Hmm given all the discussion about friendship being of utmost importance for cofounders (particularly in the case of YC), do people think this would work?
(founder here). We have some more ideas on how to better pair founders and at least make sure people don't make stupid mistakes. That would be an improvement for many first-time founders, maybe not good enough for the experiences HNers, but they can manage on their own usually :-)
IMHO, for success, the cofounders have to work as a team, which can only be achieved if there is friendship. You can either have this friendship relationship before you start (you start a venture with a friend who becomes a cofounder), or you can try to develop it later on (you find a cofounder who later on becomes a friend). The problem with the friendship-later model is that with these matching websites, there is no guarantee that you will get along with the co-founder to the extent that you develop a friendship relationship.
Besides respect, friendship gives you trust and commitment. Ideas of venture do change along the way. A friend is committed to you before the idea of a venture came along, hence, he will be flexible with the change in the idea, the company, the profits, etc. On the other hand, a co-founder (who was not your friend) joined you based on the idea (or the money), hence, he will be less flexible when things change (if no friendship develops along the way).
i'm curious if there are any good examples of cofounders who worked well together and met through one of the third party founder dating approaches? or do most founders meet each other serendipitously (e.g. randomly at a coffee shop, some common interest group at school, dorm roommates, etc)?
The two founders of Kayak (Steve Hafner & Paul English) agreed to be 50/50 partners and write checks for $1M each within an hour of meeting through a VC intro. Hafner likened it to speed dating in an interview.
Not exactly the same, but a pretty awesome example of two founders working well together with no prior relationship.