What is the best way to find business partners?

Get to know your industry inside out. Look for ideas in other industries. Find parallels between your product/services and other great partner companies and copy them. It is a little bit of everything and being very scrappy helps.  My approach (and it may not work for everybody) is to consume a lot of media and follow a lot of people and really try to figure out there problems. Ask questions, go to industry events and conferences, be social. It won't be long before you will start to see patterns within the industry you are targeting. It is remarkable how many companies within the same industry are focused on the same strategic objectives at exactly the same time. For example, are companies in the industry you are trying to target on a cost savings rampage? Are they looking to retain more customers or are they looking to increase basket size? Every industry has a cyclical focus and knowing what that can really supercharge your results.

Here is a blog post on how to choose a business partner: http://glowingstart.com/look-business-partner/ And here is a video on the same topic: Generally, the things you look for are integrity, honesty, experience, hard work, and that they are a good team player with a similar long-term vision to yours.

This isn't a simple question. People have personal preference to choose friends and others prefer strangers. it is extremely important that you both have the business interest in mind. And that you have a document that states this and you outline dos & dont. This also should state equity & lawyer's advice is great to outline this. This takes time and experience. Know exactly what your strengths are and what you'd need out of a partner. It is in fact complicated but this is a great book : http://www.amazon.com/The-Hard-Thing-About-Things/dp/0062273205 Good Luck!

I started my startup, RawTale to solve the problems with finding business partners. Website: https://rawtale.com/ When I was doing business matching job, I saw so many business owners who have a hard time finding a suitable business partner. This is because, in my opinion, they are too small to attract attention. RawTale is a new type of business-matching platform that helps you find the best business partner by sharing your proposal. The system is very simple; you share your proposal on RawTale to attract the interest of potential partners. In contrast to existing B2B marketplaces like Alibaba, which focus on product-based information, RawTale emphasizes the “story” of business. On this platform, you will explain how they started their company, what their business model is, what their skills and achievements are, and what kind of partners your are looking for. This information helps you to show your quality as potential business partners. Hope this helps. :)

Andre Agassi was ask the same question. I find his answer great: "I’m a big fan of people who do more than they say. People who enjoy puffing their chest out and acting as if they’re really smart and can handle everything always disappoint you."