[erikpukinskis]

I'm still actively looking for cofounders. I go to tech events (Rails/Ruby user groups, etc), I went to the Cofounders Wanted meetup here in Austin. I put big banners on the product site advertising open positions. I put an ad on Craigslist looking for people.

I think the people who rely on their social network must either be friends with other hackers (I'm mostly not) or live in the bay area or something where there are lots of hackers. I mostly run in hippie/activist/academic circles and I'm not swarmed by people with tech/business chops so it's been a more difficult process for me. I would welcome a site or a service that would innovate around this problem.

[ChuckFrank]

Hey erik, I was in the same boat. Here's my advice. Be proactive and target specific individuals who are doing interesting work. Then invite them out for beers, and pitch them your idea. If they are not interested, then their friends might be. Most people are not looking for work, if they are working, and these are the people that you want to meet. So just invert your search, and instead of broadcasting, start focusing on the individual.

[wpietri]

Totally agreed, Chuck.

Advertising broadly for a co-founder is like running an ad that says: BRIDE NEEDED FOR IMMEDIATE BABY PRODUCTION. You might get somebody eventually, but I doubt it will be the caliber of person you want.

I found my cofounder after 3 months of energetically working my personal network. I corresponded with maybe 200 people and met at least 25 in person. If I was going to be spending the next 5-10 years working with somebody, I wanted to be happy with my choice. And I sure am!

[ChuckFrank]

Wait? --> BRIDE NEEDED FOR IMMEDIATE BABY PRODUCTION <--

That's brilliant.