Branded Startup Maryland TeamFinder Portal Unveiled to Help Founders Connect With Others to Build Startup Teams
Everywhere, Md. (February 11, 2013) – Startup Maryland (startupmd.org), a state-wide initiative FOR Entrepreneurs…BY Entrepreneurs, today announced a partnership with CoFoundersLab (www.cofounderslab.com) to provide the Maryland entrepreneur community with a free way to find a co-founder/business partner. To meet this need Startup Maryland and CoFoundersLab combined efforts and brands to develop a TeamFinder portal – which is also unveiled today as a new Resource.
The branded TeamFinder portal is the first component of Startup Maryland’s Connection initiative. Connection joins Celebration, Coaching and Capital as four primary Areas of Concentration for Startup Maryland throughout 2013 and beyond. These four guiding initiatives were officially announced last week at a White House reception during which Startup Maryland highlighted past successes and future plans for Presidential advisors and officials from several government agencies. (See Empowering Entrepreneur Champions below for more detail)
“A great team is critical to startup success yet good co-founders and management team candidates are often difficult to find for resource-strapped entrepreneurs,” stated Michael P. Binko, Startup Maryland co-chair and CEO of kloudtrack®. “Startup Maryland is dedicated to helping our entrepreneur community solve this challenge and the TeamFinder portal directly addresses the need with an innovative, free and easy-to-use solution,” Julie Lenzer Kirk, Startup Maryland co-chair and Executive Director of the Maryland Center for Entrepreneurship (MCE).
Whether entrepreneurs are just starting out with an idea and looking for their first co-founder or are a few years into a startup and looking for that third or fourth executive the Startup Maryland TeamFinder portal is now the “go-to tool” to find that key team member to help inflect a startup.
“While the Startup Maryland TeamFinder has specific features tailored to needs of their community the best part is that TeamFinder also integrates with the full CoFoundersLab database of thousands of entrepreneurs,” stated Shahab Kaviani, co-founder of CoFoundersLab and Startup Maryland Champion.
“TeamFinder allows extensive search and filter capabilities to narrow the search down to co-founder candidates with specific criteria, such as those people whom have certain skills, are part of specific communities (co-working spaces, accelerators, etc.), and have complementary entrepreneur personalities,” added Kaviani.
Empowering Entrepreneur Champions
Near the end of 2012, Startup Maryland began a campaign to engage its participants as Entrepreneur Champion leaders for the Startup Maryland initiative. With the support of the national Startup America team, Startup Maryland held a series of Champion sessions during which Big Ideas, a Theme and Areas of Focus were identified and prioritized. The connective and coaching/mentorship aspects of building strong startup communities compliment the celebration and capital access goals forming the four pillars of the Startup Maryland mission.
With active universities, accelerators, economic development agencies and innovation partners like Maryland TEDCO and the Maryland Department of Business and Economic Development (DBED), Startup Maryland is concentrating on the entrepreneur communities to strengthen Maryland’s economic fabric while fostering a climate where the most promising companies can help each other while leveraging the state’s Unfair Advantage in order to inflect and thrive.
Looking for a co-founder?
Join the Startup Maryland entrepreneurial community and find your co-founder today on the Startup Maryland TeamFinder portal!
Additional information and a detailed walk-through demonstration of the Startup Maryland TeamFinder portal is also available on the Startup Maryland YouTube site here http://youtu.be/hPycrCt796w
About CoFoundersLab:
CoFoundersLab is the largest online community of entrepreneurs looking for a co-founder. CoFoundersLab partners with organizations and universities across the country to provide a co-branded, co-founder matching resource for their communities. Startup Maryland joins the ranks of some of the top entrepreneur organizations, universities, and many others as a proud CoFoundersLab partner, dedicated to promoting entrepreneurship and business creation in their community.
Check out the CoFoundersLab blog for news, updates, and success stories of entrepreneurs who have found a co-founder on a CoFoundersLab-powered matching platform. Successful matches in the region include LegCyte, a legislative technology company accepted into D.C.’s first startup accelerator, The Fort, and Kithly, a Maryland startup accepted into Baltimore-based incubator ETC Baltimore.
About Startup Maryland:
Startup Maryland (startupmd.org) is a regions initiative launched out of the Startup America Partnership (www.S.co). It is a state-wide initiative FOR entrepreneurs BY entrepreneurs to bring entrepreneurial resources together, increase access to resources / capital / deal flow and boost awareness, while also bringing together entrepreneurs in a community of support to drive greater economic outcomes.