed with genevine and just want to encourage you to continue with it. The fact that you allow users to get started now and sign up later is really something that I love to see. Personally, I can't stand having to register for something that without seeing an online demo. I hope down the line this leads to more conversions and more success for you.
I'm always looking to get to know cool people who may or may not want to work on creating something at some point. I think knowing someone for a while is important though, so I'm not looking to create more than, say, an open source or side project at the time being. I actually have a number of side project type things that I'd be willing to "share"... Stuff like LangPop.com - it's probably not a business, but it's a fun project.
I'm looking for a developer who fancies himself a designer (or vice versa) out in Boston area (preferably). Someone interested in pursuing the creation of a startup called nuSage http://nuSage.com which helps recruiters connect with college students.
I have a great background in biz dev as well as the general business side (marketing, customer development, management, and sales). Now I'm looking for someone to complement my skill set.
I landed the first investment check around the amount of what incubator/accelerator programs give out and I have another one around the same amount being finalized within the next two weeks.
I know the money isn't enough to pay market (obviously) I am very flexible with providing my tech co-founder with plenty enough living expenses to get us going into the angel round of financing projected somewhere around december.
I'm located in Mountain View and looking for a co-founder for an app in the local social space (like Message Party, i.e. connecting people to people near them physically in space). I could use a mobile developer or someone to help on the web backend.
But really I'm just looking for someone to help steer this project and to share in the trials and joys of putting together a new product. It's okay if you don't have a ton of experience - we're both learning as we go along.
My weakness is making things LOOK good. I could use a designer. But mostly I just want a second to make me be accountable to someone and feel like I have a real startup.
Drop me an email. It's in my profile. We can meet up at Red Rock.
I'm looking for a technical co-founder for a social platform ala twitter (it's not twitter, but I'm just using that as a reference). I have a prototype and a clear vision.
I'm looking for an experienced, and enthusiastic technical copartner who "gets it", is excited about the potential, and want's to really work on this project to see it succeed.
I'm open to languages, platforms because at this stage it really doesn't matter. Typical web stacks are a good starting point. More, and deeper experience is always appreciated.
I am looking for a technical co-founder, either based out of bay area or India. I have a business background. Doing whatever it takes to make things happen, is something I consider as my strength. Currently, I'm the only founder, and have built a basic working prototype with the help of hacker friends (who cannot join the team full time right now).
The app is about leveraging our social graph. The idea has been validated, and I'm planning to test out the app with real users in a month's time - currently some bug fixing is being done. I'm also planning to apply for YC October batch.
I'm looking for a hacker who shares the entrepreneurial passion, is ready to work hard and do whatever it takes to build a successful startup, is open to ideas, has a sense of humor and an appetite for the early stage pre-funded startup roller-coaster ride. Also, someone who has experience building a consumer / social app from scratch - even if it's a fun side project, but having built something from grounds up is a huge plus. Being able to communicate, set right expectations and meet them is important.
Looking in Adelaide, Australia for another developer/biz person co-founder with skills that complement mine. I'm planning to apply to YC for this (October) intake.
I'd like to remain a little stealthy about exactly what I'm working on, but it's location based, with mobile and web components. Despite that somewhat generic description I think I have one unique insight which just might have some fairly profitable ramifications.
I have some other ideas too, and I'm more than happy to discuss anything you might have, too.
Here's what my YC application currently say about my co-founder situation:
I don't have a co-founder, but I do have people who would join if this was successful.
I would like to find the right co-founder, though. Ideally I need someone who is a natural networker and business development person as the success of this project will come down to adoption. I'm good at the product management side of that, but someone who can drive building distribution and advertising partnerships would help a lot.
Other things that would be useful:
- Local
- Design taste for both web and mobile apps
- iPhone developer skills (I can handle Android)
- Java or maybe Python web-dev skills
I'm looking for a technical/business cofounder or two for my new virtualization/cloud security infrastructure thing. I am spending the rest of 2010 outside the US, but will be moving somewhere (default: Palo Alto) in January 2011, and am working on it remotely now. I'd be flexible on location (within the US, Austin and Seattle are on my list; NYC is the only major city I rule out), or international, but I think there's a better sales/marketing/talent case in the US.
I'd also like to find a kickass startup enterprise sales guy -- someone who can be hands on to start, and then either transition to building/running a team, or just being a great individual contributor. That could be one of the founders, or sometime in 2011.
I know some great people around SFBA, including some domain experts for some of the core technologies, but I'm very interested in having the best founding team possible, so any additional options would be great.
We are a garage-stage company with a product that provides premium booking services to demanding taxi users. We are pre-funding, have a demo-ready prototype, and our product will be ready to ship in a couple of months.
We are looking for a business cofounder who will be initially responsible for taking the solution to market: a combination of strategic thinking along with plenty of hands-on work developing sales channels on the supply side (taxis) & on the demand side (users). We are in fairly advanced conversations with several partners already, so you will have to hit the ground running.
This is a high-risk/high-reward position with a big slice of equity for the right candidate, and the opportunity to be first in line for tackling a market valued at $1-2B (worldwide).
Ping me through HN or write to us at jobs [at]swishly[dot]com
hey although I am trying to find a tech co-founder for my startup, nuSage (http://www.nuSage.com) I have a ton of very great friends who would be amazing a biz dev for you out in the Boston area.
feel free to contact me maybe we can meet up and i can lead some intros.
I'm currently based in NYC, but thinking of moving to SF. I'm looking to join or start something though I could care less about the title I'm given. I don't code per se, but have an excellent sense of product, marketing and biz dev. I've raised angel and VC and sold one company. I can get shit done. A recent side project of mine is http://eat.ly. I'm open to whatever and have a few technical folks who'd join the right project I was involved with. Email in profile.
Looking for tech co-founder for my startup - cloud-based web-charting with some unique and smart social features.
Ideal person is experienced developer 30+ y.o. who wants to take full responsibility for back-end (database model, CRUD methods, server side of AJAX, integration with 3rd party services, etc.) and build scalable and expandable architecture. Also he/she enjoys smart ways to resolve complex technical problems, respects deadlines and is creative and positive critic.
Telecommuting is OK.
Those who interested - please see my profile for contact details.
I'm looking for a technical co-founder. Excellent in Ruby, specifically Ruby on Rails.
I'm doing the marketing, project management, running the show, idea development. I guess the business guy role.
The startup is basically a way of connecting clients with high quality front end developers. Imagine a high quality, curated eLance.com. Imagine a merged eLance.com and a PSD2HTML.com.
It's called 'CollectiveJam'.
I'm reasonably far in, and have all the designs being worked on as we speak, and everything set into motion.
I am looking for a technical co-founder to integrate oAuth / @Anywhere and a couple other key changes to my existing Twitter app. It's written in RoR and housed on GitHub.
Has viral potential! Virtually every Twitter member can relate to this app. Please get in touch via contact form on my personal site with any questions. I would also enjoy viewing your previous work.
I'd be interested in a business/communications female co-founder since my product is women-targeted. I'm the only founder-developer and it's still in the early stage so plenty of time to make collective decisions. The business model is real, but bootstrapping doesn't accelerate getting to profitability. I'll consider applying to a seed program.
Have a project I'm about to embark on, but since I'm in Nanchang China I doubt there is anyone here worth hooking up with (if there is hot damn). So I need a remote/distance co-founder.
Business and design orientated would be nice, I'm awful at PR or most of those types of things, point in case, I've a 5 year old reddit account with Karma thats less than 200.
I'm looking for a cofounder for a new startup. Still in idea phase (which means I'm open to yours as well :)), but I have an idea+prototype for something I'm personally excited about: augmented reality for shopping.
I'm usually in the valley, but traveling at present. zhyder at dabbleboard dot com
I'm looking for a co-founder with experience in the online payment industry (preferably non technical but will consider technical if you're bringing something new to the table). See http://www.payfacade.com.
- General intelligence
- Enough passion to work long hours
- Good at what I'm not. (I can build a product, he/she could have a marketing background or something. Obviously we'd still both be working on both.)
Oh, sorry, I didn't see your response until today. I am actually not looking for a cofounder right now. I just misunderstood the submitters question, thinking he was looking for inspiration in what to look for in a co-founder.
I'm a management graduate looking to work with a technical person. My contact information is in my profile. Particularly interested in mobile, marketplaces and merchantry.
I have many good projects, most in idea stage. I am good in user experience / usability, frond end design, business development, strategy, monetization.
Looking for a really good coder, who can code and scale entire thing, making all of the features work like charm. i can share simmple description of my projects with you and we can start working on them together if any of those interest my prospective technical cofounder,
drop me a line, elvirs AT gmail DOT com
Yes, my next project is most likely going to be a game. Most of my industry experience is on the writing, reviewing and community side, so I want to get my feet wet on the technical :)
Not sure how to answer your question. I want to write a game. I always assumed I would learn a programming language and write it myself. So far, that hasn't gone anywhere.
Oh, my real goal is to teach people how to get well (or at least healthier) when that is supposed to be impossible as I have a form of cystic fibrosis. I have found that the written word on my website is just not information dense enough. I have begun supplementing it with links to videos and graphics and such, but it seems it is just not enough. The gap between my mental model and what the rest of the world "knows" to be true is just too large. So I want to create a simulation showing some of the ideas of the mental model which has worked to help me get well so that people can play with the concepts and learn them in a safe way rather than making huge and damaging mistakes with their health.
I've discussed it with my adult sons. They have suggested a type of game as a starting place: A roguelike. I need to come up with a means to measure or graph (for game purposes) some key things I mentally track in my own life, such as acidity, germiness, and toxic/allergic exposures. I really have no idea where to begin. :-/ I find it frustrating because the few people who have been able to make use of my ideas indicate they have gotten some very exciting results. But most people are just angry at me and treat me like a liar, charlatan, and snake oil sales(wo)man. They just can't wrap their head around where I am coming from and it just makes them angry to hear from me, like I am sticking my tongue out at them and saying "nanner nanner -- I'm well and you're not!!!! ha ha ha" And now I think I have figured out the means (a game/simulation) to overcome the information gap but just can't seem to figure out where/how to start. Sigh.
Something almost Sims-esque? I'd ignore the haters for now and try to figure out what your vision is.
It's not clear if you have a game in mind or just know you want to make a game - but assuming you have the difficult but rewarding task of creativity ahead:
Figure out who would use it, what you want them to learn, and how you want to convey it. Imagine how you would play the game. Play other simulation games and see what works and what doesn't. Take what works and draw on paper to figure out how things are going to fit together.
Your initial game prototypes can be on paper with your sons, using dice instead of a computer, just to get the concepts straight. Then the technical part of implementation and platforms comes once you have a greater understanding of what you actually need to build, so you can pick the right platforms and toolkits with that context.
Good luck, it sounds like a very worthwhile project.
My sons have been dragging me slowly into the gaming world. They have introduced me to Tiberian Sun and, more recently Master of Magic. I have played Simcity for years and, historically, was really good at games like Tetris, Dr. Mario and Minesweeper but always hated games involving fighting and generally was not good at them. My sons keep emphasizing the aspects of the games they introduce me to that are "like Simcity" -- ie the infrastructure development parts which are critical to supporting a good military force and that this is actually a bigger part of some of these games than the fighting per se. Then they sit with me and coach me sometimes so I don't get thrown to the wolves. We recently started a website together in part to talk about games ...well, that doesn't do it justice but it will have to do for now. So I am, actually working on stuff. Just not actually coding and that makes me very frustrated. It feels so far away.
But thank you for the feedback! It makes me feel better about where I am on this whole thing -- that maybe I am not just spinning my wheels.
How about just a list of actions you've taken and the results that you've gotten from them?
I think that it self would be revolutionary if the methods you describe are clearly and measurably effective.
I want to do the same for people with knee pain. Knee pain is a huge subject and there is some really good research on how to prevent it with proper exercise. I just dont see it disemminated well enough to the public.
I have a website already where I have attempted to do that kind of thing. One of the first pages on it was a checklist. It grew out of an email that got the response of "Can I forward that to someone I know who has a child with CF?!!" I felt being able to share a link would be better than having people forward my emails all over the place. Unfortunately, the only people who seem able to benefit from the website mostly fall into one of two categories:
A) People who have pursued alternative remedies for a long time who therefore have some context for what I am talking about.
B) People with a fairly recently diagnosed child who have not yet been inculcated with the current thinking.
Also, I was extremely sick at one time and spent about a year at death's door. When someone is that sick and heavily medicated, learning new material can be very challenging. But games often were a godsend to keep me harmlessly occupied and also happen to be an excellent educational tool.
As for "measurably effective", although I do my best to provide links to supporting information, at this point in time people essentially have to take my word for it. I'm not interested in being Joan of Arc or some such (what with her being burned at the stake at the age of about 19). I don't want people to do this "on faith" because they believe in me. I am very painfully aware that people tend to divide up between folks who react like I am some hero/savior figure and folks who would like to put together a lynch mob. It's extremely important to me that people understand and what I am doing currently is insufficient to that task. It is imperative that I develop an educational tool so people aren't putting their lives in my hands on faith/belief in me personally and can, instead, effectively take their lives in their own hands. (As an aside: currently, such individuals routinely put their lives in the hands of others -- mostly doctors -- so that is a familiar model for them and I think it is part of the problem. So I don't think you can even achieve the goal by following such a path. Thus what would be the point, other than possibly ego gratification?) If I can't overcome that obstacle, I am willing to walk away (rather than be martyred, literally or figuratively) and go live a "normal life" now that I am well enough to do so for the first time in my life.
Firstly, I commend you on
1) realizing that doctors are not responsible for your health.
2) finding a solution to your health problem.
The first thing you need to IMHO do is to gather emails of people who are interested about the information you have.
1.) This will give you the motivation to progress further - ie you'd be helping all these people.
2.) Also you'll have a way of getting feedback on your efforts from these people in the future so you know if your making headway.
Maybe you should be targetting the people who love/care for people with CF ? Because of this disease, they may have studied more about the illness than the patient herself?
About the haters - if your doing anything of significance, your going to have people who hate you. This how the world is. And seriously, if you have haters then you should realize that you might be on the right path.
One way to "prove", to yourself and the world, that your ideas work,is to have someone else follow your methodology and keep a detailed log of what they did/when and the progress/lack-of-progress that they saw.
I appreciate the feedback but that isn't going to work in this case. There are a few people who have tried some things and given me positive feedback. It is one reason I haven't removed the site. In recent months, I post a lot less to health lists than I used to. Part of that is circumstantial (I worked overtime regularly for several months and my previous computer died, leaving me without a computer for three months). But part of it is that fighting with people is not turning out to be a good means to help them (and isn't a great experience for me either, though I can put up with quite a lot of crap if it is at least accomplishing something, but it's not). They are very ill. It is a highly charged subject. Most of the time, members of the community are incapable of behaving rationally (been there, done that, got the t-shirt). They are desperate for a solution and some folks in the community will raise tens of thousands of dollars for the CF Foundation while at the same time making ugly accusations about my motives because there are a few ads on my website.
When my youngest son was about 15 months old and newly walking, there was a place on our street where the sidewalk had a one inch high curb. He was a clumsy kid and would get down on hands and knees and crawl over that curb. If I am going to effectively reach more than a handful of people, I have to go around and remove all barriers, no matter how small. These are people for whom small things can be quite deadly. Asking them to take risks with their health on some unproven theory is insane. Bill Gates has said something like "Your unhappiest customers are your best source of learning". I have concluded that the folks who would like to lynch me are basically saying that I am a serious threat to their welfare and that sharing the idea that one can get well without sharing enough information for others to effectively and safely replicate the process is doing more harm than good. If I want to do something other than piss and moan about how no one is ever nice to me, I have to take that message seriously and DO something more effective.
Thank you for the feedback and the chance to think through this some more.
I just had a look at your site. I think its very informative but just having so much text will put off a lot of people.
There is just so much information that its kind of overwhelming.
You really need to talk to a good designer on how to create a smaller but more graphical site which can convey the information layer by layer.
And I can see how a game could help convey this information though I think a better illustrated website might be a cheaper and faster way to get a start.
And for the people who are criticizing your work - I think you should ignore them. Help the ones that want the help and go from there.
One simple way would be to list out the top 7 SAFE actions that you've taken that have helped with your CF. Put that on your front page. And then from there link to other pieces of information. That way the user has something useful right on the front page.
The pared down checklist might be good enough. Right now its a link that I had to find - it would be good to put the most important information on the front page.
After that you need to make the site more legible w.r.t font-size and the colors and the general design.
From a tactical standpoint I would advertise for a web designer who also has CF. I'm guessing you might know how to find one. And then show him the site and ask their help. If your site helps them then its possible they will put in the effort to help others.
Keep working on this. You can email me at railsnoob at yahoo dot com if you want me to review something.
I basically haven't been online the last few days. Happy to trip across this reply.
I will keep your suggestions in mind, though right now there is no money to hire a designer. I did not start this site to make money and getting well has left me deeply in debt (though not getting well would likely have worse financial consequences and I at least have hope of cleaning up my financial mess now that I am healthy enough to work consistent overtime).
I think the stuff I do is very safe. It is certainly safer than the path most people with my condition take. But what I am running into is that a lot of them just don't have background info I have and therefore people sometimes make extremely dumb mistakes that can seriously damage their health. So what seems "obviously" safe to me is not necessarily safe for someone who lacks general information about physiology, chemistry, or whatever and therefore doesn't know to avoid certain pitfalls.
I'm actually glad to hear the amount of info is overwhelming. I always feel there is way too little info on the site.
As for the people who criticize: To me, the main issue is that I have been thrown off some lists and the moderators usually side with the people who are attacking me. So if I don't deal in some fashion with my critics, I may be unable to reach those folks who are interested. Yes, when I really don't feel well (or people have been especially ugly to me), I whine and cry about how people are mean to me. But that isn't really my main concern. However, some folks have found the website on their own without first meeting me on an email list. And those folks typically are far more interested in and open to the information. So I have been rethinking my relationship to my audience, I guess.
Thank you for the feedback! It's something to go on.
Wow, lots of vagueness here. I'll try to be concrete.
I'm looking for someone who amazes me with their insights in the areas of my relative weakness. That includes design, user experience, sales, marketing, and media. You should also have a decent sense of humor, not be too arrogant, and generally be someone I'd like to be around and can trust.
I'm decent and understand most disciplines required for a startup, but it's too hard and not that fun to do everything on my own. That means you should really be able to show me demonstrable abilities, as I'm pretty demanding of someone who wants the title "cofounder." Ambition is great, but you better have worked on lots of stuff in your spare time if you have no track record.
I can show you that I'm an accomplished developer with many job offers each week that I turn down so that I can stick with consulting and pursue startup dreams. You should also be someone in demand, but turning down work. Honestly, I meet a lot of unemployable talkers and not enough doers.
My current ambition is to turn craise.com into a great business. There is a long story behind the existing product, but that's not the important part. The business model is there and I have the product direction. We need "customer development" - early customers to figure out our product and distribution model.
I've got lots of other projects behind me, including cribq.com - which I use all the time but hasn't been touched in 4 years. I built a good part of divvy.com for a client. I'm currently developing a social shopping system for a client.
I have a complex and long story to my life, as many of us entrepreneurs do, but I have experience with business, management, I speak Mandarin Chinese, and play ice hockey.
I'd love to do an incubation program like YC.
Get in touch at alex at stacktrace.com and we can meet.
