[cypherpnks]

I'll make an alternative suggestion. Hire management. You want to sit in a box and code. You want someone to handle business, support, etc. People who can do that are a dime a dozen.

That could be another student at the university; someone with an active Twitter account, good charisma, etc. Offer 25% equity vesting over 4 years. That's pretty generous. Keep hacking and plugging, and do as much or as little of the interacting as you want. If the other person doesn't carry their weight -- which is not uncommon -- dump them or swap them out for someone else. Be very upfront about this when bringing them on (if you want, overly upfront -- pitch this as a short-term engagement, with possibility of going longer depending on how business goes).

Give yourself the title of CEO and CTO. Give them the title interrim president+COO.

Regarding depression, social anxiety, etc., this can help fix it. I've been there. Depression gets better when you have meaning and purpose, and when you're busy enough to not have time worrying about it. Social anxiety gets better with status. When people are competing to talk to you (rather than the other way around), and you're in a position to say yes or no, the dynamic is just different. If this were to grow into a successful company, you might be in a very different position. You've been playing with fixing this for a while. Play with this as an opportunity to try a different approach to fixing it.

Again, I don't know you. This could not apply at all. Take this as what it is -- an idea from a stranger.

[tokai]

>Depression gets better [...] when you're busy enough to not have time worrying about it.

Very harmful advice potentially.

[rrrene]

> You want someone to handle business, support, etc. People who can do that are a dime a dozen.

Is this really true? I mean that as an honest question, because, while being a coder with a typical distaste for shallow marketing folks myself, I think these "business things" actually constitute work, if done right (first and foremost good user support).

I would imagine that there exists a similar comment in a board for marketing guys and gals, where they say:

> You want someone to program the database. People who can do that are a dime a dozen.

Pun intended.

[orasis]

I'm sorry, but this is a terrible suggestion. I ran a company successfully for 8 years and at times made this same mistake in thinking.

The only time you can hire above is when scaling a successful product + sales model - essentially when you are no longer a startup and are becoming an established player.

[jacquesm]

That sounds like a sure fire way to get more stress and possibly lose the whole thing.