Ask HN: Is anyone interested in a site to help you find co-founders?

One of the very important features in co-founders is knowledge of work-ethic and trust in each other. That's why it's often recommended that you co-found with people already in your circles. There are just so many additional unknowns when you're dealing with potential co-founders that you have no history with.

An alternative idea would be to create a 1-3 month program for entrepreneurs and programmers to learn new skills, etc., but also to network and meet potential cofounders.

http://www.sideprojectors.com

It's a market place where people can sell & buy side projects.

Awhile back, I've added an option for people to "search for co-founder/collaborator".

While we've seen hundreds of side projects being sold and bought, I think we haven't seen that many projects where people successfully find co-founders via our site.

Now we haven't aggressively pushed this feature, so I'm sure there are many things we can do to support, but from what we have seen, finding a co-founder is, SO much more than just going through a list of profiles.

I almost think if you want to do this, then you only invite really serious people and have them speak face to face via hangout or skype - or a feature that supports such thing.

I guess, since finding co-founder is such a difficult task, I think it needs to have a more "human" approach to it. Hope that helps!

I get plenty of email notifications from there after a friend asked for a referral.

When I was looking around, this seemed like the best option.

Here are some of the problems/challenges I have faced:

- Not everyone wants to become a co-founder. A lot of people just want to build things for you and get out. Think freelancers etc. Really smart people but not interested in becoming co-founders.

- A friend wants to be your co-founder. Ok great. You like them and they are really good friends. But you know for sure that they don't have anything of value to offer to you. So you tell them "I would love to but what do you bring to the table" ? They cannot answer that and you are back to square one.

- A really smart friend whom you know could build great things together loves his/her job. He is the Employee type. No matter how much you try to convince them of the great entrepreneurial life, they won't budge.

In my opinion, to find a co-founder who is not a friend or someone you know already, below are the steps:

1. Initial contact with someone who has interest in becoming a co-founder. This can be solved with those listing type websites perhaps.

2. AFTER that initial contact, what do we do This is where the listing websites fail and cannot add any more value. This step/problem needs to be solved. My suggestion is that we will need to work together on "small" or "baby" projects first that may or may not be related to any actual business/product. Heck, lets build a blog together. Lets see how we interact with each other personally and professionally. I will like to spend a lot of time with you knowing your both personally and of course professionally. You may be the best programmer or marketer but can you handle pressure ? Can you actually commit to anything ? Are you a quitter ? Are you an honest person ? Can I trust you ? What is your vision ? What is your end Goal ? What do you want out of life ? All these questions need to be answered in my opinion and really vetted.

3. Once step 2 is reasonable secure, then lets actually become co-founders. Sign legal agreements, do vesting discussions, get lawyers involved etc ?

Just my 2 cents. I filled out your survey btw as well.

  How is using a website more efficient for vetting
  potential co-founders, than alternative methods?

The marriage model for cofounders is probably useful. The dating analogy is perhaps less so because cofounding is not necessarily a two person relationship and the principle purposes and processes of business are a lot less clear cut.

Good luck.

Online dating sites attempt to solve a problem of approximately equal difficulty in my mind - creating a long-term relationship with somebody who initially is a total stranger. They leave much to be desired too, but have at least reached a functional level for many people, such as myself (met my wife through one of them several years ago).

I suspect it has something to do with the much smaller number of people on cofounder sites vs. dating sites, which makes reaching critical mass and iterating to improve the user experience that much harder.

Honestly, I don't know what is going to work. I'm not sure the dating model is the best cause it doesn't seem to be working well.

You need to think of something completely new and different (easier said than done of course!)

If I build a product that can't be ignored then I'll have options for funding even as a single founder. Then I could get employees instead of partners and avoid the whole scary idea of someone corrupting my vision. It would be a huge time sink to find the perfect cofounder, and for someone like me it would cause tons of stress. You're supposed to basically marry someone. I'd rather just keep grinding outside of my 9-5 job and build the product myself.

You go on a date for an hour, get to know the other person and if there's a connection, do it again. Eventually, after a few dates, you might decide to become exclusive, after a few more, it might be a real relationship. And after a few years, it might lead to marriage.

Co-founder matching sites always seemed to me like you're skipping the whole 'dating' process and jumping straight to marriage.

I'd be interested in a site that had some way for me to get to know the other potential founder's work ethic, intelligence, integrity, and sociability without jumping straight into a legal business relationship right away. I don't mind if the process takes months to find the right one.

Co-founder matching sites should set a goal of finding the perfect co-founder 3-6 months from now. Now, their job should be to help qualified candidates go through the 'dating' process in the interim. THAT would be real value and I'd sign up and pay if I came across something like this.

Cool, now find something else.