Making anyone a "partner" is hard. Really hard. Whether it is a co-founder or life partner. I will give you some general advice first before specifically talkin

Making anyone a "partner" is hard. Really hard. Whether it is a co-founder or life partner. I will give you some general advice first before specifically talking about technical cofounders. Don't just partner with someone you met on the internet right away. Do a project with them. Collaborate on some throw away stuff. Write a to do list together , whatever. The idea is to see if they can even commit to something like that. Build something with them even if not a software project. Go hang out with them, socialize, hit the bars whatever. See how they are. I really think that a cofounder cannot be magically "found" but more like you worked with someone for a while and realized that they could be a good potential cofounder. You already trust them and know their work. Otherwise, you are taking a huge risk and it almost always ends up bad for both parties. Yes, I am sure outliers are there but they are outliers. If you really want to find a co-founder, make sure you have enough time with them as non-cofounder before you even think of moving on with that step. Remember, the real test of a "partner" in anything is not when things are great. It is when things go south and I can assure you they WILL. How your partner/cofounder behaves during the tough times will tell you all about them. You hope to have an idea about that before you even commit to be a cofounder.