Looking for a Awesome Programmer + Co-Founder
to develop an awesome food sharing app, and change the world together :)
I read somewhere that co-founder is not someone you can find (but earned), and this post sounds like a “Girlfriend or Wife wanted” ads, but I still believe there is a good reason and purpose behind it. I know it’s not easy to build a team that jelled, and most start-up would probably fail, but I still think it's worth pursuing since I can't shake the idea (start-up and co-founder) off my head. I choose the path to go far.
“If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together.” - African Proverb.
For starter, let's learn something together about Co-Founder and Partnership through the following wisdom:
- The Co-Founder Mythology
- Choosing A Minimally Viable Co-Founder
- Dear Co-Founder: Open Letter to your Co-Founder
- Co-founder or employee?
What is Malaysia Most Wanted?
Malaysia Most Wanted started as a property website 6 years ago, and Food & Restaurant is the second product. We developed an event listing and a price checker, and almost went on to do travel website. Our current plan is to focus on Food; she serves as a restaurant review and directory site at the moment, but we plan to slowly transform her into a food sharing app. [some snippets]
Some statistics: Malaysia Most Wanted food is hovering around 250-300K unique visitors per month, almost clocking 1M page views with 8000+ restaurants listed coupled with almost 20K reviews. Arguably, we are the No.1 restaurant reviews website in Malaysia.
Cruel fact: we have no business model except some AdSense dollar. Why do it? There must be some values when 1 million people use our app to search for restaurants every month.
What’s our target? Double everything within a year: 600K unique visitors and 2M page views per month, 16,000 restaurants listed, and 40K reviews. With you on board, we hope to make some inroad for mobile app.
Who should apply?
- Motivated to do a tech start-up, and ready to take on the hardship and uncertainty of start-up.
- Like the idea of food review & sharing app; better than Yelp in terms of usability, something nearer to the domain of foodspotting.
- A passionate programmer, enjoy hacking on iOS and Android, and perhaps Facebook development as well.
- Decent UI/UX/Design sub-skillsets: the app needs to be useful, creative and beautiful, right?
- Expected to work on the product for at least 2 years (expected to achieve business sustainability), and probably extend up to 4 years (if you are looking for a greater exits). Vesting is expected.
- We can’t afford to payout salary, but pocket money is possible.
- We are looking for a co-founder, not an Engineering Bitch.
- Part-time? As long as you can churn out a MVP iOS product within 3 months, make it really cool within 6 months, and make sure it kick-ass within a year. Don’t forget about Android as well.
- Preferably staying around Puchong, Selangor; ease of meet up and communication is an important part of bonding.
- No CS degree required.
- No monetary investment required.
- Do not apply if you are looking for short-term monetary remuneration; or have personal cash-flow issue.
Why choose Malaysia Most Wanted?
- You believe in the idea, right?
- We have good traction, and possibly market leadership position.
- Our current product doesn't sucks too much, and determined to improve it further.
- Perhaps you might like me? I have been going from freelance to developing Malaysia Most Wanted for past 6 years, so I have a bit of experience and perseverance in doing startups.
- Making millions is still a possible dream, but we shouldn't knock our head against the wall if we don’t make it.
- The business should be able to sustain the co-founders plus expenditure within 2 years (even though we do not have a business model).
- Perhaps it could help to understand why are we looking for a co-founder.
- Just in case you missed out, I'm a coder as well :)
- One more thing: to change the world together :) How people look for good food, and share them with others, shall never be quite the same again.
How it works?
Start-up partnership is like a marriage and courtship, and we are not going to get married on the first date. We would need to know each other, understand each other, respect each other and eventually trust each other. We shall go hangout and yum cha, talk about start-up and technology, and start working with each other by starting in some small ways. Besides passion, work compatibility and culture fit is equally important, IMHO :) (how can we work together if I hate your guts, or you found me annoying).
Though it might not sounds like a "passionate" affair, do consider the following:
It is increasingly popular to have “founder dating” or “startup weekend hackathons” of some variety or the other. We get cast together with a team of people we barely know and if we win we gleefully announce we’re going to do a company together. We don’t even know whether they snore. – Mark Suster, Both Sides of the Table
Feel free to drop me an email (the worse thing can happens is that we end up as friends, not partner, but preferably both):
desmond [dot] lua (at) malaysiamostwanted [dot] com
Forrest Gump: My momma always said, "Life was like a box of chocolates. You never know what you're gonna get."
