You hear it every day: The LA startup scene is booming. It’s definitely true that it’s an exciting time for startups; however, booming or not, if you’re an entrepreneur in LA, you share a similar pain point with entrepreneurs in every other community across the country: finding the right co-founder(s) to launch or grow a business with. Maybe you’re already immersed in the startup scene and therefore know lots of other entrepreneurs, but how do you find the right partner to join you on your startup journey or find someone else’s journey to join? Friends, co-workers, family, and other acquaintances are great, but more often than not, your small social circle is limiting when it comes to finding the right business partners.
Here at CoFoundersLab, our entire mission is to make it easier and more efficient for entrepreneurs, anywhere and in any industry, to find co-founders. Whether you’re looking for someone to join your venture or looking for a venture to join, we can help. We do this matchmaking via two services: a free online matching platform at CoFoundersLab.com and in-person, quarterly events in various cities. Anyone in any industry can create a free profile and attend the events. Leveraging the power and reach of the Internet helps our members cast a wider search net, and our offline events provide a forum to foster and build real relationships with potential matches.
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We believe a great co-founder brings more than simply complementary skill sets. He/she brings things like shared values, goals, a personality that meshes/complements yours, and a shared vision for what the company can and will be some day. If you aren't aligned in these ways, it won't likely matter if you're aligned on the idea. We're digging deep into these other assessments, like our new Entrepreneur Archetype Assessment feature. This short quiz helps you discover your entrepreneur personality, and you can then compare yourself to other members and find people with personalities that complement yours.
We've made dozens of matches already, like Mobiplug, a TechStars Boulder 2012 team who found their 3rd co-founder with us and recently raised a $2.7M Series A! You can read more about the Mobiplug story here. In this short video, David Cohen, co-founder and CEO of TechStars, explains why and how TechStars uses CoFoundersLab to help prospective, current, and alumni teams build out their core teams.
We’ve already been playing co-founder matchmaker in LA, holding quarterly Co-Founders Wanted Santa Monica events at the amazing, new Cross Campus, as well as quarterly Co-Founders Wanted Pasadena events at the Business Technology Center of LA. Dan Dato at Cross Campus and Mark Lieberman at the BTC have both been incredible hosts and local partners, and we wouldn’t be anywhere in LA without them. Moreover, we’ve received amazing support from other people/groups in the local LA startup ecosystem like StartEngine, Amplify LA, 106 Miles SoCal, the local Startup California chapters, and Founder Institute LA to name a few.
“We are big proponents of encouraging young entrepreneurs to “go ahead & take the leap” if they want to start a company, but a crucial and somewhat tedious component in this process is hiring a co-founder. We are very impressed with CoFoundersLab's progress in alleviating and facilitating this process.”
- Bita Shahian, Program Director of StartEngine
“I love the approach they are taking to building startup teams... very thoughtful, backed by scientific research... similar to the approach we took in building Cross Campus.”
- Dan Dato, Co-Founder, Cross Campus
"A major pain point for many tech start-ups in Silicon Beach is finding the right co-founders to round out the team. CoFoundersLab helps simplify the process by offering an online platform where you can seek out potential co-founders, communicate with them via a secure platform, and if the fit seems right, meet with them in person at a CoFoundersLab-sponsored networking event. It's a Match.com or eHarmony for co-founders that covers all the bases. Not only have I met with a number of potential co-founders for my start up, I've been asked to join a number of others as a founding team member. The opportunities are endless."
- Linda Marshall-Smith, Founder & CEO, Chirppet, Inc., Founder Institute Graduate
“Starting a company is hard, and it’s even harder as a single founder. There is only so much time one person has in a day. With a cofounder, you've just doubled that amount of time you have in a day to get things done. CoFoundersLab has the best community of entrepreneurs. The events are a great way for me to me meet other serious entrepreneurs in-person in a safe and social atmosphere. At many start-up Meetups I attend, I usually end up talking to people with no shared interest or passions. At CoFoundersLab Meetups, I am able to seek out the right people to network with.”
- Tom Pham, Founder & CEO, Rideshare, Inc., Founder Institute Graduate
We couldn’t be more grateful for this support, and we’re excited to add one more piece to the LA puzzle towards a common goal of supporting entrepreneurs and building successful companies. The future is bright for LA startups, and we can’t wait to see what’s next!
Create a free profile on CoFoundersLab.com today to get started connecting with thousands of potential co-founders, and join us at an event in Pasadena or Santa Monica soon! Also, we’re always looking for great local people to help carry the CoFoundersLab torch forward. If you’re interested in volunteering to help promote and/or help run our events in Pasadena, Santa Monica, or soon in Orange County, please contact us today. Thanks in advance for your support, and good luck!
LA entrepreneurs unite!
