How to Find the Right Co-founder

In this Startup School lecture, YC Partner Harj Taggar shares advice on how to find the right co-founder for your startup.

00:00 Introduction
0:25 Why have a co-founder at all?
3:43 Starting without a co-founder
7:10 What to look for
11:13 What about skills?
13:38 Where to look for a co-founder
20:18 Making the leap
22:36 Deciding equity
24:40 Who's the CEO?
27:28 Formalizing things

[nicholasvoorhees]

For those without easy access to a business partner, I would ignore the "you need a co-founder" narrative and just build the product yourself. If you can gain traction, passionate team members will most likely find you.

[snowblazed]

Just in the process of firing my co-founder who only works 2 days a week, 9 to 5 and then goes off on holidays on weekends. In my experience. having a co-founder narrative is over-rated and there merely to provide cushioning to the effing investors, unless the co-founder operates at the same bandwidth as you.

[IncomeBoost]

Finding the right co-founder is very difficult. You need someone trustworthy, passionate as you are about the project, have a compatible character and conflict resolution (like a marriage), hardworker and willing to learn new skills and aligned in vision on the major issues. In fact I would argue you’re more likely to fill the skill gap either by learning by yourself or hiring/contract for specific things if you have a well laid out plan.

[Alex-xfpl]

I had 2 co-founders that didn't do anything at all, and until i decided there is no point to expect anything anymore from them and to go on by myself it took a while. So i think it is really important that the people you partner up with are reliable.

[haxpor]

Great suggestion on when to look for co-founder is not at the time you need to find one, do some projects with them to get a taste of what kind of people you like or your energy aligned with them to work together.

[sommjes]

coming here after having to fire my cto/ co-founder (and friend) and having the company buying back the equity. it was the suckiest decision but also the right one, as 4, 5, 6 follow ups didn't result in.. well, results. send good vibes for me to learn best practices and find my next person! 🙏

[strauss]

Co-founder conflict is the biggest reason for startup failure. It's better to go solo than to wait for a co-founder.

[remotepenguin-unlimiteddes]

Very informative class on finding a co-founder!
Hope to see more videos from Y Combinator and Harj.
All the best for everyone starting out their startups and finding their cofounders!

[jom]

Watching this in 2024 because a month ago I welcome the first co-founder for our future product but realized wasn’t the right fit.
Now taking notes

[unmiss-com]

Start yourself, go ahead and when you see someone who is passionate about like you then cooperate!

[o.h.w.]

We have a small team and the energy dynamic between myself and the other 3 is way off. I feel like they’re waiting for someone to help give them direction while I’m out pounding the pavement daily. The business is tough but getting them in gear is excruciating 😖

[bradhouston]

This one is thought provoking.
I need to comb through all the people I have respected over the years and see what happens.
I’ve tried to get started with just a team of volunteers…and let’s just say that I haven’t gotten very far. But I have learnt a lot!

[fordneild]

HAHAHA Just applied solo two hours ago. Whoops. At least I'm technical and have confidence in my idea. Still though not liking my odds if they rejected dropbox.

[SportsIncorporated]

I've heard more than one YC founder talk about splitting equity equally. It's fraught with all kinds of perils. Maybe you want If...Then clauses to handle situations that may come up. Where a co-founder isn't able to meet the commitments you thought they would meet.

[codewithkam]

Never ever ever think you need a co-founder cause someone is doing a ridiculous single dimension pattern matching to decide if they'll invest in your company or not. Rarely you get bad advise from YC and this is one of those rare cases. IMO, you have a chance to become successful without a co-founder but good luck making any progress with a bad co-founder.

[Gabriel-elku]

very important content but almost unlistenable. the sound recording quality is very bad. please try to make sure you are recording this very important content with good enough microphone.

[religion-free]

is this only relevant to TECH?
what about other fields, what
if I want to manufacture some
sustainable shoe or something

[maharafaibrahimacoulibaly]

You know, it is not that easy to fond a co-founder. It painfully hard to see or even convince your best Friends, brothers or whatever to join you in a project. Most prefer to work for big companies. It bleeds my heart to constantly be politely rejected by closed people. In this case, my experience is that you better start alone, learning technical skills yourself if required. May be someone will join you in the way.

[bonganimzo]

I really wanted to listen to your full video, I like the content but it's not the best audio experience.

[hugo-getw]

Too bad the sounds sucks. Could you improve your sound recording maybe with an external mic in the future ? Thank you.