How to find a co-founder for a communication device?

A good advisor can help a startup in various ways. Here I describe what I do: I work quite a bit with pre-angel/pre-seed/pre-accelerator US-based tech startups (or sometimes even executives/scientists/technologists in corporate jobs toying with a startup idea that they'd consider leaving their jobs for), and have done this now for well over a decade while founding/growing my own companies. Most of these founders come to me from hearing about me from another founder, so I am assuming that founders are finding some value in their interactions with me. At this early-stage in the game, one of the key things I try to do is to separate founders' assumptions about various aspects of the business from facts that they have validated. Another thing founders find useful is examples/ideas of how other startups solved a similar business problem in a creative manner (my voracious reading helps a lot here.) Finally, I also try to take the devil's advocate position on key assertions that the founders make (e.g. why are they & their product uniquely suited to tackle this problem in face of competition) in order to point out counterarguments with the eventual goal of helping them strengthen their case. My engagements with founders tend to take the form of intense 30-75 minute brainstorming sessions (1-3 sessions), which typically provide them with enough food for thought to start executing on various fronts. A small percentage of these startups continue to make great progress over a period of 3-9 months and keep me in the loop via brief email updates. Those ones, I help by providing them critical feedback on their pitch decks (multiple iterations until I think that it is crisp and powerful) and then bring on the radars of my early-stage investor contacts (US-based).

The answer is what you do best! I have seen from programmer to UIX Engineer to Marketing or someone who dont know any of this managing App Developing Team. As any other business knowing HR and having clear vision and understanding of the industry is most important. In generally a Mobile App StartUp should not be a very big Team, I am assuming 3-10 is ideal team size. But retaining good developer and designer in most demography is a challenge. If you have not a programmer you could hire a CTO, if you are not a marketer you could hire a CMO. But to really run a company like Pro, a insider you have to have clear idea, which language, framework platform you are using, how marketing for your specific sector. You dont have to code, but you need to have basic idea, so you could at least understand your team's work load and time frame. Or you could also have a co-founder who knows what you don't. I hope it gives you some idea. I could give specific answer if I know your specific situation. Best of luck!

1) Look up local universities and email the chairperson of whichever programs relate to the type of cofounder you need (i.e. electrical engineering, marketing, etc.). You could even possibly go there in person and put up a sign on a bulletin board. 2) There may be relevant Meetups in your area, go there and network with attendees (www.meetup.com). 3) If you're specifically looking for engineers, look up local 'hacker' / maker spaces that may exist in your area (see here: https://wiki.hackerspaces.org/List_of_Hacker_Spaces). Send me a message if you want to discuss more options and how to access them, all the best, Lee

I'm a feelance CFO and I work actively with early stage companies. I've been at this for almost 30 years. Some of my current and recent clients wrestle actively with this very questions. My advice is to have the tough conversations right up front, early in the team building process. This usually consists of answering questions like, "who's in charge and what does that really mean," "who gets how much of the company and when and in exchange for what," "what are you, you and you really bringing to the table in terms of skills and cash," and "who is really in a life situation that will allow them to sustain their commitment to the business?" Any team that can get through these questions can get through the trials of surviving startup. I'm happy to talk with you directly about these issues and, in particular, to help look at them through a strategic financial planning lens.

You need to be able to get feedback on your product as quickly as possible, so my advice is to choose the technology stack that will allow you to build a prototype efficiently. There's no right answer here: for some people it's LAMP, for others it's node, for others it's a Windows stack. Worrying about the technology at the stage you're at is a red herring: worry about the product, the problem it solves and the user experience of your solution, and get feedback you can iterate on as quickly as possible. I'm a serial startup CTO who's now a startup founder and CEO. Let me know if I can help.