January 21, 2025 • 15 mins
In this episode of the Startup Leap Podcast, hosts Maria and Yvonne discuss one of the most pivotal steps in launching a startup: finding the right co-founder.
They highlight various ways, both traditional and unconventional, that successful founders have met their co-founders from their experience assessing over 6k startups, investing in £200m+ and investing in over 80+ startups.
This includes leveraging personal networks, attending meetups, using social media platforms, and even forming partnerships with rivals. They also discuss the importance of testing and building relationships before committing to a partnership. The episode is packed with real-life anecdotes and insider tips, making it an essential listen for aspiring entrepreneurs.
00:54 The Importance of Finding the Right Co-Founder
01:47 Starting with Your Personal Network
03:46 Exploring Social Media and Online Communities
04:57 Educational Connections and Shared Experiences
05:44 Leveraging Startup Communities and Events
07:22 Accelerators and Co-Founder Matching Platforms
09:51 Unconventional Methods: Rivals and Cold Emails
13:52 The Role of Angel Investors and Advisors
14:35 Conclusion and Final Thoughts
Watch the full episode here: https://youtu.be/U-GbFIRcRjE
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Two brothers came together, both not technical.
(00:03):
So what did they do?
They attended meetups, community events,
and they found their CTO that way.
The Dropbox founders found each other online
on an MIT platform.
One of these boards, they texted each other
and they got together.
You can always have a healthy rivalry.
If we think about the story of Google, Larry and Serge,
they used to have interactions where they would clash.
Welcome to The Startup Leap,
(00:23):
the number one podcast interviewing startup founders
who have taken the leap.
On The Startup Leap, we hear real,
raw and relatable stories of how they've navigated
taking the leap, where your hosts.
I'm Yvonne.
And I'm Maria.
And this is The Startup Leap podcast.
Any statements made by Maria, Yvonne,
or The Startup Leap guests are solely their view
(00:44):
and are not advice.
Welcome back to The Startup Leap podcast,
where we share real stories and real lessons
with founders who have taken the leap.
I'm Yvonne.
And I'm Maria.
And today we're diving into one of the most critical steps
for building a startup,
and it is finding the right co-founder.
Now, if you've ever dreamed of launching a startup,
you've probably heard it said that choosing a co-founder
(01:05):
is like choosing a life partner.
It's one of the challenging things
that you have to navigate in the early days.
But how exactly do you find that ideal person?
Someone who shares that vision, complements your skills,
and is really ready to weather the ups and downs
that come with startups.
Yvonne and I have been investors for many years.
We've spoken to thousands of startups across the world,
(01:26):
and we are gonna be reflecting
both on our episodes and our experiences
to tell you the ways that people have found their co-founders.
So we're gonna be touching on those in this episode.
At the end of this episode,
we are sure you'll leave us new and unexpected ways
to find a co-founder,
some of which you may have not thought about
before watching this video.
So stick around and let's get into it.
(01:47):
So let's jump in.
First on the list, which is the obvious one,
is starting with people you already know.
This one is basic.
Your co-founder is likely in your network.
They're either your friend, a family member,
or someone you went to school with or something.
Definitely.
I mean, when I look at some of the companies that I've backed,
such as Marshmello, the two co-CEOs, twin brothers, in fact,
and so they are family.
(02:07):
They've worked together previously
before starting Marshmello.
So really looking within the people in your network
is something that sometimes people do overlook.
So don't be surprised if your co-founder
is either a childhood friend, family member,
or former colleague.
And also, you might not know them
in the context of a business.
So they might be people you just know.
After you do some research, you could
(02:27):
find that they have skills that might be complementary
to your startup.
So don't use your perception of how you know them right now
to infer whether or not they might be good co-founders.
Do some research and find people in your network
who actually have skills that may be relevant to the startup
that you're building.
Now, one of the ways is people that you probably
wouldn't have thought of within your network, right?
Thinking back to some of our previous episodes,
(02:49):
her co-founder was her former boss.
And so within your personal network,
you just never know.
You really never know.
It could be your spouse.
This is interesting because that's
what you might lean towards initially.
Some people then lean away from it because they're like,
oh, family members might be too close.
But don't knock it.
Just evaluate if you have the skill set,
(03:10):
if you have a unique approach.
We've seen married couples, like Yvonne said.
We've seen siblings, twin brothers.
I've actually seen a situation where someone started
their company with their parents.
Actually, two now.
OK, I've seen that before.
One started with her father.
Yeah.
You figure it out if it works.
That's one way.
And then also maybe even your boss.
We did speak with a founder who was a spin off out
(03:31):
of a larger company.
And she started the new spin off with her then boss at the time.
So they're very clever, interesting, unusual ways
you might find a co-founder in your network.
It's not just your regular co-worker, et cetera.
And I guess maybe into other weird ways,
social media is an interesting one.
You tend to find these niche communities on Reddit,
(03:52):
on Twitter.
For example, the Dropbox founders found each other online
on an MIT platform, one of these boards.
They found each other.
They texted each other.
And they got together.
We've had on our episode on the startup lead,
Sheyi, one of our episodes, founder of Gravity Sketch,
who found his co-founder on Upwork.
So obviously on day one, it wasn't
as though they just went up Upwork and found the co-founder.
(04:13):
But they found someone who was helping them with tech.
And then over time, the relationship blossomed.
So yeah, it could be really interesting ways
in these niche communities on Twitter, on Reddit.
In fact, I think if one and I, our first message
was on Twitter, although we knew each other,
the first message was on Twitter.
Maybe exploring those niche communities,
like Reddit and Twitter, where you know
that people are talking about the things
(04:33):
you're passionate about.
And you can get to know them and explore
if there's a fit there.
Speaking of, there's actually a company,
two founders of Rulebase, one of the YC companies,
one of the 24 batches.
And they actually met on Twitter.
So they connected on Twitter.
Their tweets really resonated with each other.
And then from them, they fostered this relationship.
So do not underestimate the power of social media.
(04:55):
One other way is people you went to school together with.
So it could be your undergrad, it could be your MBA,
it could be a master's program.
Oftentimes, you give them enough to know
what they are good at or their background
or what they were optimizing for after the master's.
Also, you already have a shared experience
that bonds you together.
For example, one of the startups that we spoke with,
(05:16):
Jay and Tai or founders of Paga,
they met at Stanford, one of the startups we spoke with,
Luna, which is a Tink Tech startup.
They did their MBA at Oxford and Medellin
and entrepreneurship course.
And many of these master's programs
have these type of courses.
So someone in master's program or undergrad or MBA
might just be your co-founder.
So take a look and do the research
(05:38):
and see if there's some similar experiences there.
Next on the list, startup community is something
that should not be underestimated.
Again, sharing the example of Marshmello,
two brothers came together, both of them not technical.
So what did they do?
They attended meetups, community events
for technical individuals, and they found their CTO that way.
(05:59):
A friend recently found technical co-founder
through Kaggle, which is a data science competition platform
and online community for data sciences
and machine learning individuals.
So tap into those communities that exist
whether in person, online, your next co-founder may be there.
It's not always the case that you are starting the company.
(06:20):
You might be passionate about the idea.
You might have expertise and you might start,
but then you meet someone who has started it already.
So being flexible about joining a founder who
started the journey, joining someone
who's started the process, and then you can join forces
to building out a vision.
In my experience, I've seen this happen many times.
Oftentimes with investors, you're
probably speaking to whoever is the CEO of the business who's
(06:43):
often the person that started the company.
But in many cases, it's not the case.
I had a founder once where he started the company
and he was like, I'm a developer.
I really just want to build.
When it comes to fundraising strategy, all that stuff,
I want to contribute to it.
I don't want to lead it.
Hence, I will make sure that I'm building
a great technical product.
And then someone came along that had such passion, really
(07:03):
great experience about the problem.
Then that person became the CEO of the company.
So I would say that sometimes you're not
the one starting the company.
Someone else has started.
And then you both join forces and achieve that vision.
So look out for that as you're thinking about a co-founder,
too.
Now, the one that I would touch on
is Accelerator's co-founder matching platforms.
(07:24):
This is something that I know has worked for a number of founders.
So a recent founder I just spoke to a week ago
actually mentioned that they had met their co-founder
on the YC co-founder matching platform.
Accelerators such as EF where every cohort,
they bring individuals onto their program.
And essentially, the entire time, they're really testing
(07:45):
and seeing whether they can work together.
And we've seen some great success stories come out about it.
Absolutely.
And I would say with this, the reason why it's somewhat
interesting is although you don't
know these people most times, you're starting from scratch.
There's no shared history.
There are shared interests because the co-founder
matching platform stands to streamline based
on what you are interested in, same with the Accelerators.
(08:05):
But I would say on this one, just test,
giving it a new relationship, really taking time
to test with a small project or to spend time together
to really understanding the motivations
and the experiences that make you both the perfect team
to tackle a problem.
I would say that if you were to think of one bonus way
to find a co-founder, it would be events, entrepreneurship
conferences, events.
(08:26):
Once a founder we spoke to on the startup leap,
Timothy Amu, he met his founder at a conference.
And the person was just sitting right next to him.
So I would say when you attend these conferences,
make the effort to meet people.
Maybe your co-founder might be there, maybe not for now,
but for later.
But at least you've established that connection that
allows you find who you potentially could build
a business with in the future.
(08:47):
And I mean, sometimes it's even in the most unexpected places,
right?
If you take the two founders of Wise,
they actually met a party and they
realized that they had this similar frustration
around sending money to Estonia.
So be very open wherever you may be,
whether it's a party, a conference, you just never know.
So yeah, it could be really interesting ways
(09:08):
in these niche communities on Twitter, on Reddit.
In fact, I think if one and I, our first message
was on Twitter, although we knew each other in the industry,
but I think that the first message was on Twitter.
Maybe exploring those niche communities like Reddit
and Twitter where you know that people are talking
about the things you're passionate about.
And you can get to know them and explore
if there's a fit there.
Speaking of, there's actually a company that I know of.
(09:29):
So two founders of Rulebase, one of the YC companies,
one of the 24 batches.
And they actually met on Twitter.
Their tweets really resonated with each other.
And then from them, they fostered this relationship.
So do not underestimate the power of social media.
Guts.
And another way which is quite interesting is rivals.
(09:52):
Now, when we talk about rivals, you can always
have healthy rivalry, right?
If we think about the story of Google, Larry and Sergei,
they both attended Stanford.
And they used to have interactions where they would clash.
But it was one that was driven by them
being very opinionated, obviously both two
intellectually driven individuals.
And that rivalry has led to Google
(10:13):
being one of the most successful companies
as we know it today, or Alphabet as it's now known as.
And if we think about to one of our previous episode, Richard
Robinson, him and his co-founder were former debate mates
where they are actually opposing teams.
So you just never know.
It could be your rival.
You never really know.
And I think when they say rivals,
I almost feel like there is a few amount of when
(10:35):
you have two opinionated people who are
passionate about something, especially when they're
in similar fields, it's coming across as their rivals.
But I think that it just means you both are passionate.
But I would say in a relationship like this,
it's just really making sure that the passion is also
balanced out with just being open minded
and focusing more on the goal than the path there.
(10:58):
But this one is also interesting.
So maybe your co-founder is masking right now as a rival.
Check your network.
You might have someone in there who
has been a little bit, you compete a little bit,
but you would make a great team together.
The other one that is super interesting is called emails.
Now one story that I thought was very interesting
(11:18):
was apparently the Bumble founder actually
got a code message from the founder of Badu
and he helped her building Bumble.
And I thought that was interesting.
Like obviously they probably knew each other in the industry,
but code emails work.
And obviously you're not going to send a code email
and be like, I want you to be my co-founder.
But if you see someone that you believe
has expertise and insight that complements you for a problem
(11:42):
that you think you both are passionate about,
send that code email.
I think one of the things you would get from our episodes
so far is that you have to shoot your shots.
You have to reach out.
So send that code email.
Maybe your co-founder might be there,
but that's one example that I thought was interesting.
And I've had this in my career several times,
maybe not co-founders, but reaching out
to people called on problems that you believe
(12:04):
you have a shared passion for.
Can be a very great way to beginning
that co-founding relationship.
Yeah, and I think that with code emails,
you just need to be really focused in terms
of the individuals that you're reaching out to.
So a recent founder that I was speaking to,
she's trying to build a deep tech startup.
And she essentially has found someone
(12:26):
that's very deep within her space,
done a lot of research as a scientist,
and she needs those capabilities.
And so she's actually gone about code emailing that person.
And now they're like, yeah,
I wanna see how we can work together.
So as Maria touched on earlier,
we've seen examples where founders
have actually found their co-founders
by having worked with someone on, say, Upwork or a Fiverr.
(12:48):
So Sheyi, listen to that episode.
He talks about his co-founder, he met him on Upwork,
and they're a very unconventional way, but it's paid off.
They've been working together for over 10 years.
So shoot your shot, guys.
But I would say one thing to add there, though.
Obviously there is a lot of streamlining.
There is a lot of testing
and getting to know them as people.
(13:10):
There's a lot of building that relationship
before you make a leap as big
as trying to build something together.
In the example of the episode that we,
and the founder that we spoke with
on the startup leap shape of Gravity Sketch,
even though they met on Upwork,
he started realizing that the now co-founder
and head of tech, or someone who was supporting with tech
at the time, was bringing up ideas
(13:30):
on ways they could be better.
He was willing to work
even if there was no revenue coming in yet.
So you definitely have to test that desire to,
and the ability to take on more responsibility
if you use this platform, but don't knock it.
We found people find their co-founders on the platform.
And I would say like one bonus is angel investors
or advisors.
(13:52):
One of the best ways to get people on board
and get what they think is to ask for advice.
What do you think?
And then you can get a sense of,
do they like it, are they passionate about this?
And if someone is gonna invest their own money,
you can already see that there's conviction there.
So we have had situation, and we had one episode
where this was the case as well with Gabriel Shin.
But I would say Gabriel Shin of Landscape VC,
(14:14):
he invested in the company as an angel investor.
And then as they talked and talked, he was like,
you know what, I'm at a tech company
and I'm just gonna join you.
So I think that's an unusual way,
but I have seen an advisor or angel investor to co-founder
and joining someone who's already started.
But yeah.
Amazing.
So thanks for joining today.
(14:36):
Let us know what you think.
We'd love to hear your thoughts in the comments.
Let's keep the conversation going.
All right, see you next time.
Bye bye. Bye.
Leave a review, tell us what you think of this episode
on all of our platforms at the Startup Leap pod.
Do you have a question?
Ask us and we'll ask our guests.
Go to thestartupleap.io.
See you next time.
(14:56):
Satisfaction.
Two brothers came together, both not technical.
(00:03):
So what did they do?
They attended meetups, community events,
and they found their CTO that way.
The Dropbox founders found each other online
on an MIT platform.
One of these boards, they texted each other
and they got together.
You can always have a healthy rivalry.
If we think about the story of Google, Larry and Serge,
they used to have interactions where they would clash.
Welcome to The Startup Leap,
(00:23):
the number one podcast interviewing startup founders
who have taken the leap.
On The Startup Leap, we hear real,
raw and relatable stories of how they've navigated
taking the leap, where your hosts.
I'm Yvonne.
And I'm Maria.
And this is The Startup Leap podcast.
Any statements made by Maria, Yvonne,
or The Startup Leap guests are solely their view
(00:44):
and are not advice.
Welcome back to The Startup Leap podcast,
where we share real stories and real lessons
with founders who have taken the leap.
I'm Yvonne.
And I'm Maria.
And today we're diving into one of the most critical steps
for building a startup,
and it is finding the right co-founder.
Now, if you've ever dreamed of launching a startup,
you've probably heard it said that choosing a co-founder
(01:05):
is like choosing a life partner.
It's one of the challenging things
that you have to navigate in the early days.
But how exactly do you find that ideal person?
Someone who shares that vision, complements your skills,
and is really ready to weather the ups and downs
that come with startups.
Yvonne and I have been investors for many years.
We've spoken to thousands of startups across the world,
(01:26):
and we are gonna be reflecting
both on our episodes and our experiences
to tell you the ways that people have found their co-founders.
So we're gonna be touching on those in this episode.
At the end of this episode,
we are sure you'll leave us new and unexpected ways
to find a co-founder,
some of which you may have not thought about
before watching this video.
So stick around and let's get into it.
(01:47):
So let's jump in.
First on the list, which is the obvious one,
is starting with people you already know.
This one is basic.
Your co-founder is likely in your network.
They're either your friend, a family member,
or someone you went to school with or something.
Definitely.
I mean, when I look at some of the companies that I've backed,
such as Marshmello, the two co-CEOs, twin brothers, in fact,
and so they are family.
(02:07):
They've worked together previously
before starting Marshmello.
So really looking within the people in your network
is something that sometimes people do overlook.
So don't be surprised if your co-founder
is either a childhood friend, family member,
or former colleague.
And also, you might not know them
in the context of a business.
So they might be people you just know.
After you do some research, you could
(02:27):
find that they have skills that might be complementary
to your startup.
So don't use your perception of how you know them right now
to infer whether or not they might be good co-founders.
Do some research and find people in your network
who actually have skills that may be relevant to the startup
that you're building.
Now, one of the ways is people that you probably
wouldn't have thought of within your network, right?
Thinking back to some of our previous episodes,
(02:49):
her co-founder was her former boss.
And so within your personal network,
you just never know.
You really never know.
It could be your spouse.
This is interesting because that's
what you might lean towards initially.
Some people then lean away from it because they're like,
oh, family members might be too close.
But don't knock it.
Just evaluate if you have the skill set,
(03:10):
if you have a unique approach.
We've seen married couples, like Yvonne said.
We've seen siblings, twin brothers.
I've actually seen a situation where someone started
their company with their parents.
Actually, two now.
OK, I've seen that before.
One started with her father.
Yeah.
You figure it out if it works.
That's one way.
And then also maybe even your boss.
We did speak with a founder who was a spin off out
(03:31):
of a larger company.
And she started the new spin off with her then boss at the time.
So they're very clever, interesting, unusual ways
you might find a co-founder in your network.
It's not just your regular co-worker, et cetera.
And I guess maybe into other weird ways,
social media is an interesting one.
You tend to find these niche communities on Reddit,
(03:52):
on Twitter.
For example, the Dropbox founders found each other online
on an MIT platform, one of these boards.
They found each other.
They texted each other.
And they got together.
We've had on our episode on the startup lead,
Sheyi, one of our episodes, founder of Gravity Sketch,
who found his co-founder on Upwork.
So obviously on day one, it wasn't
as though they just went up Upwork and found the co-founder.
(04:13):
But they found someone who was helping them with tech.
And then over time, the relationship blossomed.
So yeah, it could be really interesting ways
in these niche communities on Twitter, on Reddit.
In fact, I think if one and I, our first message
was on Twitter, although we knew each other,
the first message was on Twitter.
Maybe exploring those niche communities,
like Reddit and Twitter, where you know
that people are talking about the things
(04:33):
you're passionate about.
And you can get to know them and explore
if there's a fit there.
Speaking of, there's actually a company,
two founders of Rulebase, one of the YC companies,
one of the 24 batches.
And they actually met on Twitter.
So they connected on Twitter.
Their tweets really resonated with each other.
And then from them, they fostered this relationship.
So do not underestimate the power of social media.
(04:55):
One other way is people you went to school together with.
So it could be your undergrad, it could be your MBA,
it could be a master's program.
Oftentimes, you give them enough to know
what they are good at or their background
or what they were optimizing for after the master's.
Also, you already have a shared experience
that bonds you together.
For example, one of the startups that we spoke with,
(05:16):
Jay and Tai or founders of Paga,
they met at Stanford, one of the startups we spoke with,
Luna, which is a Tink Tech startup.
They did their MBA at Oxford and Medellin
and entrepreneurship course.
And many of these master's programs
have these type of courses.
So someone in master's program or undergrad or MBA
might just be your co-founder.
So take a look and do the research
(05:38):
and see if there's some similar experiences there.
Next on the list, startup community is something
that should not be underestimated.
Again, sharing the example of Marshmello,
two brothers came together, both of them not technical.
So what did they do?
They attended meetups, community events
for technical individuals, and they found their CTO that way.
(05:59):
A friend recently found technical co-founder
through Kaggle, which is a data science competition platform
and online community for data sciences
and machine learning individuals.
So tap into those communities that exist
whether in person, online, your next co-founder may be there.
It's not always the case that you are starting the company.
(06:20):
You might be passionate about the idea.
You might have expertise and you might start,
but then you meet someone who has started it already.
So being flexible about joining a founder who
started the journey, joining someone
who's started the process, and then you can join forces
to building out a vision.
In my experience, I've seen this happen many times.
Oftentimes with investors, you're
probably speaking to whoever is the CEO of the business who's
(06:43):
often the person that started the company.
But in many cases, it's not the case.
I had a founder once where he started the company
and he was like, I'm a developer.
I really just want to build.
When it comes to fundraising strategy, all that stuff,
I want to contribute to it.
I don't want to lead it.
Hence, I will make sure that I'm building
a great technical product.
And then someone came along that had such passion, really
(07:03):
great experience about the problem.
Then that person became the CEO of the company.
So I would say that sometimes you're not
the one starting the company.
Someone else has started.
And then you both join forces and achieve that vision.
So look out for that as you're thinking about a co-founder,
too.
Now, the one that I would touch on
is Accelerator's co-founder matching platforms.
(07:24):
This is something that I know has worked for a number of founders.
So a recent founder I just spoke to a week ago
actually mentioned that they had met their co-founder
on the YC co-founder matching platform.
Accelerators such as EF where every cohort,
they bring individuals onto their program.
And essentially, the entire time, they're really testing
(07:45):
and seeing whether they can work together.
And we've seen some great success stories come out about it.
Absolutely.
And I would say with this, the reason why it's somewhat
interesting is although you don't
know these people most times, you're starting from scratch.
There's no shared history.
There are shared interests because the co-founder
matching platform stands to streamline based
on what you are interested in, same with the Accelerators.
(08:05):
But I would say on this one, just test,
giving it a new relationship, really taking time
to test with a small project or to spend time together
to really understanding the motivations
and the experiences that make you both the perfect team
to tackle a problem.
I would say that if you were to think of one bonus way
to find a co-founder, it would be events, entrepreneurship
conferences, events.
(08:26):
Once a founder we spoke to on the startup leap,
Timothy Amu, he met his founder at a conference.
And the person was just sitting right next to him.
So I would say when you attend these conferences,
make the effort to meet people.
Maybe your co-founder might be there, maybe not for now,
but for later.
But at least you've established that connection that
allows you find who you potentially could build
a business with in the future.
(08:47):
And I mean, sometimes it's even in the most unexpected places,
right?
If you take the two founders of Wise,
they actually met a party and they
realized that they had this similar frustration
around sending money to Estonia.
So be very open wherever you may be,
whether it's a party, a conference, you just never know.
So yeah, it could be really interesting ways
(09:08):
in these niche communities on Twitter, on Reddit.
In fact, I think if one and I, our first message
was on Twitter, although we knew each other in the industry,
but I think that the first message was on Twitter.
Maybe exploring those niche communities like Reddit
and Twitter where you know that people are talking
about the things you're passionate about.
And you can get to know them and explore
if there's a fit there.
Speaking of, there's actually a company that I know of.
(09:29):
So two founders of Rulebase, one of the YC companies,
one of the 24 batches.
And they actually met on Twitter.
Their tweets really resonated with each other.
And then from them, they fostered this relationship.
So do not underestimate the power of social media.
Guts.
And another way which is quite interesting is rivals.
(09:52):
Now, when we talk about rivals, you can always
have healthy rivalry, right?
If we think about the story of Google, Larry and Sergei,
they both attended Stanford.
And they used to have interactions where they would clash.
But it was one that was driven by them
being very opinionated, obviously both two
intellectually driven individuals.
And that rivalry has led to Google
(10:13):
being one of the most successful companies
as we know it today, or Alphabet as it's now known as.
And if we think about to one of our previous episode, Richard
Robinson, him and his co-founder were former debate mates
where they are actually opposing teams.
So you just never know.
It could be your rival.
You never really know.
And I think when they say rivals,
I almost feel like there is a few amount of when
(10:35):
you have two opinionated people who are
passionate about something, especially when they're
in similar fields, it's coming across as their rivals.
But I think that it just means you both are passionate.
But I would say in a relationship like this,
it's just really making sure that the passion is also
balanced out with just being open minded
and focusing more on the goal than the path there.
(10:58):
But this one is also interesting.
So maybe your co-founder is masking right now as a rival.
Check your network.
You might have someone in there who
has been a little bit, you compete a little bit,
but you would make a great team together.
The other one that is super interesting is called emails.
Now one story that I thought was very interesting
(11:18):
was apparently the Bumble founder actually
got a code message from the founder of Badu
and he helped her building Bumble.
And I thought that was interesting.
Like obviously they probably knew each other in the industry,
but code emails work.
And obviously you're not going to send a code email
and be like, I want you to be my co-founder.
But if you see someone that you believe
has expertise and insight that complements you for a problem
(11:42):
that you think you both are passionate about,
send that code email.
I think one of the things you would get from our episodes
so far is that you have to shoot your shots.
You have to reach out.
So send that code email.
Maybe your co-founder might be there,
but that's one example that I thought was interesting.
And I've had this in my career several times,
maybe not co-founders, but reaching out
to people called on problems that you believe
(12:04):
you have a shared passion for.
Can be a very great way to beginning
that co-founding relationship.
Yeah, and I think that with code emails,
you just need to be really focused in terms
of the individuals that you're reaching out to.
So a recent founder that I was speaking to,
she's trying to build a deep tech startup.
And she essentially has found someone
(12:26):
that's very deep within her space,
done a lot of research as a scientist,
and she needs those capabilities.
And so she's actually gone about code emailing that person.
And now they're like, yeah,
I wanna see how we can work together.
So as Maria touched on earlier,
we've seen examples where founders
have actually found their co-founders
by having worked with someone on, say, Upwork or a Fiverr.
(12:48):
So Sheyi, listen to that episode.
He talks about his co-founder, he met him on Upwork,
and they're a very unconventional way, but it's paid off.
They've been working together for over 10 years.
So shoot your shot, guys.
But I would say one thing to add there, though.
Obviously there is a lot of streamlining.
There is a lot of testing
and getting to know them as people.
(13:10):
There's a lot of building that relationship
before you make a leap as big
as trying to build something together.
In the example of the episode that we,
and the founder that we spoke with
on the startup leap shape of Gravity Sketch,
even though they met on Upwork,
he started realizing that the now co-founder
and head of tech, or someone who was supporting with tech
at the time, was bringing up ideas
(13:30):
on ways they could be better.
He was willing to work
even if there was no revenue coming in yet.
So you definitely have to test that desire to,
and the ability to take on more responsibility
if you use this platform, but don't knock it.
We found people find their co-founders on the platform.
And I would say like one bonus is angel investors
or advisors.
(13:52):
One of the best ways to get people on board
and get what they think is to ask for advice.
What do you think?
And then you can get a sense of,
do they like it, are they passionate about this?
And if someone is gonna invest their own money,
you can already see that there's conviction there.
So we have had situation, and we had one episode
where this was the case as well with Gabriel Shin.
But I would say Gabriel Shin of Landscape VC,
(14:14):
he invested in the company as an angel investor.
And then as they talked and talked, he was like,
you know what, I'm at a tech company
and I'm just gonna join you.
So I think that's an unusual way,
but I have seen an advisor or angel investor to co-founder
and joining someone who's already started.
But yeah.
Amazing.
So thanks for joining today.
(14:36):
Let us know what you think.
We'd love to hear your thoughts in the comments.
Let's keep the conversation going.
All right, see you next time.
Bye bye. Bye.
Leave a review, tell us what you think of this episode
on all of our platforms at the Startup Leap pod.
Do you have a question?
Ask us and we'll ask our guests.
Go to thestartupleap.io.
See you next time.
(14:56):
Satisfaction.
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