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At first glance, I agree with most others that "the idea itself is worth 0%". Having said that, we all know that's not always true...there's a looooong list of ideas that were so brilliant at the time of their inception that - combined with good fortune and perfect timing - the initial crappy implementation had no real negative impact (hello, Windows 3.0, hello Facemash, etc.). So your idea may be brilliant...probably not, but maybe so :-) If you have already prototyped it out, have a basic wireframe built, have a good business plan in place, and have some funding lined up (either your own or from some external source) I would say that a technical co-founder would be at most worth 20-25%. From the gist of your question, though, it sounds like you have an idea in your head and that's about it. If that's the case, you gotta find your co-founder and immediately agree to a 50/50 split...maybe give them a 6-8 week 'trial phase' just to make sure they aren't a total fruitcake and are going to bail out on you, then lock it all down legally and move forward from there. What people are trying to tell you in the other posts is that HARD skills >> SOFT skills when it comes to launching a tech company in the very early stages. Look at your descriptions: * "business-minded" - hard to quantify
* "action-oriented" - every great developer on earth is this as well
* "team-building" - if you were great at this, your first stop wouldn't be at Hacker News for advice on how to build a team
* "selling" - I agree that this is actually a HARD skill - either you got it or you don't. If you have demonstrated track record in this area, this is your trump card.
* "partnerships" - soft skill...mostly manipulating paperwork with lawyers at the end of the day
* "strategy" - you will easily be splitting this one 50/50 with your technical co-founder Meanwhile, a good tech co-founder is going to bring: * Specific dev experience - hard skill
* Knowledge of architecture and scalability - hard skill
* Knowledge of SEO and online technical marketing - hard skill
* Ability to augment his/her skill with other good tech people out there, selecting from their own personal experience or interviewing based on their own skills - hard skill (i.e. business guy has no hope of locating and finding these people, IMHO) Sorry for the long explanation. Bottom line: you gotta go 50/50. If your guy is not worth 50% in your mind, you have the wrong person. |