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Ask HN: What's the best cofounder finder sites?

10 points by oceanician ↗ HN
Hi, I'm debating doing a geographical based site for Manchester (UK) and the surrounding area, but keep thinking we've been here before, and their must be a really really good site for this already.

http://www.cofounderslab.com - Doesn't have any UK cities in! http://www.founder2be.com/ - have to sign up to search. The web header takes up too much space, and most will get bored before doing anything. http://www.techcofounder.com/ - bit too focused on just one aspect of cofounders... http://www.weekendhacker.net - Original site I knew of but still doesn't have geographical search. http://cofoundergoogledocs.com - not bad spreadsheet, but well it's just a spreadsheet and it's quite large now.

So, are there any better ones out there? Especially for the UK?

23 comments

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revorad
Hi Ian, I'm based in London and am looking for someone to work with me on my startup, either on a contract basis or potentially as a co-founder. Please email me (see profile) or tell me how I can get in touch.
oceanician
Great; what criteria do you wish to search for? What commitment level do you expect? What are you offering people in return - 50% equity? 5% and £200 pd? Some other combination? Have you completed your BMC? Has feedback from potential customers been sought?

Which of these questions should be incorporated in a cofounder finder site?

revorad
Those are all great questions, but I wouldn't necessarily expect to see all of them on a cofounder finding site. I'd rather ask these questions in person. I'm looking for people who can build stuff, so a meetup of programmers looking for co-founders would be more useful.

Besides, my comment was directed at you personally in terms of working with me, not as a general comment on co-founder finding sites. Sorry, I assumed you were looking for a co-founder, but maybe you're not?

oceanician
Hi - cheer for the followup. I am looking for Manchester based cofounders in a variety of disciplines, for a variety of ideas. Because people have various different experiences I'd expect to be able to narrow it down before meeting, so you're sure that it's worth meeting & to make sure people have thought about it properly / have previous interests in that sector etc.

Though in a lot of senses I think it's worth keeping it an informal collaboration, and jointly evolving an idea. This gives more buy in.

For me my ideal team would be two techies; one with more front end & UX knowledge, and an experienced sales/business orientated pitcher. I'd probably be one of the techies initially, but there's younger people who can do this quicker.

revorad
Well, if you come down to London any time, I'll be up for a drink/coffee anyway. Good luck with your search!
happycloset
I have the same question just for Holland.
zzzzz_
You could attend my meet-up in Amsterdam, details are available here: http://coffeeshophackers.nl

Edit: Fixed Typo

happycloset
Hey thanks for the link I'll check it out. Im Little apprehensive about the weed environment. I never frequent CS. But Ill check it out anyways Dank je wel !
kohanz
I haven't tried it, but have you looked at FounderDating? You do have to sign up and it is more of a matchmaking service than a search engine, I believe. London, UK is not yet unlocked (http://members.founderdating.com/unlock), but it is near the top of the list.
oceanician
I suppose physical meetups alongside would provide some source of sustainable income. How much do they charge? Bizagogo do this quite successfully in London. Could be worth collaborating with them.
kohanz
Seems like it is a one-time $50 fee. I suppose you could argue that as a positive, to weed out non-committed types.
pc86
I'd be more interested to look at successful startups (however you define that[0]) and see how those founders met.

[0] Personally, I'm more interested in recurring revenue, so successful for me is either profitable and stable to support the founders and employees or a large acquisition. A 4- or 5-figure acquisition is less appealing because truthfully, between my mortgage, student loans, and other bills, I could spend any 5-figure sum in a single day.

kingofspain
I'm Manchester based myself so if you go the building route, I'd be interested in seeing it!
AliAdams
TechBritain.com might eventually build in that facility. It ties in along the right lines of making the UK ecosystem more efficient at forming and supporting startups.
oceanician
I see that's core (once it's done) as listing consultancies and startups, and clusters accross the country, and referring to external sites for specialised areas.

There'd be value in making a decent search & fuzzy matching of cofounder types, and helping people in embryonic stages of a project progress along the 'next step'.

ig1
I'm not convinced the model of online cofounder matching works at all. Cofounding is like getting married, a website for finding cofounders is like a dating website for people who want to urgently get married.

You're much better off developing these sort of relationships organically. A good place to start is at events like Startup Weekend / Launch48.

oceanician
There's great value in the startup weekends, but they're mostly for brand new ideas.

Agree about organic matching, but think most people are in full time jobs or freelancers needing payment, so it's very difficult to pitch to everyone - especially if you want non-tech people onboard i.e. one of my ideas requires someone with events management/promotion experience, another would benefit from someone in estate agency.

I think it's always going to be a hard process, and may involve quite a bit of collaboration as well as the initial cofounders. And perhaps even a change of cofoudners as people's situations change later down the line.

ig1
The value of Startup Weekends isn't in build a new startup from scratch (very few startup ideas that originate at SW last past the weekend), but rather from the fact that you spend a weekend working closely against a deadline with people who are potential cofounders. You get a much better feel (both at a personal and at a professional level) of someone from working with them over a weekend on something random than from a networking event.
argonaut
I agree with ig1. This is a pretty bad idea, unless it's a cofounder matching site for side projects. You do not want to be entering into a startup with a cofounder you don't know very well and haven't ever worked with. Ideally you should have known and worked with your cofounder for up to a year before starting a startup with him/her.
meerita
I'm also looking co-founder. I'm UX/UI hacker with many projects designed on my backpack. I'm located in Barcelona, Spain.