Eventually, I met Joel Poloney and everything clicked. Just like real-life dating, sometimes it seemed like I was going to end up alone. I ended up ‘dating’ six different potential co-founders over the course of a year. “I knew I didn’t want my search to be random or unfocused, so I honed my process and took my time. And once you step outside of that pool, it gets harder to meet someone,” says Lin. You have to both want to do a startup - requiring similar levels of high-risk tolerance - and be available at the same time, which depends on life and financial circumstances. “Most of the co-founder stories I’d heard fell in this bucket of former co-workers pairing up to go after an idea. “When I left to start a company, there were a few spaces I was interested in, but I didn’t have a specific startup idea so I set my sights on finding a strong co-founder to work with.”īut she quickly found that was easier said than done. My experiences as a product leader were strongest when I was partnering closely with an engineering leader,” says Lin. “I always wanted to team up with someone. We’re talking about co-founder dating.Īs the first head of product at Flipboard and the first PM hire at Stripe, Lin’s seen founding teams in action - and knew what she was looking for as she set out to build a company of her own. Gloria Lin went on a lot of dates in 2019.

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