Most co-founders meet when they’re not actively looking for business partners, data reveals

Starling Bank has released new data suggesting that more than half (60%) of co-founders met by chance, rather than during a dedicated search for a business partner. 

The survey, carried out by Censuswide, also revealed that 34% of co-founders met through friends and family, and 25% through school or university. Former workplaces also made the top three, as was where 26% of the 500 interviewees bumped into each other. 

However, traditional networking opportunities are not delivering the same hit rate. Just 17% met through a professional association or community event; 16% at a co-working space, and only 15% at a dedicated networking event.

Happy coincidence

Looking further into the data, it seems that many co-founders simply found each other in the right place, at the right time. 

Indeed, a far larger percentage of respondents said they were “open to finding” a co-founder but not actively looking (43%), while a further 19% said that they were not looking at all when they met their co-founder. 

This is a much larger proportion than the number that said they were on the hunt for someone to help bring their business idea into being (35%). 

The co-founder advantage

The experience of working with a co-founder has brought the vast majority of entrepreneurs a host of advantages. Topping the list was the additional skills and expertise they brought with them, listed by 51% of respondents. However, it was a hard-fought battle for top place, with reduced stress and pressure coming a close second with 47%. 

Improved business growth, new perspectives, handling problems and making faster decisions all gained very close numbers, suggesting that, actually, all of these advantages are potentially interrelated. Having a new perspective on an issue, for example, would often make it easier to solve. 

Daniel Hogan, co-founder of accounting tool, Ember, and now Head of Business Tools at Starling Bank, revealed that “growing the company taught us that you don’t need to be identical to be aligned”. 

“[Ember co-founder] Aaron and I are opposites in many ways, but that’s why it works – we didn’t just fill gaps in experience; we complemented each other’s instincts. Where I hesitated, he pushed; where he overextended, I anchored. This synergy made us stronger and ultimately allowed us to be sold and become Starling’s Making Tax Digital proposition, now serving thousands of SMEs.”

Gender divide

Help with funding and investors was less of a priority in survey respondents’ search for the perfect business partner, but this isn’t something that all founders find equally challenging. 

Recent findings from a comprehensive survey of female entrepreneurial voices would suggest that this concern might be higher up the list if it were only female founders who had been interviewed. 

78% of the 2,000 women surveyed said that their bidding experience had been “opaque, bureaucratic or time-consuming”. Just under half (45%) said that getting capital was the primary barrier to getting their business off the ground.

However, the Rise survey did paint a far rosier impression of the networking and peer mentoring opportunities for female founders. 39% of founders shared that they had received support from peer and founder networks. This was named as the most helpful tool in their journey with family and close personal support at 13%. 

Social boost

While this Rise report suggests that female founders are perhaps more likely to actively seek support from peer networks (as the funding process is harder for them than for men), both reports could be read as a call for more events. While many have chanced upon their co-founder, more opportunities to network might bring more people together. 

Hogan adds: “It’s not always easy to meet co-founders and there aren’t enough opportunities to discuss ideas and meet potential business partners. If I hadn’t met my business partner, I wouldn’t have become an entrepreneur – that right there shows the power of a partnership.”

Perhaps this is also a call for entrepreneurs with an idea to consider what they would want in a co-founder, to then make it easier to spot the right fit. While fate has delivered for many of those interviewed, doing this bit of groundwork and then getting themselves out there with an idea to discuss will definitely increase the chances of finding someone to help make the idea a reality.