Ask HN: Where to find co-founders for “lifestyle” business startups?
I am a software engineer with a decade of experience. I quit my previous job and am considering starting my own business. I've recently been browsing Y Combinator's Co-founder matching platform (https://www.startupschool.org/cofounder-matching/). This has many people who have a) impressive credentials and work experience, b) good ideas based on their real work experience and c) a desire to grow these ideas into a $100M+ business.
Sadly, the last of these is where my interest wanes. I don't have dreams of being astonishingly rich or successful (why, I'd be happy with a measly $1M business - if it wasn't too much effort to run). I don't want to take on lots of funding and staff and the pressure that entails. I'm more interested in a "lifestyle business" - perhaps one that I can run part-time after an initial period, that doesn't have lots of deadlines, but still nets me a decent amount of money each year (let's say £50k a year, for a concrete figure). This kind of business still needs someone to give domain input/product direction, do sales, think of new features, etc.
It feels like there should be some supply of "business" co-founders for these kinds of businesses. I expect they would probably work part-time/be an adviser (and therefore take a lower amount of the company). For example: management consultants/MBAs who don't want to take the plunge and quit their regular jobs, but would be happy to do a few days a month to get a feel for startups. Or small business owners who have a specific problem and want to see a solution built, but have no interest in making that their main income.
So far, I've tried asking my friends in various fields (some polite interest, but mostly lacking what you might call 'product vision'), and some small business forums (mostly contained lunatics with questions like "I've just taken out a loan to open two restaurants; any advice on how to put together a menu?").
Where could I find suitable people? Any ideas gratefully received. I think that you're starting from a wrong premise: you would like someone else to create a perfect job for you, that would be stable and secure for a long time with a minimal extra effort -- apart from "just doing your job" -- on your side. The thing is, startups don't work like that. You need to first find a product-market fit, which means a period (of unpredictable length) during which you have to try many different things, both in the product functionalities and technical architecture, and often you will run out of funds long before you find the right market for your product. There are no "magic cofounders" who will guarantee the perfect combination out of the box, ready for you to sit down and implement it. And even if you find it, you're never "your own boss" in a startup -- at the very least you report to your customers and any investors. That being said, the good news are that there actually is a type of business which checks pretty much all of the boxes you listed: become a contractor or start a consultancy. My advice would be to stay away from "business" advisors that work part-time and have a stake at the company. This is a recipe for disaster and I've seen it too many times. Just go to upwork (or similar platforms) and find well-rated experts for the topic you need and just pay. It's much cleaner and cheaper way. Otherwise you will end up with dead equity. Capable co-founders are hard to find, what you should be looking for is previous experience (even if failed tbh) and persistence, it's really a marathon. Regarding product - if you are an engineer with experience you probably have seen things, is there anything that you've seen that feels it can be a product. Start there and go to specialized forums, read, learn and ask. This is a good book too - https://www.momtestbook.com/ Rob Walling has great advice in this space. This recent YouTube video came to mind. https://youtu.be/KDaa5VNfhD0?si=olcrrkHD26x_Aft8 Sounds like you should may be got to a Microconf. Also, nothing wrong with going solo and finding mentors/coaches to fill the holes. In addition to the content we (MicroConf) have put out on this topic, and the community we’ve built that allows people to find co-founders, we’re also gearing up a co-founder matching service. I’m currently finishing a degree in Business Analytics and Management, though I have experience involved in business ops at a startup that was acquired and as an analyst/dev. The more I’ve learned, the more I realize you can’t just halfass a new business idea part time, it takes relentless drive to push through obstacles when the going gets rough (money/time/talent attrition/competition/life) and nothing stays stable forever. Amazon started out as a bookstore and Digg is barely known by anyone anymore. Simple ideas go through the same lifecycle as anything else, just on a different timeline. That said I’d be happy to pitch a few ideas and talk more. After all, that’s why I pursued this degree in the first place. It's actually hard to find people with product vision AND the ability to execute it. I'm an engineer like you and have participated in startup school for a few rounds and haven't found anybody "with an idea" and some skills that had a good market or really good connection. Regarding the "lifestyle" startup idea, while I'm also found of this idea, it doesn't make it any easy. There are likely more 10+ people tech companies than 1-10 people tech companies. I've tried for many years to go solo(or duo) and never made it. I'd honestly consider the idea: I want to build a profitable business. (whatever it is) I have a handful of ideas that I'd be interested in finding collaborators for. I own a few bootstrapped businesses (they're not in my profile, I keep them low profile to avoid competition) and spend quite a bit of money (>$700k USD spent in 2022 on biz expenses + personal expenses). Spending lots of money shows me quite a few product ideas - I'm slowly working on a few of those product ideas because I'd like to a) buy them for myself and b) make them as products/businesses - but I'm kind of spreading myself too thin and would be interested in collaborators. So, if someone would like to explore collaborating, feel free to email me - email in profile. That said, I'd probably only want to collaborate with someone that's so good that they wouldn't need me, and then that person wouldn't want to collaborate. (I think the profile I'd be looking to meet is someone who has successfully launched 2 or 3 or more tiny software products/apps, so I can see that you can successfully make high quality polished things, and they work well and customers love them and you marketed them solo and made them solo, but they're not huge, because you've been limited to the small $$ problems that you're exposed to, so then hypothetically by building for the large $$ problems that I spend on and large $$ markets that I have some experience selling to, you could make something bigger. People like this are rare and mostly not looking for collaborators, though, because they're already making at least 5-6 figures from bootstrapped businesses already.) I've also considered making a thing like this to help match co-founders who are aiming to be "million dollar bootstrappers" - 7 figures in profit but bootstrapped, not growth at all costs. The ideal way to monetize it would be to get a percentage of the businesses if they successfully start, but that's tough when things like YC Cofounder Matching are free services, and I think it'd turn people off. 99% of people on both sides won't end up making successful businesses even if they have impressive resumes, so another risk is that it's a marketplace of lemons. Everyone's going to be skeptical of everyone I think - "if you're so good why are you here" - so people will assume that people on there aren't good, and therefore won't seriously use it, etc. I think OP you should try more with YC Cofounder Matching! I've decided to sign up and actually explore using it myself to find a co-founder for some of the things I'm working on, I'll report back how it goes, waiting on my profile to be reviewed now. I think there'll be lots of there who are looking for lifestyle businesses, not just high growth startups. Other thoughts for OP: 1) I think the best place to find what you're looking for is either YC's matching, or Indiehackers, or cold emailing people 2) Lifestyle businesses are fantastic! And there are many more people doing 7 figures in profit from software lifestyle businesses than people are aware of. (But also, a "measly 1M business" is really hard, and most businesses never get to 1mm/year annual profit) 3) It's very tough! Luck + relationships/access + skill + decades of practice/attempts. (Took me ~17 years of doing side projects before I had 2 businesses that worked) 4) Main skills needed: 1) Building things 2) Selling/distributing things 5) Focus on ideas where it'd be easiest for you to get the first customers. I'm also heavily biased to B2B, so focus on B2B areas where you personally know people who could be your first 5 customers. 6) > management consultants/MBAs who don't want to take the plunge and quit their regular jobs, but would be happy to do a few days a month to get a feel for startups I'd suggest avoiding those as co-founders! Unless they can get you a first 5 customers. My sense is that most MBA skills aren't useful for getting a business off the ground, they're more useful for management consulting (which - what real value is that anyway). 7) Another option is to start small. Start yourself, build something for yourself. Do that as a side project. After a year, you'll probably have seen bigger problems in the course of building that side project. So at that point, switch and build a product that solves one of the problems you faced while building the first product. Repeat that for a couple years and you'll probably end up at some big $$ problems. 8) It takes a lot of reps to get good. I think the most underrated factor is how much time would you be willing to put into the thing you're working on. My suggestion is to sample many projects. Treat them all as side projects. Work on them for a few days (build product, chat casually with customers). Then ask yourself which one you most enjoy working on and where you could see yourself working on it for 6 weeks. Then work on that for 6 weeks, then scale up to 3 months, then 18 months. Takes time, so the one you'd most enjoy putting lots of hours into for weeks/months/years is probably the one most likely to succeed. And don't pick in the abstract / don't pick based on the idea, actually try working on them and pick based on how it feels to work on it - like taking a bite out of every dish at a restaurant - and then see which one you want to keep "eating". 9) Co-founders are great if a) you are capable enough to do something yourself and b) they bring something gamechanger you don't have c) they raise the ceiling for what the business is capable of. One of my businesses I did solo, the other with a 50-50 cofounder. Both worked out great, I think both paths are good. But the main takeaway from this point is to "be so good that you don't need them". 10) Pick something where you in your "sampling" you see that you enjoy the two critical pieces for that product/side project - building that product and reaching buyers for that product. The journey takes so so long that you have to be able to enjoy it. Have look at https://www.indiehackers.com I have see people trying to team up there: business & engineering. Look inward, my friend. Be strong and self-sufficient. You do not need cofounders and permission to do what you want. You are capable of building it yourself. Once you do, others will seek you out should you want to bring them in. Do you have a twitter? Tons of people on twitter discuss this very thing Also, really good place to market if you are charismatic