jdsadow

I'm a 23-year old "business type" looking to find a true engineering "life partner;" someone who I can work alongside, identifying innovative concepts that we can experiment with, develop, and build into valuable, meaningful, profitable businesses.

I've been working on a start-up concept for about 3 months now and we're really struggling to find the right fit with an engineer. Over time, it's occurred to me that what I'm truly looking for is someone who will take the plunge with many different ideas and really go after things. We're coming up with new concepts on a weekly basis, but have no engineer to gut check against or even build basic models to test out.

What I am hoping to find is someone who can be the ultimate partner, OWNING the technical development while working with me to outline & pursue the business opportunities.

So here's some more about me:

--I think I'm really capable when it comes to identifying opportunities. I believe I have a knack for envisioning innovative products and how they can be delivered to users in a valuable & profitable way.

--I am extremely passionate and hard-working. Simply put, I will work as hard as anyone to pursue something I believe in.

--I know what I'm not: an engineer. I have some design skill and think I have a strong feel for quality user experience and product development, but I'm not looking for someone to do all my dirty work. I want a partner, in the truest sense of the word. Someone who I can brainstorm ideas with, and then together we can go running with them. Someone who will own the development from vision to code, while we work together to analyze the markets & business angles. We both should exploit our strengths.

--I live in SF and am really only looking for someone in the Bay area

--I'm a pretty good guy to be around and extremely extremely loyal

--I currently work for a top tech company (starts with G and has an OO in it) and have a pretty strong set of people & business skills. I've got a really valuable network that can connect us to investors, other entrepreneurs, and resources we might need.

At the end of the day, I've learned a ton talking to other start-up founders, developers, etc. over the last few months. I am absolutely determined not to be some business type who is naive enough to play down the value of an engineer, try to tell them what to do, or think that my "idea" is the valuable part (and not the implementation).

If any of the developers out there are looking for this kind of partnership, email me. I'd love to chat, share concepts, talk strategy, and just get a feel for the fit.

Thanks all, feel free to comment away and ask any questions you want. E-mail is in my profile.

Jon

Plenty of people talk about it, but how many engineers out there are actually READY to take the start-up plunge?

Sure, there's a lot of risks and concerns -- leaving your job & failing being near-or-at the top of the list.

But, as a non-engineer, it seems like a lot of people spend time on side & weekend projects, without any real drive to build a real business or develop a concept fully. I've met a ton of non-eng folks with great plans, but they're typically cast aside by engineers who think that non-techies are useless.

Maybe I'm off base here...but while every engineer seem to be spending time experimenting, but very few are actually taking the plunge to build a commercial product. Why not join a team and take the plunge?

(Full disclosure: I've posted on HN recently looking to find a technical co-founder. We've got a (nearly) fully vetted concept that is ready to be turned into a functioning prototype. The engineers I've met with so far have given feedback that it's far more "thought through" and "well designed" than most ideas they see from non-techies. We may be a prototype away from major funding, so I'm hoping an "experimenter" is ready to transition from working on side or weekend projects and make a commercial (potential) game changer.)

Who we’re looking for:

An extremely talented, self-starting engineer. A true technical co-founder who will challenge, influence, and ultimately drive technical product development; someone who wants to join for the long-haul and be a core piece of building this company.

What the business does:

Our product is an innovative way to collect and share media captured at live events. If you are a fan of concerts, sporting events, or generally attending live events then this would be for you.

Currently, sharing media from live events is limited to the people you “know” through social networks (Facebook, Twitter). This media is scattered in lots of different places, making it impossible to aggregate and difficult to search. We’re going to fix that by giving users a way to digest content centered on the experience itself, not just the people sharing it.

Note: We are not sharing full details of our plan in this post, but we have detailed mock-ups to share with the right candidate in a one-on-one conversation.

What we’d ideally like you to be able to do:

We are flexible on language and frameworks - one of the key roles will be to determine the technical architecture that best suits the current and future needs of the business.

With that said, here is what we think we might need that isn’t language and framework related: ● Experience with cloud hosting infrastructure (Amazon Web Services, Rackspace etc.) ● Strong enough front-end capabilities to build web prototype ● Comfort with developing in iOS & Android platforms ● Comfort managing the growth of an engineering team in the long-term

Most importantly, the technical co-founder should be a broad generalist who can work on all areas of the stack (front-end, back-end, monitoring, deployment), building and managing a team over time.

A final thought... We take recruiting and hiring a technical co-founder extremely seriously. We realize engineering is a priority, and this start-up will succeed or fail because of its engineering talent. We want you to be the leader of this team, and we are willing to do what it takes to create an incredible engineering culture and environment. How to get in touch:

Contact us at jds@kapture.us and let us know you’re interested.