How did you meet your cofounder(s)?

I met my co-founder at the very first Ruby on Rails user group meeting I attended. His previous partner had left him high and dry with a customer and no product, so he was at the meeting looking for a technical co-founder. I didn't know RoR then, but I figured it would be a perfect chance to learn.

We were both wary enough not to agree to anything long term up front. It started with a simple quid pro quo 2 week contract after which we decided to test the waters further by continuing to work together unofficially. After about a month we negotiated a reverse vested stock agreement with a short cliff (already passed) that satisfied us both.

Version one of our product (voltagecrm.com) is nearing the end of the beta cycle and will soon be available for purchase. In the meantime we've been bootstrapping the product using a custom theme on top of an open source CRM to start building a customer base and stay profitable.

I think the partner I found by complete luck was better than I would have found if I'd gone searching. His skills complement mine in every way. He is a salesman, a people-person, who is willing to talk to clients, lawyers, mentors, etc. He has the proper "better to spend $10 than waste 3 hours of your time" attitude that I can't seem to manage. He goes out to ask current and potential customers what features they need and what problems they have with our current system. In short, he makes sure that all I have to do is write software.

Perhaps most importantly of all, I actually like my partner. We can sit and have lunch and talk about things besides the company without feeling uncomfortable.

From reading about the experiences of others, I'd say I got very lucky indeed.

I met one of my co-founders at an Apple store many years back.

I worked at one for about 2 years and he came in looking to purchase a laptop for college. We started talking about business, design, and many of the things we felt Apple was doing right. I'm not sure how long we spoke, but it was definitely a good hour. After speaking for such a long time, we ended up exchanging emails.

Every once in a while (few months or so) we'd touch base with each other just to see how things were going. I had been working on my own business, while he was working for some bigger corporations like Reuters. Months and months would go bye between conversations, but there was always this feeling that we had about working with each other. He, being a developer, and me being an entrepreneur, we kept talking about the idea of working together, but nothing really came of it. We did do a little podcast that a lot of people listened to (https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/business-and-motivation/...).

Anyways, our personal conversations went back and forth for years – almost 5 to be exact. And then one day I approach him with this idea that I already started. He had become a much better developer and quite frankly, through our conversations he came off as a real hard worker. Someone who wants to make it. He even helped me with some things for free which was really nice. That combination of hard work and him being a developer was almost too good to be true. We chatted on the phone a bit, and then I flew out to NYC (where he lives) to meet up for the second time in 5 years. Things went well. We talked a lot and he introduced me to an amazing designer who has also ended up being the 3rd co-founder of our company.

Now here we are about 6 months later and we've been working really hard on rebuilding an idea that we think is going to be really great. It's not out yet, but I'll keep you guys updated when it is (within the next 6-8 weeks).

I've had two cofounders. The first I met at Waterloo, but never worked on anything with him. Shut that startup down within a year, even though we had funding options on the table. Personalities didn't match, and this includes my own failings too.

Second cofounder I met at a Toronto Hacker News Night that I put together every year and a half or so. He emailed me after my previous startup shut down and was heartfelt about how much he knew it sucked. We ended up working together and did a small (low 7 digits) exit in under 8 months, four of which were just negotiating the sale.

Skill is important, but kindness is much better.

Mailing list.

Back in 2001 someone on a mailing list I was on was looking for a userland ESP (IPsec) implementation to do some fuzzing or something... And I just happened to have one that was 95% complete. Seeing demand for it, I wrapped it up and had a user of it.

Fast forward a few months later, I lost my job in the common downsizing in 2001, he shot me an idea and then we were co-founders before ever meeting in person.

a) Previous coworker. Big mistake. Not everyone is discipline enough to be a cofounder. b) No, it would likely fail if it continues down this road.

I'm curious to hear what people have to say here as well.

College