"I began the hunt to find a technical co-founder - a software engineer who works for no cash - to help me build MY dream website."
Shouldn't that be "OUR dream website"?
"You're more likely to bump into a piece of talking bacon riding a unicorn on their way to a leprechaun's pool party than finding a software engineer who will work for FREE."
Shouldn't that be "for 50% ownership"?
Sounds like he was looking for free labor, not a co-founder.
Honestly, I used to have the same sentiments as the author (I'll birth the idea, you code it), but the truth of the matter is that no technical person, friend or acquaintance, will feel in their heart of hearts that even 50% is an equitable split of work for the early stage of a tech startup, which is pretty much entirely coding. On top of that many young coders today are actively working on their own pet projects on the side and will feel even less compelled to work on a project that they had little hand in developing as an idea.
My solution? Why, learning to code myself, of course!
The 50% part is shady. What do each founder bring to the company? If the developer does all the coding + some sales should he not get more than 50? What if it's the opposite?
That's the part I find the hardest, if both founders wear both hats, that becomes less complicated I think.
Exactly, and once more it puzzles me how people tend to overestimate the value of simple ideas (he was talking about a recruiting-related site, not that 2 years ago there wasn't any) and consider the actual implementation as just grunt work that everyone can execute just following a "plan" already defined by the original "founder".
And all that "making friend with a programmer to have my site built" it's even more sad.
The suggestion to evaluate what you are really bringing to the table in such cases is spot on. Evaluate fairly what your contribution is worth and make a meaningful offer to a tech co-founder you know. If you just need someone to work under your directives just hire someone.
Shouldn't that be "OUR dream website"?
"You're more likely to bump into a piece of talking bacon riding a unicorn on their way to a leprechaun's pool party than finding a software engineer who will work for FREE."
Shouldn't that be "for 50% ownership"?
Sounds like he was looking for free labor, not a co-founder.