I see many people looking for technical partners to build their idea and presenting in the wrong way like I used to as a non technical guy.

I have spoken with many developers in the past to build my ideas and got better with time. I think if you are a software dev you probably get pitched few times a week « Uber for cats » , « Netflix of pharmacy » and stuff like that.

What I found useful helping build multiple Saas with multiple technical cofounders are:

*1. Have a clear monetization plan*

We all have this fantasy once we get 1,000,000 users then we will start to monetize, this never works. If you want to keep a sustainable business relationship, money has to come in as the first priority and there should be a monetization goal that can be validated while building the product.

*2. Show that you are the guy to lead this project*

The « my cousin has connections in X or Y » is not enough to get a project off the ground. Show from your previous experiences that you brought a project from 0 to 1 and that you have the sales and marketing skills to launch a project.

*3. Building a small project as a test*

Especially with AI now you can build a simple MVP in few days, this project may become a lead magnet for your future audience but will be crucial to understand if your personality traits and way of working matches. It also allows to understand how your partner want to work

*4. Don’t be desperate*

Like sales, there is many prospects in the market and there is many developers to build a project with. Argue your case and your project, then let him come back to you if he is interested. I believe the best relationship are the ones that forms naturally because of a common goal or matching timeline.

*5. Hit the ground running before*

With no code tools you can at least building a landing page to get some potential users on a waitlist. If you explain your project to a potential technical cofounders, bringing 500-1000s people on a waitlist shows the traction and that you know how to drive traffic to the project.

*6. Share common values and timeline*

I believe it’s important to be upfront on who you are, how you work and what is your timeline for the project. If one of those is not matching, don’t try to push it

*7. Trust your partner*

Re point 3, the goal of having a technical cofounder is to be able to focus on other aspects of the business, it means trusting the tech stack. I see many young founding team challenging their technical founders on the dev timeline, this doesn’t end up well.

*8. Don’t be a dickh*ad*

Overall the chance that your « startup » or project become financially viable is really small, they say less than 10%. So try to enjoy the journey because the destination is not sure.
My name is Sami and I am building newsblok.co, I partnered with my friend Taha. Today we are live on Product Hunt, we developed the whole project under a month and it’s probably really buggy still.
[https://www.producthunt.com/posts/newsblok]

It was overall a great experience because point 6 and I am really excited about what the future holds for us as we got our first paying customer yesterday overnight and there is no better validation then getting a payment organically from someone you never spoke or met in your life.

Feel free to checkout our launch and If you have any question feel free to post a comment,
Sami