Co-Founder dating

Since the beginning of 2025, I have been looking for opportunities other than Docsy. I have learned a name for the phase I am in: co-founder dating.

Co-founder dating means meeting people, working together, and negotiating

Here is what I did for the last three months:

• I went out to dozens of events in the Frankfurt region. I participated in hackathons in Paris, Berlin, and Munich.
• I applied to and interviewed with two startup incubator programs and got rejected on both.
• I followed up on a few more leads with Docsy and even gave another demo. I pitched it to a few potential co-founders. It's still on my list, but as long as I am not convincing someone I enjoy working with, it's on hold.
• I negotiated with folks from a medical devices consulting company that have plans for a new robotics project. I can't go into details on the company or project, but I did deep research on the state-of-the-art and initial discovery with physicians was very promising. The idea was that a separate company will have to be formed and need a leadership team. In the end, we couldn't agree on conditions and I would've had to start working without direct influence on the robotics project, which put my luck out of my hands, which I was unwilling to commit to.
• I have worked with promising potential co-founders on (small) projects. I don't want to share more about my potential co-founders and our projects in this stage. If one of those constellations works out, I will surely share more about how we got there.
• I have been building a few smaller things, including a nostr website and bot for quoting images and publishing nix packages for three relays: nostr-rs-relay, haven, strfry. Decentralized identity/social protocols continue to fascinate me but as of today, I don't see a viable business in that area.

Looking back on the last months, it has been a wild ride. I am still surprised about how much I enjoy pitching, and negotiating. My outcomes depend much more directly on how I act compared to the time I spend as an employee. Even though the day-to-day of that means getting rejected or losing a competition, the direct connection between my actions and my outcomes is deeply satisfying to me.

Co-founder dating is exciting but I don't want it to be my focus

Jumping between hackathons and small projects, always working in another domain, is exciting but it's like fast food; it leaves me more hungry. I am yearning to apply myself to something productive and longer-lasting but I haven’t found an outlet for that. That makes me tense which is unpleasant. Doing sports is a good band-aid for releasing tension. But of course, the deeper desire remains and I want to act now to get closer to that. I will move my focus from pure co-founder dating to building something again.

Now the question is, what do I start working on? How much do I trust my inner compass? How much do I lean on market pull?

My inner compass is murky on the "what"

The inner compass is murky when it comes to “what” at the moment. I am not drawn towards the bigger projects I have on my idea list, including Docsy, as long as it's day-to-day is indie hacking. I know I can just start and find people on the way for things I am passionate about, but for none of the things on my list, I feel so self-confident and passionate to take it on.

So I'll be more opportunistic

That’s why I want to lean more on market pull for the “what” now. I fully trust my compass on the “who” question. The number one option is still committing fully to working with someone I like to work with. The best case on an idea where we understand the problem deeply and have a hunch that we can solve it differently than the competition; otherwise consulting in a relevant space.

The fallback is working as a freelancer to have something that satisfies my “apply myself” need (which includes my desire for learning, deep work, and building stuff that matters) while I figure out what and who to work together with on something bigger.

And that's it for now. I don't have a big plan, I just learn about what works for me and what doesn't.