Trouble finding a motivated co-founder

Posted by emexz 2 hours ago

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For context, I'm a college student running a consumer mobile app business. I've been working on my own apps solo for about 6 months (both development and marketing), and since I'm majoring in engineering, it's been quite hard to balance running this business with my studies.

This is what originally led me to seek a co-founder in the consumer mobile app space who's strong in UGC/distribution. The problem is that It's very hard for me to find someone who actually cares and is willing to put in the work.

Some past scenarios:

1) I made a profile on the YC Co-founder matching site and got matched with a guy who eventually ghosted me after two weeks. I got matched with a couple of other people as well, but they never answered any of my introduction DMs

2) I met another guy on this one app called "Ambitious" who seemed pretty motivated (he was also a student) and was also interested in mobile apps. But after creating literally 1 single video, he said that he didn't have the time for this and left.

I've tried talking to other students at my university as well, but I don't really go to a prestigious school or one that's known for cs/tech, so not many people are interested in startups or stuff like that.

I'm not quite sure what I should do at this point, so I wanted to come on here and ask for tips and advice for finding a co-founder.

Comments

Comment by jacquesm 2 hours ago

Be successful first, then go looking for a partner. That will be a lot easier.

You are in the 'chicken-and-the-egg' phase, you need to get past that. One option would be to simply pay someone for this role for a while to make it easier to achieve the success required to get someone on board who will do it for an equity stake.

Comment by emexz 58 minutes ago

What would you define as "successful" in this context

Comment by jacquesm 52 minutes ago

Traction and maybe some income. Enough to show your project(s) has a pulse.

Way too many people are looking for people to join their ventures that have effectively already failed. If you manage to distinguish yourself from the 40,000 vibe coded apps that were launched in the last 30 days that nobody will use then you've won half the battle.

Comment by JMiao 1 hour ago

seems about right. you're doing fine. cofounders require crystal clear skills and/or high trust. otherwise they become a negative. ugc can be many things. i am curious what type of content.

Comment by emexz 57 minutes ago

It's short-form (15-30 seconds) content, showing off an app ui with captions at the top.

Comment by JMiao 22 minutes ago

so ui inspiration for other ui creators?