@dan78 First of all, you need to talk to your true well wishers to understand how good your idea is. anyone else would sugarcoat things ir try to boost you for their gains.
I see some comments here seeking to be your next co-founder, no offense to them but you should be very careful picking one.
I have seen cases where peeps boost the ego of the ideator to get more work/money to just run in loops and engage in the project for years.
if they truly care about your product, prolly pay them in equity and not in cash.
Now coming to your questions .
- That's a totally personal call, if I were you, I'd have evaluated my financial cushion from family, family dynamics, my personal savings, affect of gaps in my resume for jobs in my domain, my conviction on my idea, product market fit,sunken cost evaluation, etc.
- There are many incubators that do co-founder matching, you can talk about it on forums like this sub etc. But you have to and must properly vet them and be ware of the things I mentioned up top.
- Incubators do that too!
- Reqd good books, and lots of them, of the top of my head, The lean startup, Start with Why, Leaders eat last, 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, True North, etc.
5.Word of mouth is the most authentic cheapest marketing strategy that works like a wonder. Let you work speak for you. Extreme examples are Zerodha, Wint. Subtler examples include Tilt. You would hardly see any of their ads, but damn they are good products and are well known just Outta word of mouth. And just coz they don't advertise, people trust it even more.
- You need to lay out a plan, hiw can anyone tell this?
- Dancing with investors is a risky errand.if You're driven towards your idea and are crystal clear on what you want to build, don't give out decisive power to others who are less sure about the domain and idea.
