The email newsletter that could save your startup

Why is a read-only listserv making waves in the startup scene in Singapore and beyond? Because it’s helping entrepreneurs get hooked up with those elusive co-founders, if Jeffrey Paine has his way.

Paine, who runs the Founder Institute program in Singapore, started SGCoFounders in November to create a simple, anonymous way for potential founders to sign up.  People email him their requests and criteria for a co-founder at sgcofounders@battleventures.com, he vets them and then decides whether to send them out to the list. He has sent out five requests to the list’s more than 110 members so far.

“I get to control the conversations, the rest of the networking happens after they receive the newsletters amongst themselves,” he said in an email to us.

Paine says he gets up to six responses for each request and almost all have resulted in meetings. Jon Yongfook Cockle, the Tokyo-based blogger and software developer, sent out a request looking for a “business superhero” to join him in develop his new massively multiplayer game, which runs on a Twitter client, called Littlecosm.

What was Yongfook looking for in a business co-founder? Here’s what went out in his request:

I’m creative/technical (let’s just say “product”). You’re a business superhero (with some creative mixed in). You bring gaming industry experience and contacts, can dream up effective ways to acquire new players and can go out there and raise financing In your spare time (if you have any!) you will help hands-on with the games :)

Compensation: open to discussion, but equity would certainly be part of the equation.

“The response came faster than I expected – it’s obviously a quality list with active subscribers” he told us by email. “I won’t say I found my perfect co-founder – but it was a good jumping-off point.”

Paine also adds context and comments to each request he sends out. He might appraise a founder’s prospects as having a “high chance of an exit soon”, or he might include additional information, like whether someone’s looking to move to Singapore, as he did with Yongfook,

So, why do all this over a read-only listserv? SGCoFounders is powered by Tiny Letter, a free email newsletter creator started by Philip “Pud” Kaplan, who started Blippy, Adbrite and Fucked Company.  Pain wanted to try Tiny Letter out because Kaplan is also a Founder Institute mentor. He was also interested in Jason Calacanis’ recent advocacy of email newsletters over blogs and other webware.

SGCoFounders hasn’t actually matched an entrepreneur with a co-founder yet, but Paine thinks it’s only a matter of time.

“The reality is that finding a co-founder takes time, effort and chemistry, what you may see happen over time is that when a group of like minded passionate people come together sparks of all sorts fly,” he said.

(Image credit: Nick Pan. Also check out Nick’s post on The Next Big Bang, where Yongfook presented Littlecosm)

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