Looking for a co-founder? Try Co-founder Dating

In case you’re a sole person working on a new venture, you must have been fed with bits of wisdom that one needs co-founder(s) to succeed. Even people who say you don’t need one end up implying ‘you shouldn’t be single forever’. It’s almost as much pressure as your pesky aunt’s ‘beta, shaadi ka kya socha’ (Son, what about your marriage?)

It’s true that co-founders can be of great help. They help in peer reviews, offers shoulders to cry on and are great friends for life. In a world where it’s getting increasingly frustrating to get the ideal startup co-founder, it has become more important to make it easier for people with great ideas to find people with great skill-sets to help build on ideas together.

Enter co-founder dating sites. These guys would help you with your first hire – a co-founder. In case you have a great idea, but lack the technical skills to turn your dream into reality, getting the right co-founder to develop your idea would help.

There are several platforms emerging, claiming to get you to meet your potential co-founder. Just google the term, you’ll land up with sites like FounderDating, Startup Weekend, CollabFinder and CoFoundersLab where you can chance upon your business soul-mate.

Tom Leung, Co-founder and CEO of Poachable says it works. “I met my co-founder at Founder Dating in March, we started working together full-time in May, shipped our MVP in June, and recently launched our Beta in November while raising some angel money,” he says in a Quora post.

Most people join these places with a very specific requirement. That’s why, unlike romantic dating, it’s hard to find an exact match. If you’re not looking into the ‘hot sectors’ like social and communications, it’s going to take a while. However, if you’re going in with an open mind, you're literally giving yourself the freedom to sample the entire buffet.

Ultimately, these platforms increase your chances of getting a co-founder. This gets you a seat at the table to execute. If you’re not based out of the startup hubs of the world like Bay Area, Beijing or Bangalore, your timing to jump into a startup may not sync with anyone in your personal network. That's where co-founder dating and others like it come in.

Krish Subramanian, Cofounder, Chargebee Subscription Billing says, “If you are someone with work experience, you may be lucky to meet someone passionate about starting up in your workplace. Most people don't get lucky that easily. You need to put yourself in situation where you get lucky and this is where it helps to meet lots of folks.”

Honestly, these platforms will show you the door. You have to walk through it yourself. What these sites do is expose you to a network of people who were interested in starting businesses, or had already started businesses and were looking for founder-level partners. Now it’s up to you to maximize that opportunity.

BI Tip: Join these sites while you’re still working. Just like serious dating, this may not be your pie!

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