I had a conversation the other day with a UX specialist at Google. He has itchy feet and wants to leave. He happily told me he has a developer friend and a biz dev friend, both from Google, that are happy to jump ship with him. His major motivation "is to make a lot of cash".

The one thing lacking from his story is vision. In my experience, if you don't already have the friends (as the UX guy did), vision is the most powerful force for finding talented co-founders, partners and employees. The best developers I know (and I know some of the absolute best) are motivated by a desire to have an impact on the world: they want their code to mean something. They don't want to write code for code's sake. They want to leave a mark. Code is their vehicle.

My suggestion is to immerse yourself in the local scene. Make friends with the local tech guys at meetups and hackathons, at parties and dinners, and put yourself in a position where you can talk about the impact you want to have on the world. Irrespective of the platform or circumstance you use to meet someone, there is no escaping the reality that you need to have an inspiring story about how you want to make a change in society. If it's good enough, that story will spread and you'll get an introduction to someone that's interested.

Keep in mind that the best guys are employed and are being headhunted every day for big dollars. The best chance you have of finding a technical co-founder that is prepared to leave that massive paycheck behind is through a vision and credible story about how you can have broader impact.