Has anyone ever found a co-founder on the bubble forum?

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Hi everyone,

I’m the founder of Giverrang (https://giverrang.com), a kind of p2p barter app.

Like many bubblers I found bubble out of necessity. I am non technical by trade, but I taught myself bubble over the past couple years as a way to build my MVP. I have fallen in love with building since.

I built a browser based version of my product, but now I am close to releasing the MVP version of what will be the real bread and butter – a mobile app. I just received App Store approval last week :partying_face: and working on Google Play now. If all goes well :crossed_fingers:t2: I should release the app in both stores in the next couple weeks.

As is true with entrepreneurship, the journey can be a grind and it can be lonely at times. I think the best way to stay sane and accomplish great things is to share in the lows and highs, and build great things with a team. My natural wheel house is as CEO and hype man, and I’ve been actively searching for a technical CTO-type co-founder who has experience in mobile app development, is well versed in UI / UX, perhaps gamification, and can manage the product to impeccably tasty standards. The problem is, it’s tough finding this kind of person.

This got me to thinking. Have any two people met via bubble, got together, and built a startup together?

There are some seriously talented people in this community, so I was curious. If you have a story about finding co-founders through here, or even elsewhere online, please share. Inspire your fellow solo-founder bubblers!

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Hello, I can’t directly answer your question, but I’m in a very similar boat. I’ve got an idea for a mobile app and I found all generic app builders were insufficient for my needs, until I stumbled on bubble. Which I’m still trying to figure things out, but offers more of the flexibility such an app requires. I’m in no means a techie and prior to this I too was looking for a CTO/incubator or tech co-founders in London to help build an MVP. Most of the incubators I located with tech building support wanted 1000’s up front and/or a hefty slice of equity, 15k for one and 50% for another being the two most promising I found. But, I was concerned about trust or them just acting as middle men. I.e. you give us cash/equity we’ll find a develop team overrseas to get you the MVP. The argument is you go with them they’ll reduce the possibility of a startup from failing due to the first hand experience. But I Just didn’t like it and there’s seemingly many businesses making money out of doing this, in London at least.

If you find the correct incubator/accelerator you might be in luck. To me it seems you need the MVP first to give you the strength to get on board with accelerators, to hit investors, or to give yourself that boost/confidence that makes you more able to share and discuss the idea openly to get that cofounder (all of this is opinion though as I’ve not gone this far yet).

Some of the accelerators have the strong technical connections to give you a co-founder, while there’s also startups events you could go to, or websites. I’ve joined https://cofounderslab.com/ but have yet to use it much. Frankly i think that tech co-founders are more of a part-time thing unless they get that mega project. I’ve scrolled all over linkedin for developers and I often find that they work somewhere temporarily or on and off then move on to their next project. Please can someone say otherwise?

If you’re in London I could just name off some incubators/accelerators I’ve found.

Would you mind letting me know what means you had to build your mobile MVP by using bubble and did you manage this all youself?
Which plugin/method did you use?
Did you also build if entirely on one page through groups etc?

thanks!
Jonny

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Hi @worthaz, thanks for sharing!

This is exactly what I’ve seemed to encounter too. Lot of new “firms” popping up promising development but requesting upfront fees for “courses” and for development, with a promise of connections to investors. I had calls with two of these kind of places, one was Colorado based in the States, and wanted me to enroll in their “university” for $8,000, then that would show I’m “serious”, from which point they would introduce me to investors, etc. The other one was Aussie based, I believe, and had a model where if accepted, they give you 50% off of development fees in exchange for 1.5-3% equity.

Either situation was a little suspect, and seemed like they are preying on people they know are desperate for success – startup founders. Maybe if you already have a solid seed investment these type of programs might make sense for you to spend on, but more often than not founders don’t have this type of cash laying around. They just seem to be something to steer clear from at least very early. Make sure you have something people want first, validated by the market, before spending any money, even if they are reputable.

I’m keeping my eye open for programs. One of the catch 22’s is incubators prefer to invest in teams with more than 1 founder. So the deck is already stacked against you to get in to get support to get a co-founder if you’re just a solo act, .

I joined too, and I’m kind of sorry I did lol. At least in my neck of the woods, it’s like a ghost town. I think other more progressive startups are trying to come out with similar, but better mouse-trap products. I find the overall user experience with CFL poor, and their UX/UI is not particularly good, and has gotten much worse after they sold to Business Rockstars, IMO.

I appreciate that, but I’m in the U.S. in Connecticut.

I self-financed and managed the build entirely myself. That is to say I also got a lot of great help from this forum, plus courses from some of the resident experts, and such. It wasn’t an overnight thing by any means.

I initially built the project as a website / browser based app, before turning to mobile development. I did build everything on a single page with groups, hiding and showing. I was able to wrap it using Webview Gold for iOS, and I purchased the Webview Gold for Android, but had issues with it before being helped out by @Sam and his product Nativator.io. I submitted a test version to the Google Play Store and it’s currently in review. So hopefully that goes smoothly.

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Anyone else?

Meet their co-founder :handshake: via Bubble or other online means?

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We created Millionlabs.co.uk as a result of my co-founder and I coming together to build a startup using Bubble. Not quite met via Bubble but started a business together because of Bubble, we now help founders like you.

Simon

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Congrats! We look forward to seeing Giverrang published on Google Play as well :slight_smile:
Btw, the release should be done with the ‘production’ version of the APK. Have you uploaded the test version?

Cheers.

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@marktuff Here is a pretty good read about being a founder

It definitely demonstrates the idea of “loneliness” and a reason why you would like to have a team to share in the lows and highs. I personally think that I came across bubble specifically because I was a non technical founder and needed a way to build a product.

At this point after spending a couple of years on bubble I feel like I can be the technical founder and don’t necessarily need a CTO type ( maybe down the road because success dictates a need ). What I do see is an ability to hire freelancers who are more aware of UI / UX and “employing” them for specific purposes.

My expectation is that as the CEO and hype man type I will be able to build a sales team to help push the product ( ie: marketing / sales ) while I am able to focus on the bigger picture things, such as what customer feedback is telling me to tweak or build out in bubble. I would think that getting designers to help alleviate some of that workload so again, I could focus on some other areas as necessary.

In the end, I envision my journey will lead me to creating a team that may have skill sets that overlap mine, which could really create symbiosis between us, so sharing the highs and lows would still be possible, it would just be me still wearing a hat I am not necessarily the most comfortable wearing.

Then after the product has become more successful and revenue allows, I’d hire a CTO or a technical team. Another possibility if needing an accelerator I’d have the higher chance of acceptance because it would be me and a team of sales people who would hopefully have some diverse skill sets.

In the end, I think I came to bubble because I couldn’t find a technical co-founder.

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Very cool @simon, thanks for sharing.

Bubble certainly helps make dreams reality. Cheers to you and your business :clinking_glasses:

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Thanks @Sam,

You know what I think I did, but only for internal testing. Is that OK to use the test APK for that?

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Hi @boston85719,

Thanks for your reply! I’ve read that article a few times, it’s a really good Insight into the unglamorous aspects of entrepreneurship.

I go back and forth sometimes on the CTO position, as I think, “well I got this far”. But I also think a technical person with enough skin in the game will work as hard as me, own the product, privacy / security, etc. This could of course be found in time after revenue, or a seed, simply by hiring. But it could also make the journey to that point more difficult or unsure. If it happens that way, that’s cool. But having vested teammates would be great too as a shows a willingness to work with others, and also be more marketable to support programs like incubators and accelerators.

I think getting people who complement your skill set as opposed to directly overlapping will bring about more diversity of thought and help you think through all perspectives.

I think most startups will require people doing things that aren’t the most native to them, but the idea will be to accelerate out of that as quickly as you can. Whether that means co-founders, later hires – both will help you focus on what your’e good at and I think that will help the product grow more quickly.

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Test APK is for direct install on device in order to test before going through publication so it is perfectly fine.

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I agree and that is definitely an end goal…ideally hiring people smarter than me who can do things I have no idea about. However, I believe the same about myself as you do about yourself…

In that idea, my thoughts on how I will be attempting to grow the business is first to get some people on board as sales reps, who would have some skill sets that may overlap mine.

This is definitely true as well. My hopes or expectations are that I can first grow the business to the point of being a “proof of concept” rather than just an MVP prior to going toward outsider funding or applying to an accelerator.

My overall point was that I personally am expecting that focuses on finding a CTO as a co-founder may be not the best use of my time initially, or at a point prior to seeking funding or applying to an accelerator. I could imagine that any accelerator program or investors would see a team that helped grow the business to be a “proof of concept” could lead the business toward future growth and the assistance from the investors ( money ) or accelerator ( connections ) could make the task of finding a CTO a whole lot easier, and potentially finding a better fit as the available pool of possible CTOs would be greater.

However, I am not even launched yet, and you may be at a very different point and already have your “proof of concept” and have hit a point with profits and are gearing up to join an accelerator or seek investing now.

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I have thought about your exact question a lot. Here are my thoughts and current conclusion on the matter:

  • Trust takes time, and I couldn’t possibly feel secure in a potential CTO partner from interviews / meetings / skypes etc.
  • When you look at the success stories of the majority of very successful application-based business, they were founded by a techie, or a combination of techies who knew each other, and had that trust to start with. They built their product to reach a robust state beyond MVP before bringing on others. They protected themselves through the work they had already put in and invested.
  • Thanks to Bubble, for the first time in my life, I am in a position where I can bring my vision to life personally. I literally do not need a CTO… yet. It will be a while before I do, and I know that I have to put a lot of skin on the bones first.
  • I worry a lot about someone stealing my idea. And not even the best NDA’s will protect you. Especially when dealing with a company whose employees haven’t read your NDA, and certainly haven’t signed it.
  • The only factor against this logic is time to launch. I have fallen into the trap before of taking on partners in the interests of getting my product out there quickly for first mover advantage. Such nonsense. I am taking my time and not pressuring a speedy launch at the expense of anything else.

As the saying goes… “The only thing harder than starting a business by yourself is starting a business with a partner”.

Just one entrepreneur’s POV.

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