

Not in the Valley?  How do you find co-founders? - rebooter

It's pretty clear that if you are in Silicon Valley and are moderately good about networking there's an "established" (if I may use that word) path to finding co-founders for a startup.  If you came out of a school such as Stanford a lot of your search may have actually been "automagic" in the relationships you built while at school.<p>But, say that you don't live in the Valley.  And, say that you are a relatively new Internet entrepreneur in a market like Los Angeles.  You are not 20-something, so no school relationships to bank on.<p>How do you find co-founders for a venture?<p>Please don't say "move to the Valley"! :)
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nkassis
By Building something? That's what I'm trying right now, I'm building an early
prototype that I can then show. I hope it will work. My friend like my ideas
but they are a cautious bunch, they need what I mean first.

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perucoder
I agree, build something, put it online, and promote the hell out of it.
That's what I'm doing now and it constantly amazes me how open people are to
giving advice and sharing experiences. I haven't met any co-founders yet, but
I am making a lot of great contacts and getting the word out about me as a
developer and my product. Good luck with what you're doing.

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RealGeek
In earlier days, I used to run a popular linux and security related forum.

I came in contact with many hackers and geeks through the forums. I got few
good friends through the community, and my co-founder found me through the
same forums.

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knoxos
As mentioned already, one possibility is to take part in events... For me
personal, I've been looking within my network and business contacts. Services
as linkedin or xing are worth to look at.

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ig1
Launch48, Startup Weekends, Hackathons,etc.

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Mz
A rubric that might help:

Examine the "typical" paths to finding a cofounder and draw some conclusions
about _why_ those things work. I would say that connections like having gone
to the same college are about finding the proverbial "third space" where
people can just be people and relate as human beings, which is a natural means
for stumbling across deep compatibility.

If you compare this to dating, my view is that dating doesn't work terribly
well because both parties are trying to convince the other party they are
desirable and thus they are prone to putting on a facade, while at the same
time trying to poke holes in the facade the other person is putting forth. My
observation has been that the best marriages tend to come from folks who knew
each other socially -- through school or work or family or friends -- before
it became intimate. Find ways to put yourself in social settings where you can
just be you while talking to people about business/work stuff and be open to
having something click.

A metaphor I use for love, which might apply here: An open palm holds more
water than a closed fist. Putting yourself in the right places and being open
to what may be might pay off. Desperately grasping at straws probably won't.

Good luck with this.

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pitdesi
This is pretty hard... I found a co-founder at <http://www.techcofounder.com/>
and things seem to be going pretty well for us. We met in Pittsburgh. What
Many cities other than the valley have a great infrastructure and meetups that
should allow you to find others. A quick search for LA tech meetup found this
- I'm sure you can find many others <http://www.meetup.com/newtech-25/>

