How To Find Your Co-Founder: 13 Ways Entrepreneurs Found Their Cofounder

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Updated: August 15th, 2022

How To Find Your Co-Founder: 13 Ways Entrepreneurs Found Their Cofounder

Today I want to talk to you about the main reasons why people don’t take action and never start their own business. After 2,800+ case studies published, we have seen people overcome all kinds of obstacles to launch their businesses. And succeed.

In this email, I wanted to show you some of these testimonials so that, if you’re in a similar situation at the moment, you can find in their stories the motivation to take the plunge yourself too.

Let's dive in:

1. Meet on Reddit

Reddit is an incredible platform for finding new ideas, discussing trends, networking, and even meeting your next business partner.

The platform even has it's own subreddit where you can meet other entrepreneurs in hopes to find your next co-founder.

Steven Petrillo, founder of Only Salt, found his partner through Reddit while he was looking for a brand identify designer:

Hey all! My name’s Steven Petrillo and I’m based out of Washington, DC - my partner, Josh, and I run OnlySalt.co.

We met via Reddit as I was looking for a brand identity designer and, fun fact, we’ve never actually met or seen each other.

I knew to sell a commodity like this it’d need to have a very, very strong brand. I took to Reddit to find a brand identity designer.

After around 20 different interviews I met my co-founder Josh. He was by far the best designer of the bunch and fortunately he was just as excited and passionate about branding spring salt as I was. He came on as a freelancer and within a few months became my 50% partner.

Steven Petrillo, on starting Only Salt ($10,000/month) full story ➜

2. Join A Student Entrepreneurship Club

If you're a student at University, odds are there's an entrepreneurship club you can join.

Entrepreneur clubs connect students in all stages of their entrepreneurial journey to help develop their skills, resources, and network.

These communities are meant to inspire, coach, and provide resources aimed at helping students get their business off the ground. They are also a great way to find your next team member or business partner.

Tobias Knobl, co-founder of Mailbutler GmbH, met his business partner at the RWTH Innovation Entrepreneurship Center:

I studied Business Administration and Mechanical Engineering at the RWTH Aachen University. I decided after I finished my studies that I wanted to get into entrepreneurship, so I joined the RWTH Innovation Entrepreneurship Center. This is where I met Fabian, my cofounder, who had the initial idea about Mailbutler.

While Fabian was studying, he came up with the idea to develop a VPN client, because the current ones he could find weren’t good enough. He ended up creating Shimo – a replacement for an existing VPN application provided by his university.

Because of the success of his VPN client on his university campus, he decided to launch a new and improved version of Shimo which financed itself solely by donations. After the success of this, several universities contacted Fabian asking if they could grant access to Shimo to all of their students.

Tobias Knobl, on starting Mailbutler GmbH (/month) full story ➜

3. Meet on Indie Hackers

Indie Hackers is an online platform that shares the strategies and revenue numbers behind companies and side hustles.

They also have an open forum where founders and aspiring entrepreneurs can discuss trending topics, brainstorm ideas, and network together.

Ed Thomas, founder of Vidds, met his co-founder on Indie Hackers without ever meeting in person:

Fun fact, we met online in the Indie Hackers forum at the end of the summer of 2020, and due to the pandemic haven’t been able to meet in person yet.

We’re both Indie Hackers from different sides of the world, Andrew is from San Diego and I’m from the U.K. We met online when I had a technical problem with the stock video platform I was running and my developers had ghosted me (that’s a whole other story). So I decided to post in the Indie Hackers forum asking for help. Andrew jumped in and solved the problem effortlessly!

After that, we got talking and I discovered that Andrew had already built a simple tool so he could create short promo videos for the apps and side projects he was building. Since I was running a stock video platform and made videos for various projects, I also had an active interest in video creation.

I persuaded Andrew that his tool had a lot of potentials, outside of being for personal use and I asked if we could collaborate to develop it further. He agreed, and this was the point that we decided to team up. We took Andrew’s underlying code and started the redesign and rebuild.

Ed Thomas, on starting Vidds ($2,300/month) full story ➜

4. Connect With Existing or Former Colleagues

One of the best ways to find your partner is by simply using your own network.

Many business owners have found each other in their current job or a previous work experience. The benefit of this is that you may already have a working relationship and an understanding of how you can work together.

Axel and Gaurav, founders of ReviewFlowz, worked together at a hyper growth Startup and decided to quit their jobs to start their own business:

Before starting reviewflowz, both Axel and I used to work in a hyper growth scaleup in Paris, in the email marketing & marketing automation space. Axel was leading the growth team while I was working in Paid Acquisition & Business Operations.

The initial idea is the brainchild of Axel, who as a part of the operations for the Growth team, had devised the entire strategy for Review Management from scratch.

So, throughout Axel was quite adamant on the fact that democratizing the review management playbook would make up a sweet product one day, and that someday arrived three years later when Axel decided to call it quits to work on something new.

Besides other things, he wanted to work in the review space and he formally pitched the idea to me over drinks, and the very next evening I received a message on WhatsApp saying:

“D'you want/think you can set up a GitHub & everything for reviews to slack? Could be a fun project to bootstrap no matter what IMO, and good learnings? WDYT? And I think it's best for the overall framework to use a clean "convention over configuration" setup?”

I too had been planning my exit for quite some time, from my current job and soon decided to quit my job too as we started building reviewflowz from the ground up. This was the beginning of reviewflowz;

Axel Lavergne, on starting reviewflowz ($710/month) full story ➜

5. Join A Coworking Space

Coworking spaces have disrupted the business world - they offer flexibility, collaborative and engaging offices, and great networking opportunities.

Coworking spaces also hold networking events to help founders and businesses find new partnerships, clients, and brainstorm ideas with other individuals.

When collaborating with other like-minded people, you acquire so much knowledge and networking opportunities that you can apply to your business.

Rahul, founder of TeleCRM met his cofounder while working at a coworking space:

After two years of struggling, shutting down two agencies, and going almost broke I met my co-founder at a coworking space.

He had worked with Thales Aveonics where he created the mission planning and debriefing systems for the Rafale & mirage fighter jets of the Indian Army so quite the rocket scientist on the team.

This pair is the perfect recipe for success. But at the time we had no clue that this perfect recipe had a cooking time of about four years before we would see any success.

The idea for TeleCRM was born when we were trying to sell our first SaaS product! Hiring direct salespeople is cheap in India but managing them is not. After about one week of working with three salespeople, we realized that excel sheets are not gonna cut it!

Rahul, on starting TeleCRM ($5,000/month) full story ➜

6. Attend An Online Hackathon

A hackathon is a competitive event where designers and developers collaborate to find solutions for a specific problem in a given time frame.

Online hackathon events provide an amazing opportunity to have fun, challenge yourself, and meet new friends.

There are hackathons offered for all skill levels - so if you are just a beginner in this space, there are plenty of opportunities to take part in these fun events.

Tim and Sabba, founders of VEED met during an online hackathon:

Tim and I met during an online hackathon. During the hackathon participants were encouraged to meetup for real. We actually got on really well, and stayed friends and kept spitballing ideas for a startup for years.

At this time, I was a design student at Central Saint Martins and I had recently won a competition for Sony Music creating an interactive music video for the band Hurts with my friend Virgil. Then soon after graduation, I started working as a creative technologist in London for a bunch of different advertising & branding agencies and a few startups too.

Meanwhile, Tim was working on his CompSci research at King’s College London for his dissertation. He was building an automated video editing platform that used AI and Natural Language Processing to summarize news articles and turn them into short, bite-sized informational videos. Finally, he would aggregate them into a video feed. He called the project VEED.

We were both really excited to use Tim’s final year project as a base for our startup.

Sabba Keynejad, on starting VEED ($6,000/month) full story ➜

7. Participate In A Business Incubator

An incubator is an organization that helps startups and business owners develop their business by providing them with resources such as:

Management training
Office space / coworking space
Funding and resources

These organizations also provide plenty of opportunities to network and discuss ideas with other business owners.

Arthur & JP, founders of Deskmate, met during an incubator in London:

I met my now business partner, Arthur at the back end of 2016 during an incubator called Escape The City. Both working on separate projects and set up Deskmate as a side hustle to earn some extra money whilst we were living and working in London.

Cool fact: Deskmate started on £300 and we launched in 3 weeks.

Ashley ‘JP’ Lockwood, on starting Deskmate ($30,000/month) full story ➜

8. Partner With Your College Roommate

Whether you are attending university, or you've already graduated, your roommate may be the perfect match for a business partner. If you've lived together, you can pretty much do anything together, right?

Evan and Duane, founders of PlainJane, started a business together as college roommates:

At MIT, Duane and I grew weed in our dorm room and were really interested in learning more about the plant. After college, I went to work for a tech startup in San Francisco as a software engineer.

Duane created Miramix, a supplements manufacturing and branding company. Over the few years we were out of college, we saw the tides turning for cannabis legalization and knew we wanted to be involved.

In college, we figured out a way to remove the smell and harshness from cannabis. We read about it on some online forums and thought it’d be interesting to try out. It ended up by far being our favorite.

When 2018 rolled around, I quit my job and Duane flew out to California.

Evan Marshall, on starting Plain Jane ($275,000/month) full story ➜

9. Partner With A Family Member

Although it may seem like an obvious one, partnering with a family member can be an extremely rewarding and fun experience.

With clear boundaries and a proper working relationship, it's possible to create a successful and exciting business with your family member.

This father & son started InXpress Winnipeg, a business that makes $65K/month:

My name is Steve Setka and my father Tom and I bought an InXpress franchise in Mid 2017.

Tom, my father was in his mid 50’s at the time and always wanted to be entrepreneurial. Me, on the other hand, never had business intentions or that mentality. For me, it was more of the uncertainty of what I would do next after traveling for 3 years out of university.

One day, Tom calls me in Australia and narrates his entire year of “business searching” into one magical idea that was very attractive. What I remember about the interaction was the statement that he found a business that met all 4 of his required criteria to start:

No staff requirements to start.
Limited and manageable start-up franchise costs.
Very limited overhead. Especially not a building or space. At-home would be preferable.
No required inventory

With this in mind, The idea of signing with the InXpress team was born.

Steve Setka, on starting InXpress Winnipeg ($65,000/month) full story ➜

10. Attend The 'Techstars Startup Weekend'

Techstars puts on a three-day program in hundreds of cities around the world where aspiring entrepreneurs can experience the startup life.

This event is amazing for connecting with other creators, learning from successful founders, and start a business with individuals you meet at the conference.

*Nelli Jeloudar, founder of Bundleboon met her co-founders at the Amsterdam Startup weekend

This was a clear indication for me that there was a demand for Bundleboon and that I should pursue it. But I wasn’t willing to it by myself. I needed a co-founder who had complementary skills and could fill out the gap in areas I had zero knowledge about.

I decided to attend the annual Amsterdam startup weekend and met my two future cofounders with expertise in digital marketing, innovation, ecommerce and portfolio management.

The party of 3 soon became a party of 2 (stay tuned for the whole story).

Nelli Jeloudar, on starting Bundleboon ($35,000/month) full story ➜

11. Join A Meetup

Meetups are a no-brainer for networking and striking up conversations with like-minded individuals.

If you're in search for a meetup in your area, you can use meetup.com to find thousands of events happening each day.

Philip Karageorgis, founder of Honest FulPhilment met his now business partner at a meetup in Singapore:

We started with a team of only 4 in 2019, learning on the job, investing our own time and money to grow the business. There were lots of ups and downs, but my saving grace came from networking and meetups.

One meetup I went to was in Singapore, where I met my now business partner at an eCommerce summit. We kept in touch, became good friends and I even began helping with his business and from this, Honest FulPhilment was spawned.

Networking is key, no matter how hard you have to work, go to summits, meetups, and promotions in your niche. Opportunities will present themselves without a doubt. The more you go, the harder you work, the luckier you become.

Vamshi Vangapally, on starting BearTax ($3,699/month) full story ➜

12. Meet on LinkedIn

Many founders overlook Linkedin as a way to find your partner, but your personal and professional network can go a very long way.

In addition to your own network, there are various groups you can join on Linkedin to find your business partner:

Michael & Brittany, creators of Cartology, met on Linkedin and grew the business to $43K/month:

One of the best things that occurred as the business grew was my partnership with my business partner. Brittany McCormick and I met via LinkedIn when I needed an account manager.

She and I began working together over two years ago, while she had her own Amazon consulting business. Since then, she has become the VP of Business Development and we’ve rolled up her consulting business, Story Box, into Cartology as an a la carte service offering that utilizes the infrastructure at Cartology but is being provided at a more affordable rate than our full-service offering.

I never saw myself as someone that would be consulting another person on business decisions but she was the exact right person for me and Cartology. Her experiences complimented mine and she has brought a whole new level of professionalism to our organization.

Cartology would be nothing that it is today without her hard work and support.

Michael Maher, on starting Cartology ($43,000/month) full story ➜

13. Start A Business With Your Life Partner

A business partnership with your 'life partner" can actually lead to positive income benefits for both spouses.

Although this may present challenges, starting a business with your spouse can be very rewarding and give you the ability to connect on an extremely close level.

This husband and wife started Mahiya, a fashion business that now makes $87K/month

We are a husband and wife team from the Gold coast in Australia. Mahiya means ‘My Love’ and we specialize in bohemian leather products including women's purses, handbags, footwear, and clothing.

When we started the business in 2013 Ryan was running his own small roofing business and I had a start-up label with a friend of mine selling at the local markets on the Gold Coast and also singing in bands and shows and also working as a disability carer.

When I left my other business partner I asked Ryan if he would be interested in helping me with a new concept I had. We had only been together for 6 months at the time but Ryan thought why not give it a go and helped me get the business set up.

In the beginning, we ran the business out of our spare bedroom until we outgrew that and moved to our garage where we built shelves and small office space.

Alex and Ryan Hutchinson, on starting Mahiya ($87,000/month) full story ➜

Other Places You Can Meet Your Cofounder

In addition to the list above, here are 5 popular resources to help you find your next co-founder:

StartHawk: The 'dating app' for founders.
CoFoundersLab: A free platform to connect, collaborate, educate and build your startup.
Founders Nation: A platform that allows you to find or become a startup co-founder
FoundersBeta: A paid website for finding cofounders, events, jobs, and networking opportunities.
Slack Channels: Slack is a messaging tool that also allows you to join business channels. Here is a list of the top 10 channels to join for business owners.

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meet the author

Samantha Walls

I'm Sam Walls, COO of Starter Story - a platform and community for entrepreneurs and future founders to learn what it takes to build a great business. I joined the Starter Story team approximately 3 years ago, with the goal of providing our readers with the best, most valuable, and inspirational content on the internet.

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