TL;DR:
If you're like me: a software engineer, who's been writing code for many years and attends lots of startup events, then you've been asked over a hundred times, by someone you've just met, to be their co-founder. And you've met even more people who want you to build their app for free and then they'll pay you when it gets big and it starts making money. To be honest, whenever I meet someone in the second category, I don't know if I should laugh or cry - I don't think I'll ever be able to help them. But in this article, I'd like to help people in the first category. Oh & BTW: with 2 failed startups and one that's doing great under my belt, I'm speaking from experience.
1. Pick someone you’ve been friends with for years
The reason you want to start your company with the person you drink beer with on evenings on weekdays, play with her kids on weekends or eat supper at his house when there’s a power-cut at yours (these are not is because starting a company is hard: there are going to be times when it makes sense to quit or times when you disagree on things that are very important to you (and not her).
If you have some history/relationship, there’s going to be a lot more to lose when you disappoint your co-founder or when you quit. That history/relationship alone will be enough reason to keep going during the tough times.
Secondly, you will have more time to work together to get more stuff done. Because you already have beers together until late at night and spend all weekend together you don’t have wait until Monday morning to discuss an important decision.
Thirdly, you’re going to likely need your co-founders help when things get bad in your personal life (because you spend most of your time with them) and it helps if she understands. These bad situations are unique for everyone of course and they could be anything from having a landlord who is trying to kick you out because your rent is late again or the death of a close family member.
2. Pick someone who sees things differently from you
Having a co-founder who did the same degree as you do, who drinks the same beer that you drink and agrees with everything you say won’t help you as much as you as much as having a cofounder who challenges you, who thinks of things you didn’t. A co-founder who is exactly like you wont’ help you grow personally.
3. Pick someone who doesn’t mind working with people who see things differently.
I consider this as one of the best lessons I learnt from my co-founder. We have a friend (actually, she’s just someone we know) we keep going to for advice because she has a lot of experience in our industry. I never really looked forward to those meetings because every time, she was not-only patronising but she always finds something to criticise. There was a point when I realised that my co-founder didn’t mind listening to her talk. When she started talking, he was not only attentive but seemed to have some ‘inner-peace’. One day I asked him why and he told me that he “actually preferred being around people who were very different from him” because he could “learn most from people like that than those who were not”.
4. Pick someone who is as passionate about the problem you’re solving as you are.
If your startup is going to be the next best thing, everyone else is going to think you’re crazy when you’re geeking out about how well the technology you’re building solves X. Don’t start your company with non-believers. When the going starts getting tough (and it will) they will have a bunch of reasons why this was a bad idea to start with.
5. Someone who believes in you
If she doesn’t believe in you, she is going to micromanage you and second-guess your every move. There are some things you can do to get your co-founder to believe in you more:
- be good at something. And learn to do it better than anyone else in the world
- avoid doing the things you’re not very good at - learn to delegate.
6. Someone you believe in
This is another reason you should get a co-founder who is way better that yo are at something. No matter how good you are, you can’t do everything yourself; you’re going to have to delegate. It’s harder to delegate to someone if you can do the job better than they can.
That’s also (one of) the reason why you want to hire people who are smarter than you are - it’s easier to delegate stuff to them and you get more done. You should strive to make yourself obsolete by finding and hiring people who are better at what you do than you are. And then delegating everything to them.
7. Don’t listen to me or anyone
You’re an entrepreneur, follow your gut and do whatever you want. Don’t listen to other people’s advice. Nobody knows what the hell the are doing. Don’t believe me, watch this:
