I've been on the YC site for months, met 2 cofounders, worked together on 2 different ideas, almost finished 2 MVPs (never more than 20%), but then ditched the whole project due to lack of communication. Like, is communication and constant updates so much to ask for these days? I promise, it was all them, not me. I do my parts perfectly, I'm fun to be around, I listen, I communicate, I give feedback, I lead, I generate ideas, I find customers, I do all the business stuff, I spoke to tons of VCs, I planned the whole year, I literally do 80% of the work... And all I ask of them is to just finish a damn MVP in 2 weeks so we can get customers and find investors quickly! Are all the tech people this unserious or am I just unlucky?
Trust me, if I had enough money I would have just hired an engineer with a contract and a salary instead of all this headache. Sorry if I sound like the bad person here lol. I really am just so fed up of this unseriousness I keep seeing!
Now I'm back on the site to get a 3rd cofounder. Fingers crossed! But my options are really just very limited to begin with. Imagine being a female, and a POC in the startup world? Literally almost all the "good/unscammy" profiles on YC's site either require you to be in NA/EU, or they all just wanna do fintech and AI, or they all just indirectly want you to have 6+ years of experience. I read every profile to the fullest before writing a message just so that I can write something personal to show that I care, but I still end up getting ignored lol. Since my profile is perfect compared to most, I really can't help but take this personally. I feel like I am pre-judged the moment they read my name so they don't even bother reading the message lol
For the sake of it, I will tell you guys what I'm working on and please let me know if anybody still wants to be my CTO after all of this :))
I've been studying Gen Z's behaviour around the world for like a whole year, and I know what kind of tech would go viral. I have this very developed idea for an app that allows Gen Z to connect with others but while (playing a game of) answering interesting questions or debating a certain topic together. I believe this will unconsciously help them develop their interpersonal skills and teach them new things while having fun with other people in the process. I can already imagine this going pretty viral and I already have the marketing strategy ready. I also have a UI outline, and a rough pitch deck that includes all the business stuff. To be honest, I even have a clear quick exit strategy.
If this sound interesting to anybody and you're not a mean person and feel like you'd love to join in, I'd more than love to have a team. I'm either looking for a CTO to build the MVP QUICKLY and launch it, or looking for an angel investor that will fund me to hire a tech person to build the MVP QUICKLY, while I handle the rest of the business stuff. Honestly, I'd prefer the latter because I don't know if I can trust a CTO anymore lol.
Silicon valley veteran here.
I'm a "CTO" who not only writes code, but does product management, marketing, analysis, sales, design, and can hire and lead teams up to 50 people (my limit).
When I look for a cofounder, I look for qualities that I don't have, like extremely good connections in the industry I want to be in, a strong following, or someone with an unfair advantage in a market.
What do you bring to the table? What makes you the best person to build this gen z game?
I spent a whole year trying to understand the market I'm targeting and their psychology, and not to mention being a gen z myself. Aside from studying the consumers themselves, I studied all the viral platforms that Gen Z are always using, from tiktok to to Omegle to all the live-streaming crap like Bigo... I know what they do to have fun! And I know these kinds of apps run on Ads (which seems to be a turnoff for most) but they are all worth billions now, aren't they? I can literally see a clear road map of how I can make my startup like that in less than a year, but I can't get anything done due to lack of funds and technical necessities.
For someone like you (I really admire your achievements btw!), of course I wouldn't be bringing anything to the table. But for a regular CTO, I'd literally be carrying the whole business on my back aside from the technical stuff. From generic (free) marketing, to scalling and selling the company.
This will sound harsh, I'm sorry.
Market research is not good enough. I would not invest my time or money into a founder who has only done market research.
You will have to take it a step further, as /u/NWmba described in their post.