How do you find a business partner?

How do you find a business partner?

From finding camaraderie in a startup company to reconnecting with a colleague, here are 10 answers to the question, “How do you find a business partner?”

• Work at a Startup Together
• Discover Partners Through SEO
• Stay In-Touch With Old Friends
• Leverage Your Existing Online Network
• Start Networking in College
• Know People Who Know People
• Create Your Own
• Build a Business and a Marriage Together
• Connect Through a Business Incubator
• Reach Out to a Former Colleague

Work at a Startup Together

My other entrepreneurial half and I met and eventually became business (and life) partners while working at a startup.

He was the marketing director, while I was the director of operations. As we ran and expanded that company together, we envisioned how we could scale it and make it even more expansive.

So, we came up with a plan and approached the founder with a buy-out offer. This was a great, if somewhat unconventional, way to find a partner and a business plan because we both knew we were all in already.

Because we had been working with the organization and each other for several years, we already knew it was a workable and sustainable model, rather than going in blind.

Tasia Duske, CEO, Museum Hack

Discover Partners Through Your Work

Being an SEO specialist, I am fortunate to have “found” many collaborators because of the visibility I have on search engines like Google.

Rather than me having found them, it is they who find me by searching through keywords for services related to online visibility. It has been about four years since two of my most important partnerships began. One is a web developer, and the other is a web designer who discovered me thanks to my SEO presence.

Piergiorgio Zotti, Senior SEO Specialist, Teacher, and Affiliate Marketer, Consulente SEO Bari

Stay In-Touch With Old Friends

My business partner and I were friends in college. One of the important things we had in common was that we had worked together shortly after graduation.

This gave us a good idea of each other’s working styles, skills, and abilities. With over a decade between graduation and our partnership, we stayed in touch and kept each other aware of the things going on with our work and families.

In 2021, the time was right for us to start a new enterprise. We were in a beneficial situation, given our history and years of experience with one another.

Trevor Ewen, COO, QBench

Leverage Your Existing Online Network

I was fortunate enough to find my business partner through networking—specifically, leveraging connections within my existing social networks. Here, I used LinkedIn and reached out to contacts who could help me locate the perfect partner.

After a few weeks of reaching out and discussing different opportunities, I finally connected with someone with extensive knowledge in the industry I wanted to enter. We began having regular, insightful conversations and soon decided it would be worth forming a partnership together.

I’m always amazed at how things can come together when you put yourself out there! Since then, I’ve used this same method to find other brilliant partners for future projects and potential employees we could hire for our team.

Networking is an invaluable tool that everyone should take advantage of when looking for new partnerships or career opportunities—you never know where it might lead!

Maria Harutyunyan, Co-Founder, Loopex Digital

Start Networking in College

I actually met my business partner when we were studying engineering together at UC Berkeley. We’ve always been passionate about the tech industry, and after working separately for many years, we both felt that it was time to pursue our dream of starting our own AI company.

Both of us shared a common vision of creating a tool that could help entrepreneurs by leveraging AI technology, and we knew together we could make it happen.

Bringing unique skills and experiences to the table, with my partner having expertise in machine learning and data analysis, and myself being more focused on product development and customer acquisition, we could start our company and build a product that we truly believe in.

It’s been a challenging but incredibly rewarding journey, and we’re excited to see where we take in the future.

Luciano Colos, Founder and CEO, PitchGrade

Know People Who Know People

My co-founder, Agatha Relota Luczo, was talking to her kid’s pediatrician one day about her desire to create her own skincare line.

She wanted to use the olive oil from her husband’s family estate in Sicily but was trying to figure out where to get started.

Her doctor was friends with me and connected the two of us. The rest is history.

Kim Walls, CEO and Co-Founder, Furtuna Skin

Create Your Own

In an interesting twist of fate, I gave birth to my business partners. At age 51, I began taking synthetic hormone treatments. This ultimately led to me needing a hysterectomy, resulting in menopause.

Because of the multiple symptoms I was experiencing, including night sweats, irritability, and brain fog, I joined forces with my children, Bobby and Brianna, to develop a hormone-free solution to assist women who were also suffering the side effects of menopause.

Mary Kay Bitton, Head of Product Innovation, FLO Vitamins

Build a Business and a Marriage Together

Having a wife, best friend, and business partner all in one can be a significant advantage in running a legacy family business. This person can provide support, motivation, and a unique perspective that can help to drive the success of the business.

The shared history and strong bond can also provide a firm foundation for the business, helping to withstand challenges and navigate difficult situations.

The combination of personal and professional relationships can provide a unique support system, improved communication, and increased collaboration, all of which are essential for the success and longevity of the business.

Marc Werner, CEO and Founder, GhostBed

Connect Through a Business Incubator

I conceptualized my business while in a business incubator and pitched to several people who were in the same cohort.

I got funding through the incubator and got two business partners with whom we co-founded SEOAnt and have been managing it to date. Our understanding of the business, which we refined in the business incubator, has been the most significant driver of our success.

Alvin Wei, Co-Founder and CMO, SEOAnt

Reach Out to a Former Colleague

I had been thinking about starting a business for a while, but I didn’t have a partner to do it with. So, I reached out to people I knew who might be interested in starting a business with me. I contacted friends and family, made some cold calls, and even posted online looking for a partner.

After some time, I connected with a former colleague who had the same vision for the business and the same drive for success. We could connect on a personal level, but it was our complementary skills that made us ideal business partners.

I had experience in finance and operations and my partner had experience in marketing and sales. We quickly realized that together we could create a successful business. We worked hard to establish our business and build it into what it is today.

I’m proud to say that our relationship is still strong, and we continue to bring creativity and innovation to our business.

Ben Bašić, CEO, Router IP Net

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