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Not in the Valley? How do you find co-founders?

7 points by rebooter ↗ HN
It's pretty clear that if you are in Silicon Valley and are moderately good about networking there's an "established" (if I may use that word) path to finding co-founders for a startup. If you came out of a school such as Stanford a lot of your search may have actually been "automagic" in the relationships you built while at school.

But, say that you don't live in the Valley. And, say that you are a relatively new Internet entrepreneur in a market like Los Angeles. You are not 20-something, so no school relationships to bank on.

How do you find co-founders for a venture?

Please don't say "move to the Valley"! :)

9 comments

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nkassis
By Building something? That's what I'm trying right now, I'm building an early prototype that I can then show. I hope it will work. My friend like my ideas but they are a cautious bunch, they need what I mean first.
perucoder
I agree, build something, put it online, and promote the hell out of it. That's what I'm doing now and it constantly amazes me how open people are to giving advice and sharing experiences. I haven't met any co-founders yet, but I am making a lot of great contacts and getting the word out about me as a developer and my product. Good luck with what you're doing.
mrschwabe
Right on man. Lead by example. A good product can be conceptualized, planned, and built anywhere. If you do something cool, people will pay attention.
pitdesi
This is pretty hard... I found a co-founder at http://www.techcofounder.com/ and things seem to be going pretty well for us. We met in Pittsburgh. What Many cities other than the valley have a great infrastructure and meetups that should allow you to find others. A quick search for LA tech meetup found this - I'm sure you can find many others http://www.meetup.com/newtech-25/
RealGeek
In earlier days, I used to run a popular linux and security related forum.

I came in contact with many hackers and geeks through the forums. I got few good friends through the community, and my co-founder found me through the same forums.

ig1
Launch48, Startup Weekends, Hackathons,etc.
Mz
A rubric that might help:

Examine the "typical" paths to finding a cofounder and draw some conclusions about why those things work. I would say that connections like having gone to the same college are about finding the proverbial "third space" where people can just be people and relate as human beings, which is a natural means for stumbling across deep compatibility.

If you compare this to dating, my view is that dating doesn't work terribly well because both parties are trying to convince the other party they are desirable and thus they are prone to putting on a facade, while at the same time trying to poke holes in the facade the other person is putting forth. My observation has been that the best marriages tend to come from folks who knew each other socially -- through school or work or family or friends -- before it became intimate. Find ways to put yourself in social settings where you can just be you while talking to people about business/work stuff and be open to having something click.

A metaphor I use for love, which might apply here: An open palm holds more water than a closed fist. Putting yourself in the right places and being open to what may be might pay off. Desperately grasping at straws probably won't.

Good luck with this.

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knoxos
As mentioned already, one possibility is to take part in events... For me personal, I've been looking within my network and business contacts. Services as linkedin or xing are worth to look at.