For every large group of business owners and founders looking for a technical partner, there is an equally large group of technical people wondering where the business folks are.
Regardless of whether you’re selling to a client, pitching to an investor, looking for employees or a partner, the approach is fairly similar and this requires 3 things:
1. List Down the Qualities and Skills That You’re Looking For
Define a complete and detailed list of the most important skills and qualities of the person you’re looking for.
In the “technical co-founder” context, you’re looking for someone on-site or remotely, possessing skills in a particular technology, platform, programming language or so, being potentially interested in your business idea.
2. Find Out Where Your Prospects Hang Out
Once you have defined the type of person, find out where they hang out.
What conferences do they attend? Do they go to some community or networking events, meetup groups, or hackathons (in the technical context)? Do they work in large corps or co-working spaces?
What sites do they use online? Are they forum people, or Slack? Do they spend time on Quora or somewhere else?
3) Sell
Once you know who are you looking for and where you can find them: SELL.
Even if you find “the right fit”, you have to pitch them the idea in an inspiring way that can move them. Technical people are often excited about large projects, challenging algorithms, growing systems, and solving coding dilemmas.
Some are egocentric, others are shy. Some are interested in business growth and management, others are mostly looking for business problems to solve and tasks to work on.
Brainstorming on the 123-list above would help you to narrow down your list, find the right talent, and convince them.
