How to find a partner safely?

[holycrab]

My startup is 90% ready. I need another developer to focus on the development and I will focus on marketing or a marketing person and I will focus on the rest of the development. Or a person who will bring an angel. I desperately need a partner because I cant do it all by myself but at the same time I dont feel comfortable to share everything with a total stranger. Anybody has an idea how to protect myself,my startup with a new partnership? What can be the process to get a partner safely?

[CowboyRobot]

In brief, I would look to your community, whatever that is. Ideally you live in a place with an active development/startup culture with lots of talented and motivated people, and all you have to do is lean out your window and ask technical questions. But it's not 1998 anymore.

Do you have an alumni group or some kind of online social network you rely on? When something big is at stake, it's risky to trust a complete stranger. You may both have the best of intentions, but they could end up being not having the skills or (maybe more importantly) the personality you need.

Craigslist, from my experience, leads to more misses than hits. LinkedIn is just beginning to be a non-worthless social network.

If you've put the feelers out and no one has emerged, one last resort could be to get some college interns. Some colleges will give credit to students as long as you fill out the paperwork to call your job an internship. I did this in New York City long ago. We had to pay minimum wage, but in return got an intelligent, hard-working person who (for better or worse) was not vested in the project long-term

[israelyc]

I am working on a hardware project and was in the same position you are.. Finding a partner came from an unexpected angle for me.

Since I had no idea what I was doing and I was learning everything from the web on the fly after a while I realized that just talking to the right people helps a lot.

I reached out to a few people that were in the same position I was a few years back and now running successful companies in the industry (old successful kickstarter projects are a great source but, just following the news in your field helps too) - I really reached out just to get advice and to learn from them.

One of them, really liked the idea and offered to help me bring it to market.. it was a no brainer for me, it's been 1.5 months since, he helped me get the patent pending and now working with me really hard to make this happen...

So to sum up I really think that if you just reach out, not even with the agenda of finding a cofounder/partner but just to get advice from the right people you'd be surprised how many people are willing to help, and, you might even find a partner that will be passionate about the idea just as you. -because your goal is not find someone who's just qualified, you need someone who is also passionate about it at least as much as you are.

Hope that helps...

[holycrab]

This was my side project. It started very small and it became advance in time. I have a full time job so this project is kinda secret from everyone which puts me into a position that I can not ask anybody publicly.

It is already being used by a company that I developed for. I see that there is a potential for going public.

I am good at creating but I am not good at marketing. I can do the marketing if I need to but doing everything is sufficating. I've been already pushing 4-5 AM days. That's why I decided to get a partner.

I am not sure how hard to find the right partner but I guess the real problem is how to share, how to calculate the value of my side project, how to protect myself without insulting the partner.

HN was the first place to start my search, let's see what time brings.

I am located in NY.

[rajdesai225]

Finding a business partner is just like finding a life partner. You have to start out with a business date and see if you can take the relationship to the next level. Running a business is all about conviction and hardwork. You will go through lots and lots of ups and downs and for better or worst your business partner will be there to share your burden. From your post, it appears you are a coder. Are you a good marketer as well? In partner - you definitely want to look for something that you don't have. That person should be bringing you something that you cannot do. If you need marketing help, try your local SCORE. They are usually very good and are completely Free.

[holycrab]

I have never heard score before but I will definitely dig into that.

[rajdesai225]

The SCORE is Service Corps Of Retired Executives backed by SBA and they help you via email. Their service is free and you can have a Marketing Executive (As oppose to an intern) help you via email for your plans etc. You shold definitely take a look at it. What I am not clear is that if your idea is 90% ready then why not just test it to see if you get any traction? If you have users - I think the rest will really fall into place :)

I am assuming you don't really need a whole lot of marketing budget. Can you test your idea using adwords? For about $500 dollars, you can get fairly targeted customers and you can study their bheavior using analytics? Just a thought!

[holycrab]

I have a very niche market and it wont be hard for me to get in touch with the possible users. But all of this is a full time work. I already have a full time work and putting another full time work hours for development. From my past experiences, trying to do everything by yourself just doesn't work. So that's why I thought partnership would be better. These are my last steps before quitting my fulltime job. That's why I am trying to get as much help as I can while I am still safe.

[rajdesai225]

Okay - that sounds good. Although, one thing I forgot to mention is - if you can - please stay away from angel investors who are non-value added.

The problem with non value added investors is that they may or may not know what you are trying to create (and how difficult it is or will be) so they will get impatient very fast and will run for shelter at the first sign of trouble. They are known for running start-ups down!

Instead, find a technical invester. Having an investor who is technically sound and who understands your concept well will be much harder to convince but in long run you will have great return from him/her.

There is nothing better than a technical expert committing money in your start up. It will instantly validate your idea and I think that is the first step to a great success.

In my humble opinion, you should leaverage you leaving your job based on an investment from a technical investor.

And, trust me - I know how difficult it is to have a technical investor commit their seed money but also trust me that if you can pull it - you will be a very happy founder even after leaving your job.

Best of Luck :)

[holycrab]

This has been very useful for me, thanks.

[holycrab]

If anybody interested in more info please send an email to [e-mail] with a brief explanation why you are interested. I will send you the demo link.

[molsongolden]

Can you provide any additional details about your startup and what it will do?

[israelyc]

Where are you located?