Frequently asked questions

FounderNear.me is a free live map of founders near you. Each member has a public profile with what they are building or working on, their website and social links. Signed-in members can see who is nearby on the map, poke someone to start a private chat, and meet in person.

FounderNear.me is built for exactly this: it shows founders on a live map, sorted by distance, with their website and social links on each profile. Its sister site DeveloperNear.me does the same for software developers. Local meetups, coworking spaces, startup events and LinkedIn searches are good ways to meet people too.

Open the map on foundernear.me and share your location. You will see the founders closest to you, how far away they are and what they are working on. Zoom out to see busy areas and other cities, or browse the full list at https://foundernear.me/founders.

No. FounderNear.me never shows anyone's home address, email or phone number on a public page. Signed-in members see a pin at the location each person last shared with the site and how far away it is, which is enough to know who is nearby. To actually meet, poke them and agree on a place together.

Sign in and press Poke on their profile. That starts a private chat, and they get a one-time email and WhatsApp alert so they see your message. You can also use the website or social links on their profile.

Look for founders near you whose work fits what you sell, read what they are building on their profile, and poke them with a short, specific message. Meeting people nearby makes it much easier to turn a conversation into a first client. See our guide: https://foundernear.me/find-clients-near-me.

Browse developers on DeveloperNear.me, check their tech stack, GitHub and website on their profile, and poke the ones who match to start a chat. Hiring someone who lives nearby makes in-person work and quick meetings easy. See the guide: https://developernear.me/hire-developers-near-me.

Yes. Creating a profile, browsing the map, poking people and chatting are free.

Only what you choose to add: your name, what you are building or working on, your tech stack, and links to your website and social accounts. Your username gives you a shareable page like https://foundernear.me/@yourname. Email and phone numbers are never shown publicly.

Profile views is how many people have opened your profile. Each browser counts once, and your own visits are not counted.

Yes. Without an account you can look around a small area of the map and read public profiles. Signing in lets you explore everywhere, see links and distances, and poke people.

See the Privacy Policy at https://foundernear.me/privacy for what we store and how to have it removed.