5 Ways to Find a Co-founder

Are you looking for a co-founder but don’t know where to start?

You’re not alone. Many startup founders are struggling with the same problem.

Finding a co-founder is hard. The good news is that there are many ways to find the right partner for you and your business, including through personal connections, online communities, or even at an event or conference.

It’s not an easy task to find the right person for your startup. You need someone who has all kinds of skills, but it should be someone with great leadership qualities because you can’t do this alone!

The founders usually have very different skill sets; there are many tasks that need solving at once and these might include some core business or sales-related expertise too–and I’ve met engineers who aren’t convincing enough when trying to sell their idea to customers.

I’ve met a lot of great founders, but they all have one thing in common: the ability to solve complex problems. It takes a diverse skill set to make it through an entrepreneur’s journey and not get lost along the way- sometimes you need someone with really good tech skills or even business savvy too!

Whether you’re looking for someone with complementary skills or sharing equity, there are several tips that will help you find the right person.

Let me go through five methods to find a co-founder. In the end, I’ll tell you how I found my Vivino co-founder ties and how we’ve worked together for the last 18 years.

The following are five ways to find an essential co-founder:

#1 Personal Network

You know more people than you think. So, when on the hunt–tell everyone!

Make your intentions clear and ask around in person as well as through social channels like Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin, Instagram, maybe even Snapchat.

So let everyone know you’re looking. As an entrepreneur, it is imperative that you network. I know from experience the power of LinkedIn and personal networks is underestimated by many people who think they don’t have any connections or resources when really all one needs for success in business is their friends’ friends- those we speak with daily but may never meet face-to-face themselves.

If you know 100 people and they also know 100 people, in theory, that is 10,000 people. Don’t underestimate your personal network. It can be very efficient, much more efficient than going out into public places where strangers surround us every day just waiting their turn at being approached by marketers trying to sell them something unwanted.

#2 Events and Meetups

This is a very popular way to find a co-founder!

The cool thing about it is it’s local and you’ll be able to connect relevant people in your area and also have access to events like startup competitions or hackathons where you can connect with people who share your interests and passions for entrepreneurship in general – which will lead them down the path towards becoming potential business partners as well.

You may also want to consider Meetups on meetup.com. This site has thousands all over the world, so no matter what city you live in someone should have meetings close enough that could potentially become relevant!

Finally, if none of those work, don’t forget there’s always our good old standby: Facebook Groups 🙂

#3 Founder Databases

There are actually databases and websites out there just dedicated to finding a co-founder. So I think that’s kind of impressive and you definitely should check those out!

And if not for your own sake then someone in the community might really need help with something so it would be worth checking them right?

I’ve had a look at a few of these databases which can provide some good leads but three stood above all others: Co-founders Lab, Founders Nation and To Be Founded.

The founder lab had decent activity recently, merging with another service which made them even bigger – so it looked pretty solid to me!

They have a free version but you can also subscribe to their paid package if that sounds good too.

The other two are Founders Nation and To Be founded by identical twins who’ve been building startups since childhood because of their entrepreneurial spirit; both appear promising as well, claiming 80K founders have already joined.

Sounds pretty good, so please check them out!

#4 Online Forums

I bet you’re wondering whether there are any good forums for finding a co-founder? Not just your typical startup forum, but ones that have more traffic.

Well, I found two of them! Reddit and Discord, both have their own dedicated groups to find someone who can fill this role – it’s worth checking out because there are people from all over the world here who are looking forward to making new connections with others just like themselves.

The tricky part is that some might be harder on the big four since communication can sometimes get difficult when dealing internationally.

#5 Universities

It’s not surprising to hear that a lot of startups start out at university. What may surprise you is how common it actually is for founders and inventors to look into universities before they find their next big thing.

You’ve heard the stories about Facebook and Google, haven’t you?

Well, it’s true. The founders met at university! And when people go to school in their area, there are always opportunities for them because they’ll have access only locally so if you want an engineer or businessperson- whatever niche interests your heart desires -you can find just what type of student is needed right where they live with this method alone.

How do you reach the people in a university?

Well obviously if you go there, then hang out and so on. On top of that they’re usually online – either bulletin boards or through other means like job postings for example; just put your post up asking about co-founder positions to see what happens!

So, that’s my list of five ways to find a co-founder. But we’re not done yet.

I really want you guys to put some comments down below this article and tell me if there are any other ideas so people can learn from them or share their own stories with everyone else on this page!

Also, if someone has found success as an entrepreneur by partnering up, please let us know how they did it because no doubt tons of others will benefit greatly too.

And so, finally…

How did I find my co-founder Vivino ties and how we’ve worked together for the last 18 years?

Actually, it was true, number one was a personal network. So we had a friend in common and the startup before we did Vivino, called BullGuard. We met there and worked together there, so we worked together for 18 years. The personal network can be very efficient to find a co-founder and never underestimate that it can be super duper efficient.

So, the personal network can be very efficient to find a co-founder, and never underestimate that it can be super duper efficient.

Conclusion

It’s not an easy task to find the right person for your startup.

You need someone who has a wide range of skills, but it should be someone with strong leadership qualities because you can’t do this on your own!

The founders usually have very different skill sets; there are many tasks that need solving at once and these might include some core business or sales-related expertise too.

There’s no magic formula for finding the perfect co-founder but in this article, we’ve covered 5 ways for you. We hope this article has been helpful in your search.

What ways or methods do you think are best in finding a co-founder?