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Can you start your venture on your own? Sure, you can but chances of success would be relatively high if you have a technical cofounder by your side.
Technical co founders not only take product development under their radar but also prove useful in attracting investors. Any digital business can be a success if it has a viable idea and to-the-point tech implementation.
You will find many examples of successful businesses with non-technical founders like Steve Jobs, for example but they had their technical co-founders as Steve Jobs had Steve Wozniak.
If you are searching for a technical cofounder and finding it hard, there are some useful ways which we are about to share in this blog.
A technical cofounder is the one responsible for building your product from scratch with a substantial amount of experience. He hires a development team and builds workable MVPs, and tells about the project/product tech stack. This is the reason why he gets the most business share as your technical partner.
CTO/ technical cofounder is someone who is a great programmer, knows product and processes well. Bear in mind
‘A technical cofounder should not ONLY be the one who knows coding but the one who can cater with technical and business sides equally.’
First, that person should be reliable enough because you will be making really vital decisions with him. Realistically, you should know your cofounder really well. He or she could be your college fellow, or an old colleague, or maybe you are friends with him from your adulthood, these are the ones you know and can work with.
What if you don’t have anyone in your circle with a technical background? That is the reason why we have this guide to help you out.
Step 1 – prepare a pitch deck. Outline the problem, solution and the market gap your idea/product will solve.
Step 2 – design an MVP. You can use low-code or no-code tools such as Bubble.io. Having an idea in the form of MVP excites CTOs more.
Step 3 – product mockups. Utilize cost-effective designers for building mockups or can use a tool like Mockingbird.
Step 4 – Work with some promising startups. Meet tech people and gain industry experience.
Step 5 – have a technical advisor. Experienced technical advisor from the very start adds value in early-stage startup.
BONUS TIP # Don’t jumpstart with a new CTO on your startup idea. Rather work on a project with him and see how sound his technical and communication skills are.
There are numerous in-town and online startup communities from where you can find your technical cofounder. After Covid 19, you may find many such tech meetups/communities interacting online. Let us share you a list of online startup communities and growth hacking networks.
1-Startups (over 3000 founders and investors)
2-Nomads (over 4000 developers, startup founders)
3-GrowthHackers
4-Dev.to (Reddit community)
5-The Lean Startup feed on Quora
6-Startup Grind (powered by Google for entrepreneurs)
7-Lean Startup Circle (over 80,000 practitioners share what works and what doesn’t)
8-Sydney Startups
Reach out to friends for recommendations via your social pages, preferable LinkedIn but you can use Twitter, Instagram or Snapchat.
Else, you can hire a recruiter to find you the one by using any of these networking platforms:
1-LinkedIn
2-Angel List
3-Craigslist.org
4-Monster.com
5-The Mom Project
6-Elpha
Another great way for searching for a technical cofounder is by using co-founder matching platforms. There are some cofounder matching platforms some of the popular ones are:
1-Co-FoundersLab (over 400k entrepreneurs can seek for cofounders, advisors or even teammates)
2-Tech Co-founder (over 300k entrepreneurs network but can seek only tech partners)
3-Founder Dating
4-Founder2be
5-Founders Nation
6-Code Army
Hackathons help in polishing new ideas and find team members along with investors. In such events, you get to know many like-minded people.
Incubators and accelerators turn rough immature ideas into workable business however, incubators fund in exchange for small equity but they require a lot of time.
Some popular incubators are:
1-Y Combinator USA
2-Techstars USA
3-500 Startups
4-Venture Catalysts
5-StartupYard
6-Ignite
7-Melbourne Accelerator program
Step 1 – Seek a business attorney. Tap into your friends network for referrals on startup attorney. List down attorneys and additional legal resources available in your city.
Step 2 – Split equity with your tech partner. There is no right or wrong answer here but very crucial to be discussed in the very start of your business relationship.
Step 3 – Make sure the one with the idea and the most funding gets the most shares. Do consider reputation as it’s important in equity entitlement.
Step 4 – Prepare a vesting schedule which means the cofounder will earn over time. This protects you from any loss if the co-founder leaves your company soon.
Step 5 – Make an offer. After equity discussion and management roles, make an offer. Have it documented in writing.
Starting a new venture on your own is challenging both in monetary terms and the working hours being spent by you, the technical cofounder and the team. How to find a technical cofounder is not easy and you may not find one instantly. It takes time. But once you have him make sure he shares the project risks, works more like a CTO and empowers your project with advanced tech methodologies.
Are you looking to hire a technical cofounder, or technical partner, or a CTO who can look into the technical side of your project? Contact us.