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First Co-Founders MeetUp: Lessons Learned

By Alain Raynaud on November 19th, 2009

70 people showed up at the Hacker Dojo in Mountain View for the first Co-Founders MeetUp. It was pretty clear that everyone enjoyed the event and was quite happy to have been part of the first of what is shaping to become a long series of co-founders meetups (in Silicon Valley and elsewhere).

Basic Format

10 founders had 3 minutes (and 3 slides) each to pitch their company and co-founder opening to the audience. It guaranteed a quick pace for everyone, so that if a company wasn’t of interest to you, it wouldn’t be long before something else would.

Show Your Personal Side

But the talks were not all business. I asked each founder to also cover something unrelated to their startup: share a passion, or something they built that they are particularly proud of (just like the Y Combinator application asks).

It worked. There is a lot of personal choice when it comes to joining a startup as a co-founder. It has often been compared to a marriage, and rightfully so. You need to get to know the other founder(s) you are joining on a personal level. Your decision is based on so much more than just looking at the business potential and 5-year financial projections.

The 10 speakers chose to answer the personal question in different ways. Some decided to share a deeply technical achievement. Others chose to share a much more personal side of their lives. Making that choice was just as revealing as what they actually said. If I was to join one as co-founder, I feel that I now understand them much better. I’m starting to imagine how their personalities differ. I begin to grasp which would be more compatible with me.

It’s all starting to fit.

Downtun, What Downturn?

The other surprise of the evening was the sheer amount of people with ideas and projects. A strong majority have a project and are actively looking for a co-founder. I was expecting more people to be looking for jobs. That’s what the responses on the MeetUp seemed to indicate.

Next time (and there will be a next time!), we’ll make sure that there is a better balance of people looking to join startups.

It’s a testament to the resilience of Silicon Valley that despite the downturn, everyone seems to still be chasing the entrepreneur dream.

Thank you all for making this event a success.