Matchmaker, matchmaker, find me a business partner.
September 23, 2010 10:26 AM   Subscribe

An already-existing "okcupid.com" for finding a business partner?

I'm a highly differentiated and idiosyncratic individual (i.e., a special snowflake).

In romance-land, real-world dating was interesting, fun, and affectionate, but the numbers game really wasn't on my side in terms of finding a "deep" match. Okcupid was a godsend, because I was able to relatively quickly meet a large number of people whose inner lives resonated with mine, seemingly a lot more than the single, late-twenties women who I'd tend to meet out and about. (I've just reached the six month mark with a wonderful person who's so different from me, yet so startlingly, improbably similar.)

It's sort of a values, life-stance, full-spectrum inquiry and humility, restlessness, gentleness, anxiousness, courage, intensity, love, freedom, growth, impeccable coordination, agnostic, introspective, infinite patience type thing. (Not a hobbies, taste-in-books, sort of thing.)

Is there something like okcupid for meeting business partners or even just friends? Should I re-purpose okcupid? Creating meetup.com groups has helped a lot, in terms of meeting wonderful people, but I'm still not bringing in people *quite* like I'm looking for, though I'm still tweaking and learning what to write.

If not online, ideas for bringing together like-minded people, or ideas for where I should go looking? (Toastmasters wasn't quite the right feel--are there other cross-industry professional organizations? Cross-industry conventions? Clubs? Techy, social-entrepreneurship volunteer groups?)
posted by zeek321 to Human Relations (10 answers total) 5 users marked this as a favorite
 
metafilter?
posted by Jon_Evil at 10:30 AM on September 23, 2010


Response by poster: >> metafilter?

Should I put up an online forum somewhere and point a metafilter project at it? What should I do?
posted by zeek321 at 10:35 AM on September 23, 2010


LinkedIn is not exactly what you're looking for, but it's close. I know a couple of people who use it to solicit business (contract/freelance), look for work (sucessfully, several times) and so on.
posted by bonehead at 10:39 AM on September 23, 2010


I think what Jon_Evil means is the Jobs section of metafilter.

It's funny how this is a meta-discussion about metafilter.
posted by wayland at 10:56 AM on September 23, 2010


Finding a business partner is very different from finding a friend. You might want to clarify (here, sure, but more important: in your own mind) what you're looking for.

Also, your bio says you're a student in Philly. My undergrad experience seemed as though it were designed for meeting other creative, engaged types. Are you finding no outlets like that (clubs? community service groups?) through your school?
posted by Alt F4 at 10:57 AM on September 23, 2010


The OP's idea forum idea would work as well; a free forum for professionals looking to hook up is a fantastic project idea and I'm pretty sure plenty of MeFites would enjoy it.

It's funny how this is a meta-discussion about metafilter.

Wilkommen. Bienvenue. C'mon on in....
posted by griphus at 11:00 AM on September 23, 2010


Founder Dating?
posted by tantivy at 1:37 PM on September 23, 2010


Response by poster: I think what Jon_Evil means is the Jobs section of metafilter.

Would this be appropriate? (Maybe this should go on metatalk.) I see volunteer stuff in jobs.metafilter.com. But I'm not hiring or offering a gig.
posted by zeek321 at 2:48 PM on September 23, 2010


Response by poster: Founder Dating?

A million times this. Nothing upcoming on the East Coast. Maybe I should use this as a model and start something. Hmm.
posted by zeek321 at 2:50 PM on September 23, 2010


Response by poster: I may give linkedin another shot. It seemed too stiff and cheesy for the kinds of people I was looking for, back in the day. It seems like they're here to stay, though.

http://www.istrategy2010.com/blog/leveraging-social-media-marketing-on-linkedin-%E2%80%93-finding-business-partners/
posted by zeek321 at 3:08 PM on September 23, 2010


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