Three months ago, I started searching for a cofounder for my robotics startup in California. The ideal candidate profile was clear: 10x engineer, top-tier school credentials (helpful for fundraising pre-traction), located in the SF Bay Area.

After three months of searching—including creative outreach that generated half a dozen face-to-face interviews—I found exactly zero cofounders. The Expiration Date

Here’s the thing about cofounder searches: they have an expiration date. At some point, the business needs to move to its next phase, with or without the perfect cofounder. I hit that point two weeks ago during a manufacturing trip to China.

While there, I did some math. The cost of flying to China and staying for two weeks was two orders of magnitude less than paying a single month’s SF Bay Area salary for an engineer ($2K/month vs $160/year + $2K/month benefits + $25K capital rais bonus + equity).

That’s when I realized I was optimizing for the wrong constraint.

Splitting the “Ideal” Cofounder

I was looking for someone who was both a 10x engineer and had top-tier credentials. But what if I split that persona into two separate hires?

New approach:

Hire 1: Remote high-performer via Upwork - $20-80/hour (2x to 4x cheaper than SF startup salaries) - Autonomous, enthusiastic, hard worker - Location: anywhere

Hire 2: Part-time advisor with tier-1 credentials - Equity only - Primary role: help with fundraising credibility - Location: anywhere

My wife is okay with me traveling, so I dropped the location filter entirely.

The Problem with Remote at This Stage

Here’s where it gets tricky. I’m still at the very early MVP stage. The ideation and trial-and-error loop is brutally fast—especially because I’m using Claude Code to implement ideas. (I use Claude for everything in MVP prototyping, and it’s been fantastic.)

The problem: that fast iteration loop doesn’t work well with remote. If I send specs in the evening, get implementation in the morning, test during the day, and repeat—we’re already adding 12+ hour delays to each cycle. When you’re running multiple cycles per day in-person, going remote feels like moving through molasses.

The Solution: Hybrid “Out-Person” + Remote

Here’s what I’m planning: - Fly to the freelancer’s city - Stay in a hotel for 1-2 weeks - Bring hardware and MVP prototype with me - Work face-to-face to get them to 100% productivity - Return home - Work remotely until the next in-person sprint is needed - Repeat

The cost structure makes sense. A week or two of travel + accommodation + focused work is still 10x dramatically cheaper than SF salaries. And I can work from anywhere with my laptop.

What do you think about it? - Has anyone else tried this hybrid approach? How did it work out? - What are the failure modes I’m not seeing? - Is this sustainable long-term?

Lee Felsenstein

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