

I need a cofounder, so I built okcofounder.com - anthonycole
http://okcofounder.com/

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cyphersanctus
Did anyone else think he created a solution for everyone and not just for
himself?

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girvo
I think that he should pivot his entire startup to build this.

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incision
I'm a bit disappointed.

I was hoping for a full-blown site for entrepreneurial individuals to find and
connect with each other.

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epynonymous
doesn't angelist do some of the same things?

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anthonycole
I've added a campaign monitor subscription form to the site for anyone who's
interested in potentially using an idea like this. I'm not sure where I'm
going to take it, but if you'd actually use okcofounder for real, then I think
we should keep in touch.

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krmmalik
You seem to have gotten many positive comments already but just to respond to
this point specifically. If it was a site as the audience was expecting i
would have signed up and could have done with something like this a couple of
months ago.

I come across people quite often looking for co-founders. They don't
necessarily need them, but that's their choice.

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bravura
If you are sick of co-founder dating and looking for that perfect match, are
ready for something serious, why not consider:

eCofounderHarmony.com

(I just made that up. But perhaps the "eHarmony" approach to cofounder matches
makes more sense than OkCupid. Since, ya know, you're "married" to your
cofounder.)

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ISL
cfHarmony.com ...

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simcop2387
I don't like that one, reminds me too much of cold fusion.

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michaelkscott
A little too much, you see.

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tuxidomasx
This site was not what I thought it was.

I want to find a match-- but nothing too serious... I'm really just looking
for a good time. I want to be someone's interim technical co-founder with
benefits for a while. Just temporarily. And not for equity (you see, I have a
problem with commitment), but for cash.

Just long enough to get their idea from conception to climax.

And then we can part ways and I can find someone else who could benefit from
my expertise.

I need a high-end co-founder matchmaker service, and okcofounder was not that.

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HunterV
Unintentionally neat idea, but I'd be wary of the legalities behind using that
name or any other variation of a popular dating site. They'll be onto you as
fast as you gain popularity.

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dylangs1030
I'm going to be frank with you, Anthony. I checked out okcofounder.com and
read about you. Then I checked out your project, residen.se.

In my humble opinion, I think you should abandon residen.se and work _full
time_ on okcofounder. This is not something I'm saying lightly. Consider it
this way:

1\. You designed and created okcofounder with a clear need in mind. I don't
"feel" the same sort of inspiration and personal connection with residen.se

2\. There are at least three comments at the time of this writing in this
thread that express _disappointment_ at okcofounder not being for finding
cofounders and being applicable to their lives. You just got user feedback.

3\. Residen.se looks like the perfect web 2.0 model of what a tech startup
should be, but okcofounder is something that is immediately relevant and
comprehensible on the front page. I had a little trouble figuring out what
residen.se was for immediately. Not so with okcofounder.

I'll come out and say that I'd pay for a service like okcofounder. I live in
NYC and it's harder to find people than it is in Silicon Valley.

okcofounder satisfies _true entrepreneurial need_ \- despite the odd fact that
it's a meta-project, you created it trying to solve a problem for yourself.
But there are users saying they'd love the idea on a wider, open scale. So do
it.

~~~
Recoil42
Only problem? The idea's hardly new. Sites like <http://founderdating.com/>
<http://collabfinder.com/> <http://www.cofounderslab.com/>
<http://techcofounder.com/> already exist. It's not quite a crowded space
_yet_ , and there's probably room for innovation, but your comment makes it
sound like you think he's hit idea paydirt with okcofounder -- he hasn't.

~~~
dylangs1030
You're right. But the fact that he received so much disappointment so quickly
means that those venues aren't working - _yet_...so yes, room for innovation.

~~~
mattmanser
I really, really want to reiterate Recoil's point above.

The rental market is massive and real and worth a shit-ton of money. Handling
the pain of repairs and stuff? it's not even been vaguely tapped! That's a
fucking good idea that's going to be hard to sell but it's a domino thing.
When one major rental agency starts using it they'll all start using it. 'Your
flat doesn't have residee.ce? How lame!'

Finding a co-founder is a tiny market.

Your advice is well intentioned and dog-fooding and all that lovely bullshit
nonsense and really, really terrible.

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vineet
If you are looking for a full-fledged site, you might find these guys
relevant: <http://www.cofounderslab.com/>

(I haven't used them)

~~~
dhawalhs
<http://founderdating.com> is another one.

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synapticism
Cute, but think twice about making this the focus of your time as people have
advised above. Finding a cofounder is a pain point for many people (myself
included) but the market can't be very large. You will also have to address a
challenge that regular dating sites have, namely that those who successfully
find a match will no longer use your service. Unlike regular dating sites,
cofounder-matching sites seem stacked with people looking for help with their
idea, perhaps because those willing to work for someone else already have a
job and aren't as driven to get involved. Are there really an equal number of
people who think "I'd love to work on a startup but don't have an idea of my
own that I am passionate about"?

That being said, none of the cofounder-matching sites I've used have solved my
problem so I suppose there is room in this space. If you did take a cue from
OKC and institute a system of curated user-generated Q&As you might be on to
something. The services I've used were primitive in their matching ability
(e.g. I am a developer looking for a designer, which tells you nothing about
values, principles, working style, etc.) so hey, maybe you could make it work.

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epynonymous
anthony, just a note, you should also buy the domain residen.ce for the other
half of the world that uses a bastardization of the english language :) you
can just redirect to residen.se

good luck with your venture. some thoughts on okfounder:

1\. where is the return value of the site, in other words, if i found a great
founder on the site and am happy with him/her, what incentive do i have to
revisit? maybe your idea is that most people will start something else up, but
that number won't necessarily be high. perhaps of more value is to find
startup people, not just founders, but initial employees, founders,
consultants, advisors, etc.

2\. personally i don't feel some of the content are that relevant, such as
your favorite artists/people, books you've read, there's a much better place
for this information (facebook, twitter), you should link to those. you should
put more things along the lines of what you're trying to build, personally, i
don't think ideas need to be secret, that's what will really draw in a
cofounder or employee, not whether or not you both like catcher in the rye.

~~~
phylofx
First level .ce-Domains are not available for registration. The domain name is
not that important anyway. Residen.se is fine in my opinion.

~~~
lessnonymous
IMHO, it's more important to get residense.com than residen.ce

I have a site that uses the '.se' and the (non tech) people who are my target
market keep asking '.com?'

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gregcohn
Piling on the comments that say you should consider developing this as a
general service.

One constituency to keep in mind is the person who has a job but would quit it
if they had the right cofounder -- ie some form of anonymous or semi-anonymous
matching until both sides choose to reveal.

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rickdangerous1
Hey Anthony, If you do pivot and take okcofounder forward as your primary
venture, can you do all us solo founders a favour? Can you NOT take on a
cofounder for okcofounder? That way the irony of it all will make the startup
scene a better place for solo guys like me. All the best!

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weisser
I like this concept and I too was disappointed I couldn't sign up to check it
out. I have a co-founder but I would love to try a service like this to bring
on early employees.

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qompiler
Your website is blocked on any major corporate network with a web-filter for
using "dating" in your title, just letting you know.

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unoti
Cool site! Typo on the book The Selfish Hene.

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anthonycole
Oops! Fixed that.

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te_chris
I've known Anthony for a while, good developer and fun guy to hang out with,
hope this works well for him!

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tehrania
There's a typo; the selfish gene.

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unholyalliance
why not something millionaire match maker styled, where you pay an MBA to get
you hitched?

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hjay
I get where the domain name comes from, but are you sure the co-founder you're
looking for is only "ok"?

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nedwin
Do you feel the same way about OKCupid? "Are you sure the boy/girlfriend
you're looking for is only 'ok'?"

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rdl
With OKCupid, I thought it was implying the selection process is "just OK" --
as in it's a sort of effective but not perfect matching system. Not that the
people found are only OK (I personally only ever found crazy people, but I
know a few people who got married from OKC...)

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anthonycole
I actually don't have an OKCupid account. I deleted it a few weeks ago.

I've heard of other people getting married and a few of my best friends met
through a dating website, but yeah. I think that it's not necessarily because
of it.

danah boyd's talk here is a good reference:
[http://talks.webstock.org.nz/speakers/danah-boyd/culture-
fea...](http://talks.webstock.org.nz/speakers/danah-boyd/culture-fear-
attention-economy/)

The TL;DR I got from that talk is that "Internet bullying isn't bad as normal
bullying, it is just portrayed differently".

In line with that argument, I would say that dating websites in general just
bring out those "crazy people" you meet in a different way.

Because at the end of the day, the "crazy people" would still exist.

