I used to work for eDonkey as their support minion, a file sharing program of yesteryear. We had forums, and a user there was far more helpful to all the newbs than I was. We started chatting from time to time, then more often, he even came up to meet me while I was down in NYC for the summer.
We kept in touch, he helped me manage a dedicated server I'd bought somewhere. I felt bad because he was managing it and I wasn't paying him, he felt bad because he was using it and not paying for it.
Then I started https://wonderproxy.com/ he was a natural choice for co-founder, and we've been growing ever since.
Met one of my two co-founders during a project. In a room full of argumentative type-A personalities, she was the only one building bridges and moving the project forward. That really stood out for me as a huge asset in any team.
The other co-founder and I met in a hallway at a database conference, then tried our first startup a few months later. It failed - but it was so much fun failing with him that I figured we should keep trying on other projects because at least failing wouldn't feel bad.
It was immediately apparent that Josh and I were destined for great things when we attempted to plant the world's first pizza tree (by burying pizza crust near the school playground).
We both blogged in the same niche for many years and exchanged a few emails, cross-posts and that kind of thing. Last year, I realised I was never going to make a successful business by myself and started to look for a non-technical co-founder - I emailed Geoff because I knew that he knew his stuff in our niche and he seemed like a good bloke.
My email was something along the lines of, "I'm thinking of building something, no idea what, fancy it?", the time was right for him and we have been profitable almost from day one.
It's been 1.5 yrs, have been through hell and back with him, can't imagine a better co-founder. We'll start companies together until we die.
I recognize this is not the recommended way of finding a co-founder; statistically the chances of it turning out like it did are very low. But it worked out, so I don't care.
Matt and I were intern at Apple in 2006.
We shared the same apartment in corporate housing in Cupertino.
After that summer, we never talked again for 7 years.
I ended up joining Apple for 4 years in California. He decided to stay in the midwest, eventually got married and settled down in Minneapolis. About 7 years later we reconnected over Twitter and we started working together.
One little question to the posters here: Did you every doubt that your best smart buddy, might not have the same level of dedication?, might not pull through?
I'd like to apologize to my friend for whom I was the buddy who didn't pull through. But to be honest, I was at a different point in my life and had super low confidence. I'd like to think it would be different now.
At a team day at eBay (Germany). While working there as a frontend dev, I had attended a "team day" which involved stunt driving, and was placed on a team with this new frontend guy who had just started. He told me about his (at the time, free) image optimization API, which is known today as https://kraken.io
We became friends, having frequent discussions about how such a service could be monetized. Three weeks later, he offered me a 50% split. Shortly afterwards, we founded a company and started serious work on Kraken Image Optimizer, without ever looking back.
College. We did a finance case competition and we won, so we thought it'd be a good idea to work together. We wrote/edited a book "Words of the Music Masters" (failed), then we coached a few seminars for college students/recent graduates (failed!) and finally some consulting (sucked). That was 6 years ago. We both took jobs, now we're back.
It's really interesting, we've failed miserably together and starved, we're kinda bulletproof now. Besides, being hungry but not alone made us closer, we're like brothers now. seriously.
LinkedIn, they sent a mysterious message saying they were looking for someone for a "project". Wouldn't normally answer anyone on LinkedIn but it turned out to be one of the best decisions ever.
I met mine at a swing dance event in Pittsburgh, a location more then 7 hours apart from our home cities. Later happened to run into him while we were both at a dance event in Chicago. Started working together 1 week after Chicago.
It may be worth noting that I am not co-founder, but was rather hired on with partial ownership when his side project went to business?
My SO brought me to a planning meeting for a non-profit, and I met their founder there. We hit it off, and founded a startup together several months later when the time was right. I think it was good to start off being friends first. And having a shared network of friends and business associates helped speed things up.
I've had 3 cofounders over the years.
1. school
2. hired them a few times and added them to the team a couple years later
3. lean startup and tech event
All in all, I recommend picking someone you have known for a few years. Can be friends but usually best when it is first a business relationship.
The founder met me when he was doing some freelance job in a startup where I was working. We are a perfect fit, he is the guy doing Design + Marketing and I am doing everything related to coding.
University — became best friends in junior year and realised our complementary skillsets (strategy/design, coding) could be put to good use fleshing out whatever startup ideas we had!
Was scrolling pages after pages of friends in facebook, found a friend who was my junior in college days, we then went on to create www.grepslash.com .
At university. Although we rarely interacted in the university, but happened to work on a project about 5 years later and realized we shared passion for startups.
He was my first boss when I was a junior out of college. 14+ years later we are starting a venture together. Also my wife who I met when I was in college.
We kept in touch, he helped me manage a dedicated server I'd bought somewhere. I felt bad because he was managing it and I wasn't paying him, he felt bad because he was using it and not paying for it.
Then I started https://wonderproxy.com/ he was a natural choice for co-founder, and we've been growing ever since.