Yes but you need to spend a fair amount of time in person so that you'll be effective together. "Date" online for the co-founder but once you've found a likely partner, spend time together to make sure it's a good fit.
It depends on your business but in my experience, the best was to do a half and half model where some of it was virtual and some of it was onsite. After hours is something that costs effective outsourcing to a virtual company can be effective.