How to Find a Co-Founder

Running a startup solo is brutally hard.

It’s rare that one person has all the necessary skills to build, launch, sell, hire, fundraise, and grow a company from scratch. That’s why co-founders exist.

Finding the right co-founder is one of the most important decisions you’ll make as a founder. A good cofounder can accelerate your learning and expand your capabilities, while the wrong pick can doom your project before it even gets off the ground.

👀 What to look for

• People in MOTION
  • You’re not looking for someone who aspires to one day be a founder, but a person who’s already acting like the talented, locked-in, motivated leader they’re going to become. They’re hacking on side projects, exploring new ideas, attending events and networking, or already shipping their own product.
• Shared values > shared skills
  • Skills can be learned, and you can always hire someone who’s great at something narrow that you need. But when looking for a co-founder, you’re seeking alignment on a vision, an ambition, and a plan for how you want to build. Start by asking yourself some key questions: What are your non-negotiables? What kind of culture do you ultimately want to create?
• Don’t default to friends
  • Familiarity ≠ fit. The best co-founders bring complementary skills, they challenge your thinking, and they hold a different perspective. You need someone who makes the team stronger—not just someone you’d like to spend time around.
• Prioritize long-term compatibility
  • Can this person evolve with the company? Will they show up when things are hard? Founding a company is a multi-year grind. You want someone with resilience, not just eagerness and excitement.
• Start small
  • When embarking on a new business relationship, working on a narrow project before you dive in to co-founding a company together can be a smart strategy. Before splitting equity or making it official, test the waters. Make something small. It’s the fastest way to see how well you problem-solve, communicate, and handle feedback, with the least amount of long-term commitment.

🛠  Embarking on Your Search

• Write a “co-founder pitch”
  • Treat it like a job description. What are you building? What’s the vision? What gaps are you looking to fill—technical, product, go-to-market? What do you value in a partner? A clear cofounder pitch filters out the noise and attracts the right kind of energy.
• Go where builders are
  • Linkedin and Twitter/X are great, but you can’t stop there.
  • → Try startup communities, many have co-founder matching tools, like Y Combinator's Cofounder Matching Tool.
  • → Niche Discord or Slack groups are goldmines.
  • → On Reddit, post "Is this a dumb idea...?" Explain your idea and mention you're looking for a co-founder if it's not a dumb idea.
  • → Attend demo days, hackathons, local meetups. You want to find people already doing the work.
  • → Meet founders at Founder University.
  • → Meet founders IRL at Founder Fridays!

3️⃣ Jason’s Recommended 3-Step Process

• Get clear on your skills—and the skills that you’re missing
  • Mark Suster wrote a great thread on Twitter about "founder types." Understand which one you are and try to find team members who compliment what you’re bringing to the table.

• List people in your network with those missing skills

• Meet with them, pitch the vision, and ask for feedback‍
  • ✨ If they’re interested, ask them to join you.
  • 🤔 If they’re not? Ask them who else they’d recommend.

✅  Green flags to look for:

• They execute without being told.
• They’re obsessed with the problem.
• They can disagree productively.
• They’re honest, even when it’s uncomfortable.
• You leave conversations with maore energy than you started with.

🚩 Red flags to watch out for:

• They talk more than they build.
• They disappear when things get tough.
• They’re unclear on their motivations.
• They’re in it “for the exit” before anything is built.

Bottom line: this is one of the most high-leverage decisions you’ll make. Be intentional. Be clear. And move fast once you find the right person.

Let’s build 🚀

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