Breck, commendations for taking the initiative. As someone who is looking for a good hacker to team up with on an iPhone (+ server side) project, I have a few observations:
1) Although being too secretive about a project isn't usually a good thing, I don't really want to plaster my idea on a site, either.
2) I think another (more controversial) approach to solving the 'co-founder problem' would be to create a database of users populated with answers to questions similar to the YC application form. So, one could filter based on interest level, availability, proximity, etc. Real names would be optional (news.yc user names could be used instead). Think YCombinator meets LinkedIn.
The more I write about 2), the more I like it. If I weren't working on another project, I'd implement this myself. In any case, contact me if you want more ideas (see my profile).
Thanks. Of course SlinkSet did all the heavy lifting.
2 is actually a very interesting idea. I know that among my friends some are interested in different types of startups(music, video, commerce, social networking, etc.). Finding people who want to start a company in the same space would probably be helpful.
I'm surprised by the response to JustHackIt. Already, in 1 hour the site's gotten over 400 unique visitors. Mostly from HN but also coming from Reddit now too.
I don't think JustHackIt will take off, but I do think that if a version of this idea was integrated into HN it could help a lot of people. I'm sure the rockstars here don't need this, but the average startup-rookie on this site could find it helpful.
Thanks for using slinkset for this. Yet another creative application of our service. We would really love to help get JustHackIt to take off for you. Please feel free to contact me if you have any thoughts or ideas.
I guess a further elaboration on the whole YC meets LinkedIn/matchmaker concept would be that it places the people (and their 'compatibility') ahead of the startup idea, which is also what VCs and YC (I think) place priority on.
1) Why have a separate search field for 'city' and a pull down for geography? I didn't even see the geography pull down the first time I visited.
2) Signing in to search the site is kind of lame. This encourages people to create an incomplete profile just to try things out. Which leads to ....
3) They don't force you to fill in a complete set of data. This is not the end of the world, but as someone looking for a co-founder, I would most likely skip over incomplete profiles. Perhaps this consequence could be explained as the user fills out their profile.
Edit: First impressions are not great, but now that I've logged into the site, I'm impressed. I still think their questions could benefit from a bit of lateral thinking.
Instead of listing job skills, why not have the user answer more personal questions (like, 'why are you a software animal'? or 'What have you built that you are really proud of?') A list of skills does not provide enough insight.
If potential startup succes is judged substantially by the quality of teams, and this is very much dependent on the quality of a team's interaction, empathy and collective intelligence, then having automated recommendations on potential cofounders would be valuable. Even YouNoodle could use its startup data to recommend people on the site it predicts would lead to a quality team and hence a probable quality startup.
If you're going to go with that analogy, what people seem to say is that startups are like a marriage. So a 'matchmaking' service might work out ok, but you won't really know it for a few years.
Because human relationships are more complex than code?
Edit: I guess if you just want to do a project to see how things work out with someone, that could be a smart way of getting started; I just wouldn't place much pressure or importance on the project.
Cool idea + site. However, I think too much importance is placed on finding co-founders sometimes. There are a lot of good points about working alone. Obviously lots of bad ones as well, but it's certainly doable if you are determined enough.
I've just created a similar site, cofounding.slinkset.com, the idea is similar, except its focus is on people who have already started creating or are nearly complete with their startup and want to share, get feedback, or join up with other people in a joint venture.
It's private so please send me an email (on my yhacker profile).
What's wrong with the comment view on that site? Several articles say there are N comments yet clicking on the N comments link almost always takes me to a page with <N comments. Often the page is blank except for the original post?
There is also a ton of wasted whitespace in the middle of the screen on those pages.
Version 9.51
Build 4886
Platform Mac OS X
System 10.5.4
Java Java Runtime Environment installed
Browser identification
Opera/9.51 (Macintosh; PPC Mac OS X; U; en)
1) Although being too secretive about a project isn't usually a good thing, I don't really want to plaster my idea on a site, either.
2) I think another (more controversial) approach to solving the 'co-founder problem' would be to create a database of users populated with answers to questions similar to the YC application form. So, one could filter based on interest level, availability, proximity, etc. Real names would be optional (news.yc user names could be used instead). Think YCombinator meets LinkedIn.
The more I write about 2), the more I like it. If I weren't working on another project, I'd implement this myself. In any case, contact me if you want more ideas (see my profile).