amberes

And what for a +40 someone? Can't go and waste time at school again.

I got contacted by my cofounder. Back when Rails was hot, he looked on forums, found some posts of mine, investigated further and contacted me.

Didn't work out though. Project got started, has been making profit for years, but not enough to drop the daytime job.

I find that reliable people my age really have such an outdated view on business that I know in advance we're not compatible... younger people lack experience.

I'm thinking lately of switching roles. I had been looking for a non-tech cofounder, as I've got more than enough coding/sysadmin experience. But the last 7-8 years, I'm the director of a small business (not my own), learning marketing, pr, bizdev, hr, ... so I'm thinking I might rather look for someone to handle the tech part.

Is this going to be a real product, or is it a joke? 20% of me thinks it's a joke that I'm not fully getting (I'm not native English speaking, so that might be the problem)

If it'll be a product: why not focus more on what sets it apart from the competition?

Concerning marketing and design: http://allthesmallthings.co/

About €1000 from a subscription based web analytics niche thing and another €2500 from my wife as she works for the government.

And what if you don't have a decent partner available? Just take the plunge with someone and hope it's a good fit?

Been there, prefer to try it on my own now.

I'm sorry, but I think validation of an idea is probably one of the worst reasons to get a co-founder I've heard.

May I offer some practical advice?

You do have extensive logging, especially around the buggy code? Do you have source-level debugger that shows your variables and that can step/trace through code?

These are the 2 tools that I have found most indispensible when squashing bugs in the past. Somehow source-level debugging seems to have disappeared from the developer's toolbox the last couple of years. I am told you don't need it anymore as you can write tests (???).

Yes, we once had a more or less finished base product. But at that time my co-founder had to start doing sales so he shited his pants and suddenly invented a whole new addition that would surely sell.

I worked my ass off, and in the end when it was released, it turned out more than 90% of people only use the base product.

I think I'm still mentally recovering from that one and it it was the initiator for the spoiled relationship with the co-founder.

It takes courage to contact people, ask for a meeting and tell them what your plans are.

But it beats spending months working on something no one wants.

And every time you do it, it takes less courage.

Blah! I just did some abstract reasoning tests and i had an excellent score. Now, the tests on the net might be crap... Bu who says the tests HR uses aren't?

People aren't even able to make a good estimate of how long a project will take, or if it will even get finished. So how can they determine which kind of people are a right fit to work on those projects?

But then, not getting what abstract thinking is about is probably a good sign that you aren't an abstract thinker?

I once failed a test because I wasn't good at abstract thinking. And they decided to be a good developer, you had to be a good abstract thinker. At that time, the test was already more than 10 years old.

I didn't get the job, although I had several references that I was one of the best and also most social and motivated developers they had ever worked with.

One of the references also stated that I was really good at thinking 'out of the box', finding a solution while everyone was blindly staring at the problem. That is abstract thinking, no?

I'm CEO now... And it might be me, but I've worked with some abstract thinkers and whatever they cook up hasn't resulted in anything concrete yet. (except for a huge consultancy bill on occasion)

Forgive me for being paranoid...

Look people in the eye. Except, don't look them really in the eye because it'll make you nervous, just look right above their eyes at the hair. From a distance they won't notice.

Make yourself sympathetic (well, that's how I do it, not necessary your thing). After you told them who you are and what your function is, tell very quickly in 10 seconds what you like, some hobbies, where you live, show them a funny picture of your cat/dog.

I like to do things out of the ordinary, it catches their attention.

Engage your audience: Ask questions. DO a little quiz. Here's some examples of what I do in our standard presentation:

I have a slide of a biometric device the competition uses. Next I show different ways people use it, 3 photo's next to eachother, 1 right, 2 wrong. Then I ask the audience who thinks photo 1 is right, who thinks photo 2 is right,... There's always lots of confusion.

Next, I show the biometric device we use and ask them if they can think of a way not to use ours the right way. There isn't.

Another example: When I have told how what our operations does and give them some figures, I ask them 'who thinks we are more than 50 people, raise your hand please'... 'who thinks less than 50'... 'less than 20'.... etc. We're less than 10 and about 40% thinks we're more than 50 so that drops a little bomb.

I feel his pain... unfortunately, I've got a family to feed. 15-20 years earlier, knowing what I know now, I wouldn't give it a 2nd thought.

Hmmm... That was just my 1st annoyance with a 'normal' job. And which company is going to pay me when during summer time I work 1-2 hours or only the really necessary/urgent stuff from a campsite somewhere? I'd rather have the flexibility to work like crazy when I want to and relax when I need it.,working for someone else is just too rigid.

What also bothers me: -working my ass off might mean I get a bonus, but this is only a 1 time thing. No boss is happy to give a raise (maybe I'm already earning above market). Slackers (laggards? English isn't my mother tongue) often earn slightly less compared to people working their ass off.

-I can put my blood and sweat into the company, but from one day to the next they can fire me (ok, they'll,have to pay a hefty fee for breaking the contract). I've got a couple of ongoing projects at the daytime job right now, and I'd worry more about the projects if they'd fire me than about getting a new job... Which is probably an unhealthy attitude.