If you are currently living and working in a small rural area, then you might consider moving. Most investors are interested in "windshield money." They're going to invest in companies that are fairly close by. They want to be able to drive to meet you if they need to. Being in a small city will severely restrict the flow in your investor pipeline. I know this from experience. I live in Knoxville, Tennessee. As for a co-founder with a recognized business background, are you looking for a generalist or a specialist? Someone with deep logistics experience, or someone adept with financial modeling, culture, hiring, marketing, and sales? Know the exact skills you need to compliment your own. Then go get in the way of opportunity. Go to conferences, seminars, and meetups. Sounds like you'll need to travel to do that. Plumb your own network, and ask everybody you know if there's anybody. Spend ten hours on LinkedIn, and use something like Lucid Charts to create a mindmap of who know whom. Patterns will emerge. Likely candidates may start to jump out. Connect with them on Twitter. Set up a call to ask for advice. Offer to pay them for their time. I don't think there are any shortcuts here, and even if there were, you'd still be better of entering into this kind of relationship very, very slowly, despite the urgency your business may create. A bad management/founder fit can wreck your business faster than making no money. Worse, a bad fit can wreck your business WHILE you're making money. One last thing: for co-founders to not be co-located during the early stages will become a serious impediment. Despite Skype, Slack, Trello, Google Drive, Dropbox, Voxer, and every other collaboration tool you can work into the mix, working side-by-side can still be much, much more efficient. Just be prepared to follow the business wherever it grows.

If you want to discuss further, let me know.

Regards,
Austin L. Church