How can I use NLP algorithms and (website) data extraction via automation, together, to develop a concrete analysis system?

Engagement matters most. Engagement is actually a function of great product and great distribution. Engagement is thought-of mostly as a product issue but in many cases, it also expresses itself as a distribution problem particularly where there is no possibility for a "single player" experience (marketplaces, feedback loops, anything attempting to be inherently social) If you have sustained engagement (a product experience loved by users) you will be successful, limited only by the potential number of people in the world that need the experience you provide and growing at a rate closely correlated to your distribution channels. Inefficient distribution is easier to optimize for then insufficient product. So to this extent, product matters more. But available distribution channels (or more accurately, the unavailable distribution tactics) also can define a company's fundraising options, and more definitively, the overall cultural and corporate DNA of the organization that forms around product & distribution. This is the best, most generalized answer I can provide to your question. Happy to talk to you and provide you a more contextually relevant answer to your own circumstances.

Here's what you need to do to recruit any cofounder: 1) Prove or at least instill *high* confidence that you can fund the business or raise the funds required; 2) Demonstrate that you are someone worth following. What have you done previously that clearly shows to others that you have what it takes to succeed? 3) Credibly demonstrate that your idea can create massive success. An idea by itself, no matter how interesting is woefully insufficient. 4) Spend every day making outreach (cold emails, LinkedIn, dribbble, etc) to people, meeting at least 3 a week. You will "kiss many frogs." It's likely you have to meet at least 100 people to find the right person and that assumes you have 1-3. By the way, in order to actually *meet* 100 good people, you'll have to make outbound to at least 400 people. 5) Negotiate equity and compensation (pre and post funding) and ensure written alignment on how decisions are made between the two of you. Cofounder relationships are as intense as marriages. And just like getting married, it requires a lot of dating to build the trust. I'm *totally* unconvinced that two people can find a person they haven't known previously, and become effective cofounders. I think you're better off finding the money to hire someone than actually find a cofounder. The main reason? You probably won't find someone as passionate as you are about what you're building. And keep in mind, I have no idea who you are or what you're building so that's no judgement on you or the idea, just the reality I've observed over 20 years of startups.

This is a great question and an important one as well. I would start by identifying: Who is your target market? How will they use your product? On the go? On their laptop or on their mobile device? What kind of technology does your product need? Can it be built as a simple website or does in need to be an app (i.e. you need push notifications, integration with other mobile apps, etc). On the other hand, how much time and budget do you have? Typically a responsive website is faster and cheaper to build than an app and will get you out the door faster.

You have to be careful on selecting your co-founder. I know it's an already cliché to mention it, but selecting one is like selecting a spouse to marry. You need to know the person first, and even some investors and accelerators dismiss automatically startups because the founders didn't meet before working together in the startup. If you're doing a tech startup, the co-founder should have a technical background if you don't have it. That will save you a lot of money when you're bootstrapping as well as making sure you deploy a great product as soon as possible. Once you want to work with someone, my best advice is to hire them to do a project or a task inside the startup. More than words, you need to see them in action and that way you can evaluate your chemistry as a team. When you already worked the details and decided to create a startup together, you need to be smart about the plans. You need to sign a partnership agreement and put the equity in a vesting option. In Silicon Valley, the standard vesting period is 4 years with a one year cliff. After one year, the founders fully own of the 25% of their shares. That means if they leave the company before the first year, they will not have equity in the company. Having all that in mind, I think it will help you select the best co-founder possible and also be a better bet to investors if you ever decide to raise money. I hope it helps!

If you're talking about an app-store launch, then it's important to have the core mechanics of the product (from a user interaction perspective) figured out such that the majority of your users are doing the things you want them to do in order to drive continual engagement with the app. Design polish can come later and often slows down whomever is implementing the development of the app. I don't think anything should ever be "ugly" but lacking polish is often the right way to go to get speed to market. That said, to be sure of the core interactions, you want to do as much testing and observing real users use your app prior to launch. Happy to talk through any of this in a call with you.