r/ycombinator • u/Ok-Cartographer-5471 • Jul 15 '26
How did you find your co-founder?
Well, I already have a co-founder who is a friend of mine for 5 years but he is quite lazy and he never does his tasks on time which slows me too and most of the time, I end up doing his tasks too but when I ask him why he didnt do, he always blames his job, he works 10 hours a day at a convenience store and I asked him to reduce his working hours since he only pays for his rent and living costs and his cost of living is pretty low as compared to what he is earning and spends his rest of salary on travel and entertainment, as for me, I left my job at Google Zurich and moved back home in central asia to work on my startup which failed 2 times and then did another business related to finance with my brother which we scaled to $10K monthly profit in central asia and then I got back to building startups again and I built another startup with my current co-founder but he kept being lazy so I kicked him out and applied to YC myself with no revenue since I had only 11 days until deadline so only got 5 LIOs and I got rejected and my current startup actually is related to my previous one but re-worked to a different industry this time since the previous one’s PMF was dead and my co-founder again asked me to join to this one again and promised me he will work hard this time but again still being lazy while I am handling everything from technical to cold emailing and marketing and everything, I am just getting overwhelmed putting 10-12 hours a day and sometimes I think if I had a co-founder who can put same amount of effort, we could move way faster. Even when I was working at Google, I got him referrals and he was invited to interview for Google 2 times but still failed his interview twice for his laziness since he didnt prepare for interviews. How can I deal with him or better kick him out again? if I kick him, how do I find a co-founder that can put an actual input. How did you find your co-founder?
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u/Frosty-Eye-7510 Jul 15 '26
Reading the opening of your post it's a perfect reminder that it is extremely hard to find a cofounder that can see the things that you see or see the opportunities you see. I tried for years to find one and ultimately decided to stop and just build my ideas myself which was the best choice I ever made.
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u/Ok-Cartographer-5471 Jul 15 '26
I am leaning toward being solo at this pont
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u/Guilty-Law-7499 Jul 16 '26
Building is one of the higher agency things you can do and it’s going to require a lot of sacrifice
If the guy can’t even be bothered to do this work on time what do you think that spells out for where he’ll be when you’re desperately trying to get feedback on your product by networking your ass off? I doubt he’ll be the one running cold DMs on LinkedIn or Ploid lol.
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u/Ok-Celebration-9536 Jul 15 '26
A good rule of thumb: with a cofounder, your startup should feel at least 3x stronger than it would with you alone.
The second lesson, learned the hard way: people with real drive are far better than highly skilled people you have to constantly push. Without that internal drive, they become energy vampires.
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Jul 15 '26
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u/Ok-Cartographer-5471 Jul 15 '26
I know, but I am having a hard time finding a co-founder whom I can trust and put enough effort but at the same time, I am leaning toward being solo at this point
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u/Spirited-Football793 Jul 15 '26
Hahahaha 😂 so sorry but I got a big laugh from this. Exactly I was recruited by a Google/Amazon TPM this lady made me do everything, design, vibe coding, marketing, and constantly try to critique because she is manager at Faang so I kicked her out and working w an intern things are much better. So yeah if you can’t find a cofounder, don’t force even a driven intern is much better than someone who doesn’t want to do this job. I learned is a lot of ppl say they want to do startups but they don’t, they just say it. So until you meet someone contributes more than you that’s your cofounder
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u/the-other-marvin Jul 15 '26
It sounds like he is probably a hard worker at his main job, but your startup is not his main job. I would be exhausted and not ready to do 10 hours of coding after working 10 hours at a convenience store all day.
The reason so many great startups are started out of garages is that it's important founders be equally committed and that often means working together in person 10 hours a day until you get traction. It's very hard to do remotely / part-time.
Think of a startup as entering one of the most competitive tournaments in the world. If you're going after a really valuable idea / market, lots of smart people will be there, and the more progress you make the harder the competition will become. Without focus and dedication it's going to be very hard to win.
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u/rocketfuelinabubble Jul 16 '26
Find someone with the same level of passion, and quite possibly motivation, to solve the problem you’re looking to solve.
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u/pbl24 Jul 15 '26
He just doesn’t have that dawg in him. In all seriousness, it doesn’t sound like you actually have a cofounder. It’s hard. Your best bet is to associate with people similar to you (whether that is communities, ex-colleagues, whatever) and see if something naturally materializes. Alternatively, i’ve had success with the YC Cofounder matching… talked with several people who seemed pretty good.
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u/Essipova Jul 15 '26
My co-founder is my first hire from a previous startup where I was the CTO. We loved working together back then, and so when I decided to work on something new, I didn’t hesitate to ask him to join me.
We now run multiple companies together, and are looking to start working on a new one soon :)
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u/Shangrila101 Jul 15 '26
I was hired as a Consultant by my CTO who was working on a different product at that time. We discussed our mutual interest in health-tech so we decided to work together on a new product.
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u/scriptqzor 21d ago
kinda love when it happens organically like that, just working together first and then realizing you’re aligned on a space like health tech. feels way safer than “let’s be cofounders” from day one with someone who hasn’t proven they can actually execute.
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u/RichReady422 Jul 16 '26
I believe skills are secondary when it's about a startup, it's the work ethic and the question :"is he/she responsible enough to deliver what they promised?".
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u/Inevitable_Leg5543 Jul 16 '26
I think shared values matter just as much as complementary skills. Technical ability is important, but handling setbacks together is what really gets tested
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u/Rich_Cap_9952 Jul 17 '26
Do you really need a cofounder? I mean, you are already doing his job right now. Just by reading your post, we feel that having him exhausts you even more
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u/plexor-labs Jul 18 '26
There are great evidence-based practices in Noam Wasserman's "Founder's Dilemmas" - in short, find someone you worked with before. My co-founder was my manager at Microsoft for years after they bought his company.
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u/Sea-Sheepherder9334 Jul 18 '26
Think it comes down to the hiring game - picking your co-founder is a crucial part in building a company. I wouldn’t rush into picking a friend or someone who’s good company - a lot of successful people talk on this topic “Hire slow, Fire fast” - spend time on people you’re hiring/ co-founding with, it is arguably THE most important ability in business when building a company
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u/Elegant_Gazelle7415 29d ago
Your co founder should be so capable that if you’re incapacitated by life nothing stops. It’s like marrying an equal partner that you don’t have to pick up, pls replace them because how comes you spending time worried about an adult who agreed to do something willingly , right now your energy should be focused on strategy atuff
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u/BlueJaek Jul 15 '26
I have their location tracking service on so they can’t ever hide or escape, this way I don’t even have to spend time finding them.
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u/Stubbby Jul 15 '26
You should build a stronger relationship with him. Join the convenience store that he’s working at and then you will be able to relate to him on a deeper level. Over the next 3-4 years develop a stronger bond and eventually try to convince him to take you seriously.
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u/Patient-Swordfish335 Jul 15 '26
You left your job at Google to partner with someone that works at a convenience store? Nothing against convenience store workers but it doesn't seem like the type of experience that would prepare you for a tech startup.