Where to find a co-founder?
I am running a few projects for 2 years now. Now it becomes just too much one man can handle! And off course if you have 2 persons working on it things go faster (or should be). The problem is that I'm having a hard time finding a partner (in my near environment)! Also I'm not able to pay him, but rather give him/her a piece of the cake (there is revenue, but nothing you can live from yet).
So questions are:
- Where can you find a good co-founder ?
- What share would you offer him (already working 2 years on the project already and invested money in it etc.)?
- How would you organize it legally ?
- Would you meet him in person first ?
- Are there other things you should be careful for ?
Hope this can be an interesting discussing where we can learn from :-)
- What share would you offer him (already working 2 years on the project already and invested money in it etc.)? It depends on what type of skills they bring to the table. A vesting schedule is best so that over time they are compensated, but if they walk away a few months into it you aren't screwed.
- How would you organize it legally ? Depends on how your projects are organized. LLC or C Corp managing the other entities probably works, but there are a lot of variables and this is where a lawyer would come in.
- Would you meet him in person first ? ABSOLUTELY! This is basically a marriage...you don't want to start that on a blind date.
- Are there other things you should be careful for ? Be careful of over committing equity and not knowing the person well enough.
Another useful thing might be to read this article by Mark Suster: http://www.bothsidesofthetable.com/2011/05/09/the-co-founder...
It's definitely "beta". :) But it seems to have attracted a pretty good group of people. The idea is the post projects you are working on and then other people can "like" or "apply" to the project. I have a couple projects on there "sososwift" and "nualt" if you're interested. hahah.
Good luck!
I have found my cofounders at cofounderslab.com . I just contacted them and then we met in person to discuss the idea. You don't need to go to their meetups. You just need to connect.
Good luck to you!