Finding co-founders in 2023: tips, strategies, and resources

Starting your own business is an exciting prospect, but it can be a lonely journey without someone by your side. With longer hours, more work, and a tenuous promise of success, the self-employed journey is one fraught with heavy setbacks.

Fortunately, there’s a solution to these.

Finding co-founders and starting a startup as a joint venture can ease the workload and move forward the project in ways you might never have foreseen. This is especially true if you don’t have your idea fully worked out, but you know you want to start a business.

In this post, we’re going to offer some help on finding co-founders. We’ll go over what to look for, the biggest reasons to do so, and a few modern platforms to help you find co-founders in 2023.

Finding a co-founder is all about finding the right type of co-founder. This goes beyond selecting someone whose company you like to keep. Productivity and companionship don’t always go hand in hand.

As per the Harvard Business Review, here are key traits to consider in your potential co-founder.

You might be inclined to pick someone cool under pressure like you, or bursting with creativity and charisma if you’re that way inclined. The thing is, it’s actually better to choose your opposite. Two relaxed temperaments risk a lack of ambition. On the other hand, two enthusiastic go-getters risk butting heads when they don’t agree.

Instead, think yin and yang. Pick your opposite and they’ll provide what you can’t. Your business is going to have to make difficult decisions. If you’re the impulsive type, you want your partner to take a step back, think rationally, and pick the best option.

Consider skills in the same way we’ve suggested considering temperament. Pick someone whose skills form a wider picture of a successful business, not someone whose going to enter your territory and step on your toes.

Uber-successful creators of the animated series South Park credit much of their success to their complementary skill sets. Trey Parker does most of the character voices and story pitches, with partner Matt Stone calling him the ‘chef’ of the operation. Stone, conversely, has handled a lot of the accounting and business side of things. No less important, but perfectly complementary.

If you’re good with numbers and spreadsheets, take over budgeting and let your more creative partner devise ideas. Consider also how you do your best work. You don’t want to be keeping your co-founder up all night because your best work gets done when the sun sets, if they prefer to work days.

This specifically refers to a working history. Choosing co-founders you’ve never worked with before is a bit like shooting darts in the dark. You might hit a bullseye, but the odds are stacked against you.

Even if previous ventures with your co-founder have failed, you at least know how they work, and how you work with them. Take this into consideration when looking for co-founders. Learn from previous mistakes, discuss how to move forward and take advantage of the comfort you feel when dealing with someone you already know.

One could make strong arguments for and against co-founding with friends or family. On the one hand, you wouldn’t be choosing them if you didn’t already get along and perhaps talk about the idea of running a business together. But on the other hand, the stresses that come with running a business can be intensified when your personal bonds are stronger with your co-founders.

So what’s the best course of action?

If you have a friend or family member in mind for your co-founder, you need to interrogate that decision. Ask yourself a series of questions to get to the bottom of whether this is the right decision, or you should look for more neutral co-founders. For instance:

How well do you communicate? Beyond things like a similar sense of humor, can you comfortably discuss difficult situations, collaborate on solving issues, and handle confrontation well?

Do you know what your roles would be? Return to our sections on what to look for in co-founders and consider your friend or family member in those roles. Do their strengths complement yours? Does their temperament resemble your own?

Do you want the same thing? You may have different levels of ambition, but your fundamental drive should be the same. Finding a neutral co-founder is often easier because you aren’t friends—you just want the same thing and you’ll work hard to get it. This isn’t always the case with having friends or family as co-founders.

Have you assessed their professional history? Because you know them, it should be easy to review your co-founders history with past startups, previous professional relationships, and employment history.

Now it’s time to assess the ways in which having co-founders can boost your business. Assessing these can influence your decision and increase your focus on finding the right co-founders. If you find that you don’t need help with one of these aspects generally provided by a co-founder, you won’t need to consider it when putting your team together.

If you find that you are an incredibly productive person on your own, you may not need to find co-founders who boost your productivity. However, if you work best in a team, you’ll see tremendous improvements on daily tasks.

Co-founders can do much more than just push you to work harder. They can also offer help with things like:

• Take over tasks you’ve been ignoring
• Inspire you with new ideas
• Keep running the business when you fall ill
• Bring critical perspectives to your ideas

Running a business is emotionally and mentally taxing. The difficult thing about doing it alone is that you have no one with whom you can commiserate, the way you would with employees during a particularly tough week.

Having co-founders brings much needed support and shared struggles to your venture. You can lean on each other and offer solutions when problems arise, release your workload a bit when you need to, and depend on someone other than yourself.

You’re likely attracted to self-employment because you enjoy working alone, but you won’t lose this aspect if you bring on co-founders. Having a team can then add another level of enjoyment to the task.

The days always seem shorter when you’re spending them with others. When spending long days getting your startup together, you can go out for lunch, order in food, staying social while working together.

Investors are generally more attracted to companies run by teams, than ones run solo. This is because you can build a stronger picture of success with several co-founders bringing a range of experiences and startup successes to the table.

Securing funding is one of the most important aspects to any startup, especially at the beginning. Do everything you can to ensure this is a smooth process.

Ours is an age of innovation, with new technologies breeding new ideas on cheaper equipment than ever. It’s a good time to be an entrepreneur. It’s also a good time to find like-minded, ambitious people sharing your dreams of entrepreneurship.

To help you on your search for the ideal partner, we’ve selected a few of the most tried and true methods, with advice on how to approach them.

Without a strong professional network, it can be difficult to find places to mingle with hopeful entrepreneurs. This is why online platforms are such a godsend.

These platforms are a concentration of people just like you, looking for exactly what you are. Online services like this cut through the small talk by putting people together who already know what they want, and know that you want the same things.

Germany: Startup Sucht

Startup Sucht is a search platform providing results in Germany on everything to do with startups: jobs, internships, remote work, and co-founders. Simply select the co-founder filter and put in your keywords about what kind of co-founder you’re looking for, be it a software developer, content creator, or an all-rounder.

Europe: Co-founders club

Co-founders club is a UK-based collective that brings startup enthusiasts together while teaching new entrepreneurs how to put together their first startup. The club organizes learning activities such as a book discussion or online course, and is designed to help entrepreneurs connect and learn at the same time.

Worldwide: Co-founders Lab

Co-founders Lab is the largest online platform for startups, providing opportunities to find co-founders and source funding from investors. They include a smart search function to help you find the right co-founders, and discussion boards to bring together entrepreneurs on any startup-centric topics.

If you’re currently employed, you already have one of the best resources on hand for starting a startup: your colleagues!

Approaching co-workers for startup collaboration comes with a lot of the necessary things we’ve mentioned so far about looking for the right co-founder:

• You already know their working history
• You have a working relationship with them
• You understand how you communicate and work with each other
• You’re likely interested in the same things

Assess who you most enjoy working with and with whom you’ve completed some tough projects on. If they’re interested in the same kind of startup ideas you are, you can begin to meet outside work hours and workshop some potential startups.

Did you know your business plan isn’t just for investors and grant providers? You can also entice potential co-founders with your business plan.

Think of it like this. If you have an idea you discuss with others you’d like to work with and they’re interested, they might ask you for some more detail on your startup idea. At this point, you either have to admit you don’t have anything more than an idea. Maybe they remain interested for a few weeks and by the time you’ve put together a business plan that outlines your goals, they’ve moved onto other ideas—some other well-prepared startup hopeful has snapped them up.

But say, at that moment they asked you, you already had a business plan ready to email them from your phone right then and there. Not only have you hooked them right at the moment they’re biting, but you’ve already demonstrated yourself to be professional, ambitious, and prepared. All the qualities they’re likely looking for in potential co-founders.

Writing a good, clear business plan is crucial to entice the right people. Be sure to read our guide on how to write a business plan.