Finding a team, how to go about it.

Jed Kartman

Hi there. 
I left a job in Finance to jump in the startup world. Over the years I had several ideas that I could not act on, since had a full time job. But someone else did and it turned out great for them. So I feel I have the right intuition and ideas. And now I have a couple of big ones. 

Problem: who to partner with? 

Sure, I have friends. But (1) I don't want to mix money and friends that much and (2) none of them are as driven as I am. I want to partner with someone who is very focused and energized. 

I live on the east coast, and my plan is to move to CA, perhaps Bay area or LA, partly for that purpose. But still, I am not sure how to start looking for a partner. I cannot just advertise it my ideas online, or with anyone I meet at a conference. I want to protect my ideas too.  

If you have any thoughts about how to find potential teammates I would appreciate it. 

Tuah Bao

Hi Jed,

It all depends on "scale" and "skill".

If you want to do it in a large scale, then you will need to look for business partners. There are a few platforms such as angel list, founders nation, Founder2be..etc, where you can look for co-founders and raise funding.

What is your core-business? Do you have the skill? For example, if you would like to start up a software company but you do not know programming at all, then it makes sense for you to look for a partner who knows how to develop software. Then, you sell it.

Usually, your friends are not as driven as you because that is YOUR idea (you are the founder), not theirs. Therefore, they are not fully committed and 100% interested with your idea. They have their own thinking too.

Online business isn't same as the traditional business, which you may be able to do it all alone without the need of looking for a partner. Assuming you have the skill set, but you need some help for other things (such as design logo and website), then you can just hire freelancers to get all these things done. 

Hope that helps.