We've just passed the 500 mark, and we're all pleased.

That's five hundred would-be entrepreneurs out there looking for a partner-in-crime to build amazing things.

So, if you haven't signed up already, come and join the fun!

Right now it's still totally free. You get to put in your own preferences, and then search based on just what you're looking for in a co-founder.

Or, if you've already got an account, let us know what you think about it!

We've just added a feedback tab - and we're hoping you'll tell us your likes and dislike. What you'd like to see happening to the site in the future, what you'd most like to change if you could.

We're all ears.

So, we've been pretty quiet lately - but that doesn't mean we haven't been doing anything, oh no!

Mainly our changes have been invisible. We've been working behind the scenes to make the site more robust (so somebody else can't update *your* profile) and adding a test suite (so we can catch bugs before they hit the real site).

This stuff is all part of catching up from our hackfest beginnings - to a much better, stable platform to work on from here on out.

...and we have a lot to work on. All sorts of things are in the planning stages.

Upgrades: Better profiles/bios - eg the ability to add skills and passions as tags - which will make it much easier to search on them too.

Projects: The ability to add a project that you are working on - then invite other people to view or work on your project.

Networks: got an entrepreneur's network? Like to add your members as a special network? That's in the works too.

Let me know if you've got your own burning requirement, and we'll fit it into the schedule!

Hi all. Just a quck message. We've migrated over to our new server. Not all of the original site styling is done yet (it looks a bit ugly, we know), but otherwise it should be running ok - with a few improvements.

There is one big downside, though.

Passwords.

Because we moved to a new system, all of your nicely-encrypted, safe passwords are all unintelligible to the new system. You won't be able to login with them (really sorry!).

BUT we do have a new-and-improved "forgot my password" capability. It's on the login page in the set of links underneath the login/password boxes. Just click that button, enter the email you used to sign up and away you go.

You will also need to confirm your email account within a short period to keep using the site (you get a few days grace to play until then). Those that signed up a week ago will probably have hit the limit where our system won't let you sign-in without confirming the email address. Just click "resend confirmation" (again, on the login page) to get that sent out to you. New registrations will get that email automatically, but because you signed up before we went live... sorry - please forgive us and just ask for the confirmation again :)

My deepest apologies for this hassle - we tried to get this up as quick as possible so it'd affect the least number of people... but you guys just keep signing up! (that's not a bad thing, BTW... keep doing that!).

Thanks a bunch

So, we've had quite a bit of interest in the site recently - pretty amazing for having only started last weekend... we passed the 100 users mark three days ago, and are almost at 145. Early days, but still looking good!

So I thought I'd let you all know what we're up to right now.

Our first order of business is to get the site up and running on new, more permanent hosting. At the same time, we're adding some extra profile settings (because we just picked a handful of random ones to get the ball rolling) and also working on getting the login system a bit nicer - thank you/signup emails and an ability to go back and edit your account/profile.

We're only working on this part-time (unfortunately we've all still got day-jobs), but steady progress is going on behind the scenes, and we shoud have the new site up and running in the next week or so.

We'll send out an email letting you know when that happens.

Wow, Launch48 was a blast. Over 48 hours we built the MatchFounders site and figured out how to turn it into a business. The MatchFounders team worked hard, and finished up buzzing with energy, and a great product was born.

But it's over now, so what happens next? Do we all just disappear?

Luckily no!

I'm totally committed to making this site work, and there's a few more of us also still "in", so watch this space for more developments!

Our evil plans

Ok, maybe not so evil... but we do have lots of ideas for the future. Some stuff is pretty obvious - for example, we need to let you go back and edit your profile once you've signed up... and login doesn't actually let you do anything useful just yet... but other stuff comes out of what our dedicated alpha-testers told us during the launch48 weekend itself.

For example, we're told that the signup process is a bit long, and not very well explained... so we want to make that a little less painful when you're just starting to have a look around the site.

The other thing we've gotta do is add a way for people to pay for subscriptions.

Yes, this will be a subscription service, but don't worry, if you've signed up[*], you are now the lucky owners of a beta-testing account!

We're in Beta-land

First up, I want to say thank you to all those that signed up over the weekend! You are all now officially Beta testers ;)

By being willing to jump in when we're so new, you've scored yourselves a free trial of the site while we're still in beta-land - and we'd greatly appreciate any feedback you've got.

Especially let us know of the sorts of things you'd wish you could ask your potential co-founders. After all, we just picked a few random roles/skills that were quick to put up over the weekend... but from now on we'd like to start Getting Real, and for that we need your help.

Right now we're still working on getting a proper feedback form setup, but if you can send your opinions to matchfounders_AT_taryneast_dot_com that'll come straight to me.

Also, if you've got some friends you think would like to join up, let them know now, while you can still get some time on our site for free!

* - Signup
If you haven't registered yet, don't worry, there's still time left before we close the beta-doors... but we won't hold them open forever, so do get your details down while you can. Don't worry, we don't expect anything of you except maybe your opinion, if you want to give it, of how we can help you better.

This is me (Taryn) presenting our evil plans to the Launch48 crowd. Behind me are (from left to right) Joel, Gwendell, Joey and Pau - all part of the founding team. You can't quite see so well, but at the lectern to my right (unfortunately directly behind me in the photo) is Madhur (directing the slides on-screen) and the final team-member is camera-man extraordinaire Andreas, who kept the photos rolling on this blog throughout the weekend.

Less than 48 hrs have passed since the pitches and team building and it's already graduation time. May the best startup win! (matchfounders.com!)

"You have a business idea, but you don't have all the skills needed to realise it. A place most of us have found ourselves in. matchfounders.com is the solution to this very real problem. We match people with great ideas with people with great skills and connects them to the organisations and services they will need to go all the way!"

Or something like that... As this is written, we are still struggling to nail it down. We still don't have a complete grasp on how large the market is, how high our estimated conversion rates will be, and even exactly how the service will work. But we're pretty sure we will get there!

(download)

Click here to download:

this-one-is-for-you-rDDpzAblpCyDrFAfwGjI.zip (2.55 MB)