Finding a clinical cofounder comes down to two practical things: identifying someone with the problem you're trying to solve, and building from shared frustration.
The critical first point: the CEO doesn't need to be clinically trained. What matters is that complementary skills exist somewhere in the founding team [#291]. This opens the field considerably. You're looking for someone still actively engaged in clinical work—the person with the daily friction point, the insight into what actually breaks—rather than necessarily a clinician-turned-entrepreneur. That friction, combined with your own skills in business or technical build, is what creates the founding tension you need.
Beyond motivation and complementary skills, recognise that finding a cofounder is difficult full stop [#291]. Most early conversations happen through networks: people you know through healthcare work, university connections, clinical networks. The archive doesn't prescribe a formal search mechanism, but the pattern across multiple episodes is that founders who brought clinical expertise in early had existing relationships in healthcare [#290]. If you're not yet embedded in clinical settings, starting there—working in healthcare, testing ideas with practitioners, attending clinical conferences—is more efficient than cold outreach. You're not recruiting a clinical cofounder; you're solving a problem alongside someone until partnership becomes obvious.
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