Ask HN: How to find a marketing co-founder?

Talk to your developers, friends, etc. Tell them briefly what you are doing, and what sort of help you think you need. Keep it general - you're working on the technology side, you think you'd benefit from a trusted associate on the business side. But try to lean people's thinking away from MBAs - and away from sales or marketing communication - and more to market analysis.

Do you or your developer friends know people who have built businesses before? Talk to them.

No matter who you talk to, get used to saying something like "I really appreciate your time, who else do you think I should talk to? Do you have their number? Can I use your name?"

Also try to talk to the people who might use your service. Give them a brief overview of the problem you are trying to solve, let them tell you how it might or does not fit in to their world. Listen, and listen between the lines. Then do it again. If they seem interested, ask them how much such a service would save them in time, effort, or other forms of money.

Do NOT change your service based on one or even ten conversations, not until you understand the story between the lines. At least not right away.

If you need a sounding board, rather than a marketing associate, ask some of your trusted friends, technical and non-technical, if you can buy them drinks or dinner a couple of times a month and share what you've learned.

Practice duck testing (cf recent HN articles): You should be able to explain the idea and what you've heard from others to a rubber duck.

1. It's great that you are asking this question. Marketing is an essential part of any start up -- both from creating the product that the market wants and also in promoting it. As a marketer, it's not something I see enough of.

2. Try LinkedIn, startup networking events, social media (Twitter is great to see who is in your area), blogs, etc. You can ask for recommendations as well. Once you have money, start looking at public relations and marketing firms because they often know the industry better, dealing with multiple clients and a staff full of marketers.

Linkedin, go to local startup meetups or look on meetup for marketing groups that do meetups (there are TONS!).

If you have the connections ask your friends/colleagues/acquaintances for a referral to a marketer they know.

I'm a marketer and I focus on these channels heavily.

If you are able to manage well and are up for the challenge of negotiating, try one of the online co-founder matching sites. They match people from all over but the main issue is always finding someone that shares your passion and will work hard to make the startup live.

To whom is your product addressed? Might be good to find a co-founder connected to the market you're targetting. As a co-founder, even technical, you need to understand your users and you'll have to sell your product, so networking in your target segment is something you have to do. Double benefit if you find your marketing co founder while doing customer development.

Edit: grammar

Frequent marketing communities like moz.org, inbound.org, warriorforum etc and find a talented marketer. Reaching out is often a difficult but necessary thing to do.

I'm a marketer who is interested in learning about your SEO tool. At the very least I can give you feedback and ideas from a marketing perspective.

What do you want your marketing cofounder to do?

well, one way would be to pick someone from the many blogs that end up here. choose someone that has successful projects in their past, and did their own marketing. choose someone that has projects that you like, and you are happy with their writing style and the way the present the project and themselves.

Could you give us some more information on your saas project? That might help figure out where to look.

It depends. What kind of marketing help do you need for your project at this point?