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Ask HN: How to find like minded cofounders?

6 points by rajeshpant ↗ HN
As a full working engineer, how do you find other cofounders who share same passion and goal?

I have had bad experiences in the past when starting businesses with other people. They lost the track and went sideways.

At this point, I don't see myself meeting any new people who share same interest and want to commit fully in founding a startup. Most people at my age(35), are too comfortable in their jobs to call it quit and start something new. In such a case, how can I find people who are willing to take risk and do something on own?

9 comments

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muzani
This is the hard part. This is why more startups are done by youths - it's easy to find ambitious smart people in college. About 90% of the effort in starting a new business is finding a smart enough cofounder.

You'll have to bounce around a few places. Companies like Google, which has lots of smart people, are a good place to look. Freelancing is also a major option - you'll cycle through a lot of people who can handle the business side and eventually a few will surprise you.

zzzzz_
How about adding some contact details to your profile so likeminded people can use this post as an opportunity to reach out to you?
rajeshpant
Thanks for pointing that. added just now.
PeOe
There are a lot of online platforms to communicate and share your ideas. But I´m not sure if you want to share your idea before it´s implemented. Visit some events and conferences about similar topics and get in touch with the people there or try to communicate via such platforms I mentioned without getting away too much info about your idea. It´s possible founding something on your own and try to find someone afterwards but this might be hard work until then.
esbafb8
Check out entrepreneurial networking events in your area! Also, give Facebook groups a try, they're booming right now.
Regardsyjc
Second joining startup networks. I graduated from a startup incubator and it is a small world. You'll meet lots of driven entrepreneurs. There are so many non-technical founders that would love to have a tech co-founder (me-included).

If you have access check out demo days. You'll meet lots of founders working on interesting things as well as investors.

I'm in NYC so we have tons of meetups on all kinds of tech from different types of SQL, data science/AI/ML, blockchain, food tech, hardware, Python, women coders, etc, and whenever you go to one of these events, you will always find someone working on something interesting. Maybe see if there's a local meet-up on an industry you're interested in?

I also recommend hackathons. Could you be a mentor at local hackathons? I went to my first hackathon and met lots of driven people who were willing to spend 12+ hours mentoring or coding on the weekend.

I also heard on a Jason Calacanis podcast episode that a great place to find a co-founder are employees of acquired startups- because they see it's possible and think I can do that too, so they caught the bug.

There's also websites to find co-founders too but I didn't really gain anything from it.

josc
Try startup meetups near your location. That's how I found my co-founder.
jamesk14022
I feel I can relate to this somewhat - although in a slightly different context. I build a decent amount of side projects in my spare time with aspirations to take something seriously once I get traction/an interesting opportunity.

But, I'm at a mid-tier university in the UK, with a lacklustre hacking scene. Makes me think weather I made a big mistake not purposefully surrounding myself with more like-minded people - my probability of finding a cofounder in this situation seems slim and it seems that my only option is to relocate to more of a startup 'hub' once I'm finished education.