As an autistic person, I'm much more comfortable with the classic forum layout. I know instantly where a certain discussion would be appropriate. Whereas on reddit, I often feel at bit lost to be frank even with flair on posts. I've created a youth rights forum on proboards.com It's a free hosting service for forums. My forum is called Youth Rights Now! Source: 7 months ago

I mean, sites like that have existed since back then. Hell Proboards is still active: https://proboards.com/. Source: about 1 year ago

Otherwise, your best bet is to use a 3rd party service (like proboards.com - I hope its ok I posted that link, im not affiliated with it) and then just link to it from your website. that would the less hassle way. Source: about 2 years ago

You might get in contact with a nearby university, professor or student organization that have relevant courses to get in contact with students or alumnis. Other sources for co-founders are startup related meetups or websites (e.g., founders-nation.com). Source: over 2 years ago