Re:Seek cofounder before or after building a prototype?
by malandrew on Sunday March 27, 2011 @08:11PM
(#2376513)
This is a tricky question with no right answer.
If you are the vision guy and seek to maintain as much equity, you might want to build a prototype first.
However, you are running risks by not bringing people on board sooner. You risk speed to market, but more importantly, you risk heading in the wrong direction or spending a long time building something one way, when their might be a better, more usable way to build a part of your app. Thus, you may want to consider bringing the designer onboard sooner than your other developer friend, especially if the designer is really good with UI/UX and especially designing user workflows.
One of the reasons YC is reluctant to take on single-founders is because having two or more helps. You're much less likely to do something stupid if you have a talented co-founder you trust around to talk you out of it.
If the people you want to bring onboard are the kind that might steal your idea, then you probably don't want them as co-founders. Choosing a co-founder is like choosing to get married. It is not a decision to be taken lightly.
If you are the vision guy and seek to maintain as much equity, you might want to build a prototype first.
However, you are running risks by not bringing people on board sooner. You risk speed to market, but more importantly, you risk heading in the wrong direction or spending a long time building something one way, when their might be a better, more usable way to build a part of your app. Thus, you may want to consider bringing the designer onboard sooner than your other developer friend, especially if the designer is really good with UI/UX and especially designing user workflows.
One of the reasons YC is reluctant to take on single-founders is because having two or more helps. You're much less likely to do something stupid if you have a talented co-founder you trust around to talk you out of it.
If the people you want to bring onboard are the kind that might steal your idea, then you probably don't want them as co-founders. Choosing a co-founder is like choosing to get married. It is not a decision to be taken lightly.