CoFoundersLab, the international matchmaking community for entrepreneurs that launched in 2011 in Rockville, M.D., is raising funds, has added four new cities and now has a mobile application on iOS. Shahab Kaviani, who cofounded CoFoundersLab with Culin Tate, says that more news is coming in January.
"We've reached 25,000 members, which makes us the largest community of founders online," Kaviani explains. "That's about 4,000 introductions per month. The network is activating inside markets and people are hearing about [CoFoundersLab] and putting it to work for them."
CoFoundersLab is a team-building platform that helps entrepreneurs successfully find team members. In addition to the online component of the business, Kaviani and his team of six hold cofounder meetup events in 35 cities around the world; most recently they have added Houston, Dallas, San Diego and San Francisco to their roster. "With San Francisco, we were waiting because we wanted to do it right," he explains. "We’re building a community there on a full-time basis."
The company is holding meetups in cities outside the U.S. as well. "Tel Aviv has been really good," Kaviani says. "In the past nine months, we've had three events there." He credits Startup Nation with creating a "really great community" of entrepreneurs in the city. Saõ Paulo in Brazil has also "welcomed the company with open arms"—so much so that when CoFoundersLab looks to recreate its platform in other languages (possibly in quarter 2 of next year), Portuguese is top on the list.
"I didn't expect [CoFoundersLab] to spread this fast," Kaviani says. "The international partners are welcoming and doing the heavy lifting."
Another way Kaviani and the team are expanding CoFoundersLab is through the company's
mobile app. "It's like Tinder for entrepreneurs," he explains, referring to the popular speed-dating app. The app accesses a user's CoFoundersLab profile and location, then scans the room for other app users and suggests matches. "It's highly specialized, pulling from a rich data set." The app is currently available on iOS and an Android version is coming.
Finally, CoFoundersLab is raising funds. "We raised $525,000 before," Kaviani says. "We're in a bridge round right now and we should be able to announce our investors soon."
"Momentum," he says, "is snowballing."