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Meeting Cofounders: 27 places to find them

Hoping to meet your cofounder? As a followup to my post about getting a technical cofounder, I thought I'd offer a near-exhaustive list of places where you can find potential cofounders — technical or no. Let's get right into it.

Meeting cofounders in person

  1. Friends, family, acquaintances, friends of friends, etc.: This is the obvious place to start. It's where I've found literally every cofounder I've ever had (~11 and counting).
  2. Old colleagues: Yes, this could go in the "acquaintances" bucket above but colleagues might be an even safer bet. After all, you have experience working together and they're (presumably) in your industry.
  3. Co-working spaces: What better place to meet other entrepreneurs? Check out WeWork. Even better, find your local indie co-working space like @alexhillman's Indie Hall in Philadelphia (currently online) or @charlierward's online co-working group, Weekend Club.
  4. Startup Weekend: Speaking of weekends, Techstars Startup Weekend is a worldwide, three-day event where entrepreneurs, pitch, validate, build, and demo their prototypes. It is a perfect place to meet like-minded people eager to start new businesses.
  5. Meetups: This is a no-brainer. Find meetups in your industry and strike up some conversations.
  6. Hackathons: If you're looking for a technical cofounder, these are good places to be. Here's a list of sites to keep an eye on for upcoming hackathons.
  7. Conferences: These can cost a pretty penny but if it's a niche conference, you can definitely find good candidates. Check out MicroConf, for one.
  8. Local university entrepreneur activities: I spent a lot of time at these in college. I also acted as a panelist for a competition after graduating. I can tell you that I met a lot of interesting people this way.
  9. Networking: It can be scary but it can also be worth it. Target networking events in your niche or for a specific skill set (like marketing events).
  10. Incubators: If you get into an incubator, you'll meet lots of people with that entrepreneurial spirit. And if you're not quite that far along, many have communities for early-stage folks to communicate. Here's a list of some of the best.
  11. Founder dating events: I've never been to one but some places offer speed-dating for founders from time to time. Keep your ear to the ground.

Meeting cofounders online

  1. Indie Hackers: Obviously this is a great place to do it. And you're already here, so that's convenient. Get active, and check out the Looking to Partner Up group, which has nearly 16,000 members.
  2. Building in public: This shows people who you are and what you're made of. Boost your signal by building in public, and either cofounders will come to you or you can put out the call when you're ready.
  3. LinkedIn: Your personal network on LinkedIn is an asset. But you can also check out LinkedIn groups like On Startups - The Community for Entrepreneurs, CoFounder, and Ideas Seeking Co Founder.
  4. Freelancers: Many of us have worked as freelancers at some point. If you hire someone to work on your MVP, who's to say that they won't want to join in on the indie hacking fun? It wouldn't be the first time.
  5. CoFoundersLab: This is a free platform specifically designed for connecting entrepreneurs.
  6. Founders Nation: This is another free platform that connects people with cofounders.
  7. Pozi.io: This is a platform currently in Beta that aims to connect and inspire entrepreneurs.
  8. FoundersBeta: This is a paid platform for finding startup jobs, cofounders, events, and ultimately growing your network.
  9. StartHawk: This is essentially a dating app for cofounders. Sign up for free and search cofounders using their algorithm, then chat to see if it's a good fit.
  10. F6S: A free platform with over 4 million users. F6S lets you connect with accelerators, funds, investors — you name it. More to the point, they'll let you post a position at your startup.
  11. Lead Candy: Lead Candy is a paid platform that helps you search out entrepreneurs, cofounders, industry leaders, etc., but it's a little different from the rest in that it lets you connect with them via their socials and verified email addresses.
  12. AngelList: You’ve probably already heard of it. It’s not specifically designed for finding cofounders but, like F6S, you can just register as a recruiter and post a position.
  13. reddit: reddit is a place you'll definitely want to check out. And with 23,000 members looking for cofounders, it's well worth joining r/cofounder. Also worth checking out: r/startups, r/Entrepreneur, r/EntrepreneurRideAlong, and r/SideProject
  14. Slack: You're probably familiar with this messaging platform and its many business channels. Here's a list of 400 channels to get you started.
  15. Discord: Check out Discord too, and specifically their #cofounding channel in /r/startups.
  16. And then, of course, there's social media. Don’t underestimate the power of a good ol’ tweet.

Hopefully, that serves as a good jumping-off point for anyone trying to partner up. You could literally find your cofounder anywhere, but these are some of your best bets. Let me know in the comments if I missed any.

  1. 1

    Hi there! Two great founders I know, Hazim and Carin are building CoffeeSpace , a Tinder/Hinge-like app that makes the process much easier (I’m one of their early users!).Feel free to check it out below and head over if you are looking for a cofounder/ exploring ideas.

  2. 1

    Great list! Thanks for sharing!

  3. 1

    How about Hacker Houses? I did a preliminary google search and got some interesting results. Seems like a good way to find other builders.

  4. 2

    YC cofounder matching is the best no comment. If you sort people well the quality of people and the platform is very good.

  5. 3

    I think we can also add YC's startupschool.org as CoFounder matching.

  6. 7

    Cofounderslab.com in my experience is almost scam-like.

    They charge $150 a year and tell you that you can search for other cofounders and have access to all their courses and other offerings as a premium user.

    However, after paying I had no access to any of their other offerings e.g. courses nor the ability to search easily for cofounders. You only get to search a city at a time (in this day and age, I'm sorry but that's a no-go!) and it shows me having several people reaching out to me but no way to even view their messages or reply.

    They also do not respond to any inquiries about a refund or platform help. I have attempted contact on LinkedIn, Facebook page (through messenger), and on cofounderslab.com's chat feature to no avail!

    1. 1

      Thanks for the info. Almost joined them.

    2. 1

      I signed up a few moments ago and the entire process was weird and riddled with bugs. I'll lurk for a while and see what's going.

    3. 0

      That's good to know, thanks for the heads up!

    4. 1

      This comment was deleted a year ago.

  7. 1

    Really useful information! Thank you for sharing this!

  8. 5

    great list!!

    but, "F6S lets you connect with accelerators, funds, investors — you name it."

    Please name the other groups. In particular, how to access the 4mil actual users? because whenever I look at f6s I simply cannot find a way to reach the full community.

    1. 4

      Hey @steveprocter, that's a bummer. I've never personally used F6S (I just know them from my research), so I don't think I can be much help there.

  9. 1

    Hello James,

    Really useful information! Thank you for sharing this!

  10. 4

    We could add Peersuite to this list: https://www.peersuit.com/

  11. 4

    @IndieJames
    I am Tamás, one of the founders of Pozi.io
    I really like the article. Thank you for mentioning. Pozi.io is already suitable for organizing Hackathons and demodays.

  12. 4

    https://www.founderio.com/ is great if you are looking for a German speaking co-founder.
    I also use https://www.startus.cc/people to search for potential co-founders and then write to them on LinkedIn

    1. 1

      Great advice, thanks for weighing in! 💪

  13. 1

    Thank you for sharing. This is great

  14. 1

    This is such a great resource...thank you for sharing this!

  15. 1

    Awesome list. Thank you 👍

  16. 1

    Thanks for sharing, I've learned a lot .

  17. 3

    Here's my story - I wanted to build a chrome extension for Airbnb. I looked in the chrome store to see who had built other extensions for Airbnb. I cold emailed a few of them and was able to find a great technical co-founder much faster than anticipated! We've never met in person, but working together has been smooth sailing.

    1. 1

      Nice, that was a great idea - thanks for weighing in!

  18. 3

    This is a fantastic post. I was waiting for such a list for a long time.

  19. 3

    Found some great people on Twitter and Reddit - nice list man!

  20. 2

    Never mix Family members with business... it never ends well

    1. 1

      Absolutely agree with this!

  21. 2

    I have used most of these at one point or another - based on my experience - I would say starthawk.io (at least in 2019-2021) was one of the few to have a lot of good cofounding talent (pre-funding/pre-revenue) mindset with real results. It seems like it's becoming more general community and less co-founder focused recently.

    There is also https://www.startupschool.org/cofounder-matching which again focuses exclusively on co-founders without the other noise.

    Of course indie hackers is good as well.

    1. 1

      I second this. After reading @IndieJames post I got live there quick. But, just had a call with a tech agency in disguise of co-founder!

      1. 2

        Yeah, unfortunately I have seen that quite often. Here is a little quip I bookmarked and always refer to before meeting to set the expectations. https://www.quora.com/What-kind-of-people-should-not-be-entrepreneurs/answer/Randall-Reade?ch=15&oid=50443528&share=55812f36&srid=3E0Z&target_type=answer

  22. 2

    I am a professional developer aiming to build project management solution based on Scrum. I know I have all what it take to start the project but what I am missing is a partner who take care of Marketing, business grow, strategy... etc.
    Thank you for sharing this article.
    I hope I'll be able to find what I'm searching for.

  23. 2

    Great list! I would probably add the Small Business Administration to this list. They're a great resource to provide guidance, workshops, and knowledge for anyone going through the startup process (as well as growth).

  24. 2

    @IndieJames could you have a closer look at founderio.com? I think it's worth a mention in the "online" part of the list. Definitely better than Founders Nation :D

  25. 2

    Great list! Currently, I am looking for a growth marketer co-founder so this is very helpful. Thank you

    1. 1

      I’m in marketing - would be open to chat!

  26. 2

    Thank you this information. love the list of Slack communities!

  27. 2

    Wow! Fantastic post, all the information in place. Thank you✌️

  28. 2

    I would add definitely add/endorse YCombinator's co founder matching tool. it's very very good. It's still raw in terms of functionality but I've meet a ton of great potential cofounders from all over the world

    1. 1

      That's good know - thanks for your input! 👍

  29. 2

    Solid list!

    I've used some of the sources for meeting new cofounders, but I found most pretty complicated.
    So last week I've built a simple database of cofounders right here: https://partnerz.vercel.app/ - no account necessary, plain searchable info

    Curious what you think about it!

    1. 2

      Last week? That was quick work. Looks like a cool product! 💪

      1. 1

        Thanks so much!

        haha well those filters took most of the work and I've had a bit of help from someone more senior than I am to figure out the logic.

        Not showing off but I can whip up a layout like that in a day or two. my top frustration is handling data which is a bitch when starting out. but I'm slowly learning to do that too.

        Searching for a tech cofounder and not finding one is what got me into coding, frankly it was the most productive problem I've had to this day.

        1. 2

          I've debated learning to code about a million times now 😅 Kudos for doing it!

          1. 2

            Haha yeah that's a familiar feeling.

            First couple of months felt like crap, but I stuck with it and lately it's been paying off. Very tough still, I feel dumb most of the time, but I've heard that's natural for every dev 😂

            I'm putting together an airtable with free resources and will share it on here.

            1. 1

              Hah, yeah I bet. Ok sweet, looking forward to checking it out 👍

  30. 2

    Damn man - you put in the work and greatly appreciated. Thank you!

  31. 2

    Bootstrapper Breakfasts have seen a number of teams form from conversations that started at a breakfast. See https://bootstrappersbreakfast.com/2021/03/23/roundup-of-events-for-bootstrappers-in-april-2021/ for a list of April online meetings that are no charge and open to entrepreneurs. IndieHackers Welcome.

  32. 1

    Interesting, been looking for strategic partner for VC firm :)

  33. 1

    Very Insightful post. I've been looking for a co-founder for awhile and this post gave me a lot of info to now find one. Thanks a lot. Much love.

  34. 1

    Hola! estamos creando una fintech, estamos en etapa de investigacion.
    Buscamos personas para intercambiar ideas.
    algien quiere participar?

  35. 1

    Thank you so much for this insightful post. Being a solo founder without a tech background is challenging, it's encouraging to see there's a number of avenues worth exploring. I did check out CoFounders Lab as one of my first destinations but found the site difficult to even access as my sign-up process kept hanging so i eventually gave up! Has anyone else had problems with this one in particular?

  36. 1

    Exactly what I was looking for, cheers! Surely one these places will yield results.

  37. 1

    This is a great piece.

    Is there anyone software engineer that would like to work on an edtech product for Africa?

    We already have some versions of our product but we want to expand to SAAS due to demand

  38. 1

    不错的地方,很启发我们去探索

  39. 1

    StartupSchool Y combinator is also one of the platforms, where you can find co-founders

  40. 1

    Hey! I need your help - I am thinking of creating an app where developers can meet UI/UX designers and become technical co-founders. I believe that an engineer and a designer can be a perfect team when creating MVPs, covering each other's weaknesses. The platform would be meant for side hustlers, building Saas businesses. There are already a few platforms that help to find a co-founder, but most of those are broad and fail to display technical parts. I hope to solve this problem by asking designers to promote their wireframes/prototypes (not only the description), so the engineers who are looking for the next thing to build can already see if they like the way the designer is thinking, before approaching them. I am trying to figure out if there is a demand for such a thing, please share your thoughts! Would you use it?

    1. 1

      Hi there, I'm a non-tech founder and I love this idea! Can we chat further about it? I believe I have a great idea/ solution to a problem but as it's very ambitious and complex, I am in search of a great tech lead to be my co-founder.

    2. 1

      Can we have a chat? Kind of thinking in the same direction

    3. 1

      I think it will work. Did you validate your idea?

  41. 1

    This is very helpful, thanks brother

  42. 1

    This is great! Thank you. I wish those Techstars Startup Weekends were in the Florida area.

  43. 1

    Wow thanks for helping man

  44. 1

    great m thanks , it helps me a lot

  45. 1

    Wow, thanks for that great article. I haven't found any other blog like this!

  46. 1

    Very good page, I hope to find a few partners who share the same interests

  47. 1

    Some great tips, thanks! Anyone ever struggle with not knowing how to approach the subject with potential co-founders? Maybe it's just me...

  48. 1

    Great resource. I'll certainly be using it for my search.

  49. 1

    No. 28 - The Market. Share your project with the world (use a no-code MVP if you're looking for a tech co-founder) and cool people who believe in your project could gather around you - potential co-founders too.

  50. 1

    Thank you very much for the list, James.

  51. 1

    Anyone know of any UK based meetups happening in 2023?

    1. 1

      Would be very interested to know as well.

  52. 1

    This is really great, thanks!

  53. 1

    I am gonna try those now. thanks

  54. 1

    Loved this post, James!

  55. 1

    I loved this article. Kudos!

  56. 1

    phenomenal article. thanks for posting!

  57. 1

    Super article thanks. I bookmarked it.

  58. 1

    First of all, thank you for this post. It has been very useful for me.

  59. 1

    Nice bookmarked it!

  60. 1

    Thanks for the list

  61. 1

    Great tips, I found my cofounder by asking my old-time friend if he wants to build something together.

  62. 1

    Great List, Thank you

  63. 1

    Meet cofounders online on Githired: https://bit.ly/githired_devs
    You can search for projects similar to yours on Github, and reach out to the project's developers via Githired. These devs will bring their passion, failures, & successes to your partnership!

  64. 1

    Was in need for something like this to grow my business. Thanks James.

  65. 1

    This post could be renamed "Fantastic Cofounders, and Where to Find Them". Anyway, great post! Thank you

    1. 1

      This comment was deleted a year ago.

  66. 1

    I have a question about meeting cofounders online, which I've been debating with friends. At what stage would you feel comfortable sharing your startup idea with a stranger online? I've reached the conclusion that your startup idea has to get out into the world via marketing at some point, but the question is at what point is best? Would you feel comfortable without any product built, for example, to share your idea with a cofounder online? Or do you think having an MVP ready is a minimal requirement?

  67. 1

    I would suggest checking https://uiworks.io before finding co-founder for your mobile app. UiWorks.io provide UI code at fix price and lifetime support for UI bug fixes so mobile app developer has to develop logical and technical issue in the app without worrying about the designs. Outsourcing UI code saves 30-40% of development cost and effort. Everything which comes under UI can be handle by UiWorks at $200 a screen including localisations, support all possible screen sizes, animations, dark/light mode, accessibility support.

  68. 1

    Dropping my co-founder matching startup here too: https://tertle.io 🐢🚀

  69. 1

    The most thoroughly compiled article on finding co-founders! Thanks

  70. 1

    Thank you so much! I was so exhausted from looking for cofounders but now I think it will be more efficient!

  71. 1

    Has anyone had success finding a technical cofounder on a site like this? I understand manually finding someone on Reddit, Slack, Discord, LinkedIn, etc. but for the other website I just feel like the person who signed up looking for a cofounder isn't the person you're looking for but hopefully I'm wrong and it works for people?

  72. 1

    This article has become my bible for finding a cofounder...thanks!!

  73. 1

    Very helpful article. Some steps in there I didn't even know I had to take.

  74. 1

    Great list! I would only add https://joinef.com

  75. 1

    Valuable tips, thank you for sharing

  76. 1

    Thanks for the resources! I've been looking for a team of devs and leaders to connect with to rehash my current NFP organization. It's been around for 10 years and helped 1000's of people with their mental health, but COVID happened and we had to close our studio. We are a unique non profit organization offering free or by donation yoga to marginalized communities and on our best year we've had just over $250k in revenue, which is impressive for me based on my lack of secondary education. The vision and creative ideas are all here, I've just been lacking the support. So grateful to have stumbled along this website, because I won't give up on our mission after witnessing how many people's mental health have been improved or saved by meditation and mindfulness.

  77. 1

    Hi all, I'm David Sam,
    I'm the founder of WebNeeder.com, my idea is to build a tool to help people to create free landing page websites. The idea is quite similar to Wix but much more straightforward, Wix is quite complex and Expensive. Below is my MVP, with this MVP, you can browse the templates and deploy the website instantly, let's try it out.
    If you like the idea, please join me, I need someone you can do the marketing side.
    Thanks,
    https://webneeder.com

  78. 1

    Really a great source of information. keep it up

  79. 1

    This is great. Thank you for sharing. Also seeing Building in Public as the only non hyperlinked item - it seems that we need a website for that industry ;)

  80. 1

    Im Balraj a Business and product developer and also the founder of the digitlers .
    beside of these like I'm working on one side project for that I'm looking for tech co founder for that product , if you are interested in to work on side project as I'm looking for co founder . if so , would love to connect and chat futher over call so can we connect .

  81. 1

    Thanks for the tips. Indeed. the list is extensive. One problem you usually find though is that in incubators, conferences and sector events everyone has its own idea or is working already for someone else idea's. I have not meet many persons looking for a project is those contexts. Any idea?

  82. 1

    Thanks for posting this, very useful :)

  83. 1

    A great listicle. Thx

  84. 1

    Thanks very much for this post! I discovered new places I had not heard about before.
    I have actually built a web app in this same ecosystem of entrepreneurship networking.
    It is a tinder-like app where founders post their project and other entrepreneurs post their profiles and skills, and based on their research filters, our algorithms will display the appropriate projects/profiles to swipe.

    https://www.teamup-entrepreneurs.com/

    @IndieJames I propose a service for networks to use my app. Would you like to discuss it?

  85. 1

    Thanks for the great article. Segmenting by industry would also be a helpful tool within a lot of these sites which still doesn't seem to feature very much.

  86. 1

    YCombinator, recently launched a co founder matching application as part of their ‘Startup school” Startup School - The Best Online Resource for Founders.

    https://startupschool.org/

    It’s like a dating app for founders of all different backgrounds, and from around the world. You create a profile and you’re matched with other founders based on: time zone, geography, skills, time commitment, industry, and role.

    It’s by far one of the best tools and communities for founders.

    Many top level serial entrepreneurs, as well as recent FAANG engineers, CS students from top schools are all using the tool.

    A few of them go on to apply to the accelerator and receive investment.

    I’ve used the tool personally, and I’ve meet many amazing founders, from all over the world. I’ve made new friends, and I’ve connected with co founders that I’m currently working with.

  87. 1

    Very useful list, thanks for this. Only concern is that if you've not used some of these platforms much, it takes a while to get the right to post, which may clash with some of our ambitious timings to find a biz partner -same seems to apply here. sigh
    Anyone got any shortcuts? :)

    1. 1

      Agreed. I’m doing everything I can in the Baltimore area and struggling to network with technically minded folks.

  88. 1

    Super useful post. Thank you for sharing. I wanna explore more how to find a co-founder to DOJO+

  89. 1

    Save my time researching

  90. 1

    you should add suplift.io to the list!

  91. 1

    This is a great comprehensive list to get started.

  92. 1

    You can also post your CTO/Co-founder positions here www.codemonk.ai

  93. 1

    Come check us out at www.firstprinciples.io and work with our venture builder. We look for people with deep knowledge in their market. Our team can handle development, DevOps, SEO, and Outbound.

    We look for anyone with the ability to think about a product with an industry-specific solution.

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    This comment was deleted 2 years ago.

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