Zachary Burt dropped me a line a few days ago and asked if I'd look at his posting for a cofounder. I said sure, and we worked on it a little bit.

This is normally the kind of thing I'd keep to private correspondence, but Zack told me to put to put it up if I'd like to. Maybe it's useful to learn from -

Here's the original, unedited version -

Headline: Badass technical business-savvy dude looking for fellow programmer and business partner to hack with all day.

Hola,

My name is Zack. I'm 23 years old and a graduate of University of Chicago. I've been making money online since high school and I'm obsessed with startups.

In school I studied psychology and nearly completed a minor in math. I'm also a self-taught programmer and have been coding for over 10 years.

I am looking for a cofounder.

Why I'm good:

--When in college I dropped out of school my spring quarter. Applied to YCombinator, I was rejected, ended up building a Facebook application that got acquired in July 2007. :)
--Created CompassionPit.com: it's growing! 160k-200k visits over past 30 days. Written in Node.js though I didn't write it myself. Slowly growing, lots of enthusiastic fans.
--Invented AwesomenessReminders.com. Profitable, coverage by TIME.com, etc. Backend is PHP.

A lot of my projects play on the theme of positivity, but I'm not necessarily restricted to that. I just realize that positivity is a shortcut to win-win... basically a heuristic for coming up with business models/ideas :) I learned it from Steve Pavlina, the productivity and personal growth guru. It's the principle of Oneness, moving with the world rather than against it. Of course, the rules are made to be broken, and I realize that it is not always possible to map these rules to a competitive marketplace (e.g. can you _really_ apply them towards exploiting the stock market? I don't know..) but I like them and find them useful.

So if you work with me, we already have these projects going strong, with profits, but we can diversify and build other things too. I have a lot of tricks up my sleeve!

Skills I have:

--Programming: I am a competent hacker in PHP, JavaScript, python, ActionScript. I can work my way around a linux server and read manpages but I'm not super great at it. I would prefer to collab with someone who has a little more experience or is a little more talented at coding than I am. For example, if we wanted to scale a python app through a messaging system, you might have some familiarity with that.
--Marketing: I've built a bunch of stuff that has gotten traction.
--Connections: I know a bunch of rich people in Silicon Valley, so if we inevitably wanted to raise money for a project we would definitely have a starting point.

You:

--Better than me at programming. Hopefully you're familiar with the Dunning-Kruger effect and you're smart enough to know what you don't know. So if you're humble and realize your limitations, that's cool -- please give me a shout.
--Smart enough to do college-level math. I just don't trust people who can't do college-level math.
--LOVE startups and ready to make our projects the primary focus of your life. Of course you have personal projects too...
--Financially independent so that you don't have to rely on a salary or part-time work. I want you to be an equity partner from day one and as emotionally invested as I am.
--Biased towards action. I feel like people not taking action is a source of huge friction and you can get so much accomplished if you decide to just ACT.
--Work towards business goals. Not just a code monkey.

I like playing basketball (I'm not that great though!), listening to music (I consider myself artistic...in my own way). I read a lot. I blog about books I read at ZacharyBurt.com.

Anyway, if you think we'd be a good fit please send me an email. If you're 40, or mainly a PHP guy, it's probably not going to be a good fit. Your attitude towards PHP might be contempt, but you could use it to get the job done if necessary. (A lot of the AR code is PHP, if I could do it all over again I'd use Rails or Django, but it is what it is.)

In an ideal world, we'd get an office and work 14 hours a day on our stuff.

I'm ready for this -- are you? :)

I wrote up some specific notes and edits along these lines -

1. You need a more clear intro about what you're looking for, and why.
2. You should mention that you're successful very quickly, then lay out your requirements before you sell yourself.
3. Then sell yourself.
4. This is way too verbose. Cut irrelevant details, and cut as many words as possible.
5. Be more specific in what you're looking for.
6. Besides that, it's good.

Edited version -

Headline: Business-savvy Programmer Looking for Badass Fellow Programmer to Partner and Hack on Startup Projects

Hi, I’m Zack. I’ve already had some business successes and programming successes, including having a Facebook application get acquired and having my startup AwesomenessReminders get coverage in Time Magazine and grow rapidly. Now I’m looking for a partner to take it to the next level with.

You:

–Can code in at least two of PHP, Ruby, Python, Lisp. Ideally some front-end design experience too.

–LOVE startups and ready to go full-time if we can get a project that’s promising.

–Have enough money that you can go full-time from day one on an equity project.

–Biased towards action. I feel like people not taking action is a source of huge friction and you can get so much accomplished if you decide to just ACT.

–Willingness to do business development preferred – programming is awesome, but we need to build a company too.

Me:

23 years old, a graduate of University of Chicago. Been making money online since high school and I love startups and building things. I’m a self-taught programmer and have been coding for over 10 years.

Some things I’ve done:

–When in college I dropped out of school my spring quarter. Applied to YCombinator, I was rejected, ended up building a Facebook application that got acquired in July 2007.

–Created CompassionPit.com: it’s growing! 160k-200k visits over past 30 days. Written in Node.js though I didn’t write it myself. Slowly growing, lots of enthusiastic fans.

–Invented AwesomenessReminders.com. Profitable, coverage by TIME.com, etc. Backend is PHP.

–A lot of my projects play on the theme of positivity, simply a heuristic I learned from Steve Pavlina for coming up with business models/ideas

Skills I have:

–Programming: I’m competent in PHP, JavaScript, python, ActionScript. I can work my way around a linux server and read manpages but I’m not super great at it. I would prefer to collab with someone who has a little more experience or is a little more talented at coding than I am. For example, if we wanted to scale a python app through a messaging system, you might have some familiarity with that.

–Marketing: I’ve built a bunch of stuff that has gotten traction.

–Connections: I’m connected to a number of wealthy people in Silicon Valley who are interested in technology, so we’ve got a starting point if we want to raise money.

For fun:

I like playing basketball, listening to music, and reading a lot. I blog about books at ZacharyBurt.com. I believe deeply in “work hard, play hard”.

If you think we might be a good fit, please send me an email.

In an ideal world, we’d get an office and work 12 hours a day on our stuff, 6 days a week.

I’m ready for this — are you?

The reason I suggested those edits -

1. You need a more clear intro about what you're looking for, and why

---> People are busy, and you've got to tell them exactly why they should read your posting. People skim things and have short attention spans. So a strong intro is very important.

2. You should mention that you're successful very quickly, then lay out your requirements before you sell yourself.
3. Then sell yourself.

---> After a basic explanation about what your goal is (find a good cofounder), then you want to lay out what you're looking for before you explain the particulars of what you're all about. When you try to sell people before assessing if they're qualified, they read it much more critically. Also, it can lead to people wasting your time because you sound awesome, and they drop you a line after seeing what you've got available but without seeing the requirements. So, right after the main goal, your requirements ought to come before selling yourself.

4. This is way too verbose. Cut irrelevant details, and cut as many words as possible.

---> A good general rule for life. I violate this a lot here on the blog, because I generally take the "fight out of formation" approach to working - work fast, get things done, get them out. However, when you've got something quite important, you want to polish and cut words. People are busy, so you've got to move fast and be concise.

5. Be more specific in what you're looking for.

---> Changing "better than me at programming" into very specific, measurable requirements - such as proficiency in two particular languages. Much easier to evaluate objectively.

6. Besides that, it's good.

---> I thought it was a pretty solid overture overall, and I liked the spirit of it. Some moving the format around, making things concise, and a little cleanup, but it was solid overall.

Thanks for reaching out Zack, and for letting me show people a little insight into editing. That post by Zack is up on his blog - here's hoping you can find someone excellent to work with and have much prosperity.