How do you find your technical co-founder?

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Today, we’re gonna talk about one problem that has consistently been brought up by many early-stage founders. With the entrepreneurship spirit at a high, many non-technical founders are jumping on the startup bandwagon, but finding a technical co-founder to work with is a reasonably tough feat.

I reached out to a couple of entrepreneurs who have either managed to find their CTOs, or are the technical founder themselves, to shed some light on the matter. They’ll be here with the community to answer your burning questions, so don’t feel shy to comment below! 🙂

Ai Ching, founder & CEO at Piktochart

Ai Ching shared that having aligned goals and commitment in terms of time frame and effort are both very important.

“There are different traits a person would look for in a co-founder, as it’s like finding a spouse. For me, it’s that we have the same goals, can get things done and enjoy working with each other,” she said.

When asked how she would approach a technical person, Ai Ching said, “I would start by chatting with the person on WhatsApp to do a bit of pre-screening before meeting each one face to face.”

“I would then have a very open talk about what’s ahead in the future, the unknowns, but also why we can win in this market. I also wouldn’t immediately jump to offering too much details on equity and compensation,” she said.

Although Ai Ching didn’t technically have to search for a CTO (fun fact: she got married to hers), she acknowledges that it is a challenging pursuit. Apart from going for meetups or asking for referrals, Ai Ching mentioned that “putting out a job vacancy and hiring the person to work with him/her first before approaching them to be a co-founder works well. The only thing is the upfront payment of cash.”

Chang Sau Sheong, Managing Director at Singapore Power

Sau Sheong had been a technical co-founder a couple of times in his career, and he emphasized how partners must be honest and open to each other.

“Don’t think your idea is so fantastic that you require people you talk to to first sign an NDA with you,” he said.

An entrepreneurial journey can be an emotional rollercoaster ride, so you don’t just want to randomly pick a technical co-founder.

“Don’t start by asking random people to be your technical co-founder. Take time to understand people, identify them and make sure the both sides are comfortable first.”

“Go join meetups, conferences, ask around your friends, the communities that other technical people hang out with and so on,” he added.

In addition, a technical co-founder must not just possess the standard technical competencies, but “the ability and willingness to drive through technology for delivering the product is important.”

Elvin Zhang, co-founder at Toucan App

Dustin Jefferson Onghanseng, co-founder & CEO at uHoo

Let’s discuss