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Start-ups: How can I go about finding a business partner for my startup?
JB
JB
Joshua Blank, Sales Manager and Entrepreneur answered:

If you're looking to find a business partner I would recommend even before starting your search to think about and analyze why you are interested in bringing on a partner. Are you looking to find a complimentary skillset? or are you bringing someone on to take work off your hands?

Understanding what you are looking for and who you hope to meet is the first step in a successful partnership arrangement.

Once you've decided on what you are looking for it's time to be aggressive. In a recent search for a technical co-founder, my partner and I effectively created a sales pipeline filled with potential candidates. We did a majority of our work looking online finding potential partners on Angel List, Built in and Co-Founders Lab and complimented that with attending meet-ups and other in-person events. We developed a list of about 40 potential technical partners and reached out to them 1 by 1 tracking our outreach. A majority of those we reached out to turned us down, that was the bad news. The good news was because we reached out to 40! people even though a majority turned us down we still had a large enough pool that we could find the person we thought would work best with our team.

Side Note- Once you have reached out to potential partners who are interested in working on your project, your job isn't done. You need to get them to understand your business and get them to buy in before you can move forward.

To summarize Understand your motives, cast a wide net, be aggressive and sell sell sell!

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