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How to Find a Cofounder and Build a TeamEric Rafat [email protected] @foundereric
Agenda•Once Upon a Time•What makes a startup team? •Marketing your cofounder posting •Characteristics of an awesome cofounder •Startup partner formula •Recruiting Tips•Resources •Top Ways to Find a cofounder
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Once Upon a Time…
•Run an early stage startup
•Story on finding a cofounder
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Startup Team •Going solo in a startup is the deadliest move
•Bring on a cofounder with complimentary skill sets
•Way more than just filling a skills gap. ▫It’s also moral support! ▫Bounce ideas off▫Startup is more attractive for investment
purposes
Things to figure out•Know your business idea, value prop and
monetization
•Figure out equity portion
Marketing Your cofounder Posting•Come up with a solid description of
company, skills sets and value prop
•Build an awesome landing page from the get go!
•Work with a designer to come up with mocks up
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Landing Page•Responsive •Email sign up•Branding
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What makes a Compelling Posting? •Will the real slim shady please stand up?
•Company profile
•Projects
•Skills and Qualifications
•Call to action
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Job Description TemplatesDownload template here:
▫http://bit.ly/2eLBj7W
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Keyobi.com is a new start-up company dedicated to connecting talent and organizations. We are looking for an awesome Web Developer as a Technical Co-founder. This role manages the front and back-end of the site. If you love to code and passionate about creating websites and looking to be part of a new start-up team we want to hear from you!
Projects• Implementation of the new responsive design along with functionalities • Develop new features on the site such as messaging and chat • Implement payment processing system such as stripe • Ongoing support and maintenance of the site
Skills and Qualifications• Excellent knowledge of web development frameworks including Ruby on
Rails or other frameworks• Expertise in front-end development including HTML5, CSS3 and JavaScript • Experience with development of customized Content Management Systems• Previous experience with web site development • Computer Science degree an asset
Please send us your portfolio including your sample website and resume via [email protected].
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Tips for Non-technical Cofounders•Read and familiarize your stuff with web
application or mobile
•You are not trying to be a developer but you can communicate or hack some basic stuff
•Also helps your recruiting
•If your web developer candidate doesn’t know what RESPONSIVE is RUN!
Characteristic of a cofounder•Value alignment – trust worthy?
•Culture fit – Do you get along well? ▫Ask yourself: “Would I share a submarine
with this person?”
•Incredibly passionate and great at what they do!
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Characteristics of a Cofounder •A true cofounder will come for the idea.
Equity. Not salary.
•Persistent as hell in finishing a project or reaching a goal▫"But I'm still a believer in the batman, even
if you're not."
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Startup Team •Get the “core team”/founding Team right
•Team members come and go but “core team” is always there!
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Startup Team•For web/mobile tech company
▫Hustler – someone who literally hustles every day, talking to clients and new businesses
▫Hacker – someone who can whip products together like no other
▫Designer – someone who is behind the brand, the user experience and UI
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Startup Partner Formula
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Top ways to find a cofounder• Post on Founders Canada community:
▫www.founderscanada.ca and Facebook group: http://bit.ly/1PDPFzT
▫Sign up for the monthly newsletter
• Get super active out there▫ Attend startup, networking, meetups and alumni events
• Advertise your posting ▫ University career centres ▫ Student clubs ▫ Incubators ▫ Facebook groups ▫ Twitter and Twitter chat or event hashtags
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Top Ways to Find a Cofounder• Direct contact
▫ Get introductions ▫ Cold email
• Use your own hack! ▫ Make announcement at a specific class (e.g. cs class) ▫ Talk to the professor to include your posting in class
newsletter/job posting newsletter▫ Use the university forum to post ▫ Reach to university of alumni via career center ▫ Make a poster and post on bulletin board outside
class
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Recruiting Tips • Asses online portfolio and “side projects”
• Look for EKS: Experience, Knowledge and Skills▫How is this candidate’s EKS?
• Go in with mocks up or MVP, not just your idea in thin air!
• Discuss the possibilities!
• Once you met “the one” write it in a piece of paper
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Your Startup is a Boat Get the right people on board and get them in the right position and start rowing to the finish line!
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Scene from the Matrixhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j0Pa6-rqGuI
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From the MatrixOperator: Ok. So what do you need besides a miracle? Neo: Lots of guns. Trinity: Neo, no one has done anything like this. Neo: That's why it's going to work.
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Startup Golden Rule•Team! Team! Team! •Execution is the name of the game•Done is better than Perfect •Wizard of Ozing is necessary •Ship, deliver and delight
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Learning from Superheroes
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Resources •Looking for a cofounder in Canada eh?
▫http://bit.ly/2eo7hZk
•Startup Library of Resources▫http://bit.ly/2ay7idD
•Recruiting tips▫http://recruiterblog.keyobi.com/
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“You don’t have to get right, you just have to get it going.”
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Get in touch! •Need help with cofounders description? •Exploring career opportunities?www.keyobi.com •Coffee? Tennis?•Shoot me a message:
[email protected] Twitter: @foundereric
