Very interesting read. I understand completely and that is why I was hesitant to call it a social networking app. I feel that is ultimately what it would be categorized as, but it would be much more than that. In addition to that I have a couple of thoughts on how to overcome the chicken-and-egg problem. Hopefully a working demo, and a large enough user base can offset the bias against social networking apps(I use that term loosely).
the best way to find a technical cofounder from HN is to browse people by localization and skills on this site: http://hackernewsers.com/users.html good luck! (I live in Germany, otherwise would like to help)