Founder Dating: what’s not to like!

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I can’t believe it.  For so long, I have attended events, hoping to serendipitously cross the path of someone with compatible interests with whom I could chat up my ideas for a business, but nothing as yet has come to pass.  Either the people only partially shared my interests or the timing was off or a personal knowing was missing to enter into the kind of committed work relationship that sharing a business needs.  I began to curse my departure from those natural peer circles at graduate school where access to partnering seemed more the order of the day.

So, here’s a connection that I just ran across that got me excited and maybe will do the same for you.  It’s called Founder Dating, and  basically you put forward an idea you have, and see if others might also be interested in going to business with you around that idea or something similar.  It’s not like one of those schemes where you vote up or down a business, thereby conveying your belief in its viability (although hey, I’ve got nothing against them).  Or sites like KickStarter Online, where you can make a pitch for a particular project, and get people to back you, essentially a variation on voting for the good idea but better, because here, there is actually a pathway for some real funding.  Or events like Women 2.0, where you gather with others to shape your idea in-person in the hopes of improving the quality of the idea in this first place.

No.  Founder Dating is actually a service that aims to bring together super talented entrepreneurs with different backgrounds and skill sets to start innovative new companies. All too often,  we know people with similar backgrounds and skills sets to our own.  So to find co-founders who come with complimentary skill sets, with an interest in launching similar ideas; well, that kind of service actually fills the gap I’ve just described.  Check it out by submitting an application.  And see if you might find your way to a San Francisco or Seattle to take it further!