I frequently get emails that say something like:

I have an idea for a product that I want to build, and I need to hire a web developer or find a technical co-founder. Where should I start?

I’m going to try to give helpful guidance that I give to people who approach me with this.  First, I want to give personal context.  I am a mechanical engineer and a partner in a software development company, but not a programmer.  I am much more of a hustler than a hacker.  So, I do understand when people need to find and depend on someone else to build out their vision.

Step 1 – Check Your Ego

• Talk about your idea. Don’t waste people’s time dancing around your pitch. There is a much higher likelihood that you’ll fail for lack of execution than someone stealing it.
• Don’t ask people to sign NDA’s. You’re already asking for their time and guidance.  Now you’re asking them to take legal risk. (Hint: they won’t)
• Your idea is worthless. Until you have a product, and then a business, you don’t have anything of value.  Ask Paul Graham.

Step 2 – Get Perspective

• You are asking for help. Whether you are looking for a co-founder or a consulting firm to build your product, you can’t do it without them.  And you need them more than they need you.  Any engineer you want already has a job, so you’ll need to be persuasive.
• What value do you bring? The technical co-founder perspective may be – “what do I need you for?” Know what value you bring and communicate it.  Be the hustler to their hacker.

Step 3 – Get Out There

• Go to tech meetups. You’re unlikely to find a co-founder on a job board.  You raise your chance of success monumentally if you start attending meetups and meeting programmers in person.  Here are the NOLA meetups.
• Go online. Learn how to approach the conversation by reviewing these resources on Quora and searching the web.
• Go co-work. I gauge how serious people are by inviting them to work at Launch Pad and meet people.  (If you don’t take me up on free co-working and introductions at Launch Pad, then you’re not committed.)
• Go to conferences. Get out of town, go to SXSW, TechCrunch Disrupt, RubyConf.

Step 4 – Value Your Need

• Reward risk – for a co-founder, even after you get them to buy into your vision, you’re going to have to come up with a compelling equity/cash compensation package.  Remember, they are evaluating their opportunity cost.
• Have a budget – if you’re not looking for a co-founder, but you want to talk to a development firm, then you need to know your budget.  If you’re not prepared to spend 20k+, then you probably need to re-evaluate.

Alternative Approach – Learn to code yourself.

If I sent you a link to this post in response to your email, I hope this is a good starting point for you. Good luck.  Have feedback or other resources? Please share in the comments.

Fast Company interviewed me for part 8 of their series “Why you should start a company in….” where they have been profiling the best startup cities around the country.  It was a privilege to speak on behalf of so many great entrepreneurs in New Orleans.

If you haven’t seen it, why not give it a read.  Here are my thoughts on “Why New Orleans is different or better than other cities?”

In a lot of ways, New Orleans is the city for our times, it fits the post-financial-crisis world. We dealt with our knockout blow in 2005 and the people here literally have rebuilt and re-imagined the city. We are ahead of the rest of the country that is just now dealing with the financial crisis. We’re already well into recovery and growth mode, so it’s an exciting time.  There’s something kind of magical that’s going on right now and it’s that gelling at the very beginning of an uprising where things really become a movement.

This really is a great time to start a business in New Orleans.  Here are a few places to dig a little deeper:

• Taylor Davidson wrote a post cataloging the startup scene in January.
• To dig into the tax incentives for businesses, check out my wiki, and LED’s site.
• Hot right now are the 2nd Net2NO SXSW road trip, the Google Fiber initiative, and Entrepreneurs Week
• One of the things I mentioned in the interview is a challenge around the lack of startup capital in New Orleans, this is something we’re working on too

I’d love to hear your thoughts on what makes New Orleans such a great place to start a company right now.

Thanks to everyone who came out to the first night of Startup School last Thursday. It was a great event and I think everyone is pretty jazzed about the 504ward competition and the enthusiasm of the participants who are all going to be entering great biz plans in it.

We had a great lineup of speakers: Me, John Laurie from UNO, Richard Montgomery from VCE Capital, Chris Reade from Carrollton Technology Partners, and the inimitable local film auteur Ben Reece from Deltree.

Some highlights:

• My presentation is embedded below, but I focused on finding and communicating the reason your business needs to be in New Orleans.
• John emphasized the need not to work backwards. You really should have your whole plan done before you write your exec summary. Bios, not resumes. Financial highlights, but not full pro-forma for the exec summary.
• Richard spoke to the difference between what he views as a fundable company, and the goals of 504ward. He is looking for high-growth companies that can do $50 mil in sales in 10 years. While those companies are a fit for 504ward, so are sustainable “lifestyle” companies, that generally aren’t able to attract VC capital.
• Chris got everyone fired up with turning their plan into reality. He spoke of the pitfalls of expensive office space and friends as partners. He also recommended an LLC for most companies and talked about filing online through the Secretary of State’s website. He recommended having a good lawyer to make sure you have a good operating agreement if you have partners.
• Ben got people thinking about their video submission. It was agreed that everyone should do one because its an opportunity to forge an emotional connection with the panel of judges.

We’ve prepared an extensive collection of business plan resources and added them to our wiki.

On Friday, Jessica White of the Idea Village invited me to join her and Leslie Jacobs who is behind 504ward on the Garland Robinette show to talk about the entreprenuerial community here in New Orleans. You can listen to the podcast of the interview online on the WWL site.

Idea Village asked me to emphasize the following points with regards to what they are looking for in 504ward submissions. I wanted to post them here for anyone who wasn’t able to be there:

• You must be a sustainable business
• You must prove how you retain the 23 – 34 year old demographic
• The competition is not about attracting new people but about the retain the people currently in New Orleans

So, thanks to everyone for making it such a great event. The second part of the workshop series is this Saturday, Nov 22 9am-noon. We’ll be doing “speed dating” work-shopping of business plans. More details on the wiki. If you’re not registered yet, sign up and attend.

I came across Dave McClures “Startup Metrics for Pirates” presentation this week from the Foo Camp conference.

It really has some great metrics and is highly recommended for anyone starting a web-based business. You’ll learn what you should be tracking, and the conversion funnel approach that I’ve talked about in the past.

AARRR Matey! Take a look:

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