Stop Yoloing Your Co-Founder Search: Why "just Go to Events" Is Terrible Advice

After tracking 97K+ community members across 25 startup ecosystems, we noticed something interesting about co-founder matching.

Traditional advice is "go to events and network," but that's basically YOLOing the most important business decision you'll make. You wouldn't hire an employee based purely on vibes at a networking event.

We found four patterns that actually predict co-founder success:

1. Commitment patterns (2 events/year vs 15 events across multiple communities) 2. Relevant experience (consistently showing up in domain-specific spaces) 3. Ecosystem embeddedness (woven into regional networks, not one-off appearances) 4. Strategic warm intros (shared context vs cold LinkedIn messages)

The approach cuts typical 6-12 month search timelines down to weeks by using actual behavioral data instead of self-reported profiles.

Would love feedback from founders who've found co-founders. What worked? What was a waste of time?

(Full disclosure: I run LocalFoundation, which helps ecosystems track this data. But the principles work whether you build your own system or just approach networking more strategically.)