@rexreed Yes that's true that's how founders have been finding each other historically. Keep in mind that many in the survey were pre-CoundersLab. We're not into putting out research as a marketing tool, we're doing research to help entrepreneurs understand their world, trends, get informed and be successful. I think this piece is a testament to our culture of being true, not just pushing our agenda.
Back to your point though, I suspect (and am betting my business on the fact) that when we do this same survey in 3 or 5 years from now you'll start to see CoFoudnersLab show up on the chart; we are too new, and it takes time for teams to come together and launch startups.
Shahab here again. I hope this issue has been covered to everyone's satisfaction. I just want to leave any new readers with this link to our terms of use one more time. http://www.cofounderslab.com/terms-of-use
As you see we explicitly mention bosiDNA (this is the only partner in the whole agreement) and that you're agreeing to their terms of use too. If any member of HN or CoFoundersLab community feels we've done anything wrong please send an email to info at cofounderslab. We're happy to consider changes needed to ensure we're running our operations fairly.
Shahab here, co-founder at CoFoundersLab. I'd like to respond to the allegations being made on this string.
Regarding Orangethirty's statement, I don't know how you could claim that we sold any data. We absolutely do not sell any data. You should be more careful with your claims online, like many other startups we work really hard to do things by the book and build a strong reputation. Unless you have facts to back your claims up these sort of actions are very damaging to startup brands in their young lives.
Regarding Intellegacy's statement, CoFoundersLab does not have a call center, furthermore we don't even collect your phone number. Unless you are a Pro Member, at which point we collect a phone number for the credit card transaction. We do not use phone numbers for any other purpose. If you are not a Pro Member please mention that on this string, as it would be pretty cut-and-dry that we had nothing to do with the phone call you received since we don't have your phone number.
Regarding pain_perdu's allegations that we're doing anything wrong, I'd like to start with the following. You received a legitimate request from another member on CoFoundersLab to take an assessment. This member was presumably considering you as a co-founder and wanted to see how you matched up from a personality type assessment/entrepreneur archetype is what we refer that as. You then started the assessment but did not complete the assessment. At this point we did store your email on the BosiDNA system.
BOSIdna is a partner of CoFoundersLab. When you sign up for CoFoundersLab's FREE SERVICE you agreed to the following terms IF you take the assessment; "By completing the archetype assessment, you agree to the Terms of Service of BOSI Inc. Find BOSI Inc.'s Terms of Service here: http://www.bosidna.com/tos. We rely on bosiDNA to conduct the assessment so you're also agreeing to their terms of use. So CoFoundersLab did not sell any information to bosiDNA, we have purchased a license from bosiDNA, we feel this is a valuable service and we provide it as an integrated experience for our members at no charge. bosiDNA has never paid CoFoundersLab for any service, and certainly not for our data. Therefore CoFoundersLab has not done anything wrong.
Having said all that, while bosiDNA reserves the right to email you; we do have an agreement that our members should not be contacted by bosiDNA directly without permission. There was a campaign that was sent out to a very small group of people inadvertently who were also CoFoundersLab members. I've confirmed with their CEO that issue has been resolved. This was an isolated case and will not happen again.
For those reading this, I want to further explain the email that was sent from bosiDNA was an invitation to join a free webinar. It went out to people who partially completed the bosi assessment to educate people about a free assessment.
It's a real slap in the face that CoFoundersLab provides a free service, made more than 25k introductions, all to help entrepreneurs launch new startups, and to be treated with such disdain is a real disappointment. I'd like to refer anyone reading this to http://buzz.cofounderslab.com/Successful_Matches/ to have a look at some of the successul entrepreneurs we're helping and assure you, we do not sell data to anybody, and that our mission and values are just, and we hope to make a huge impact on the entrepreneurs who are seeking great co-founders.
One way not mentioned in the article is free co-founder matching Meetups like the ones we organize. Check out http://www.cofounderslab.com to see if one is happening in your city .
Hi, we are you located? I organize free Meetups to help entrepreneurs like you find their co-founder. Check out http://cofounderslab.meetup.com
and follow us @cofounderslab as we release more tools to help match co-founders. Good luck, great post.
Back to your point though, I suspect (and am betting my business on the fact) that when we do this same survey in 3 or 5 years from now you'll start to see CoFoudnersLab show up on the chart; we are too new, and it takes time for teams to come together and launch startups.