Since my brother passed away, I have difficulties to find the replacement for a partner or co-founder for my business ideas that I have in mind.
There were times when I involved in both light and intense discussion with some friends. But, somehow it didn’t work out. I guess the saying that “finding co-founder is as difficult as finding our other half” is totally true.
Based on my personal experiences, below are my conclusion on what to consider when choosing co-founders.
I. Good friends in real life don’t always fit as a co-founder
I had very intense discussion couple times with my friends about business ideas. All of them are my friends. In the real world, we are quite close. We get along fine.
But, when it comes to discussion about business ideas, differences just keep showing up between us. Differences on vision and direction, or how we respond on specific topic, or as simple as how the UI will be when we go with the business idea.
Running a business or startup is a quite long journey. It will takes lots of commitment from each person. Many challenges we are going to face will be a potential cause for disputes and these can break our friendship.
So don’t push it. Just be friends in the real world.
II. Keep away toxic and negative thinking people
When we have business ideas we’d like to do, it’s ok if we have doubts.
“Will this work?” “Will people buy this?” “Will this be a profitable business?”
And the questions just keep coming.
These kind of questions can shake our confidence and make us too scare to take a step, let alone take a big leap. That’s why we must find partner(s) that can boost our confidence level, never be pessimistic, keep positive thinking and have a positive attitude. Because there are times when we will support each other during hard times.
So imagine when we share our idea passionately and our soon to be co-founder talks about how hard it will be to go with the idea, how difficult it will be to sell the product, how tough it will be to find clients. Can you handle that?
III. Be careful with sweet-talks people
When choosing a business partner, we need to consider if this person is all talks and just bullshits.
Legalize all the promises and deals on paper is a must. Especially when it comes to money, profit, liability. Even our soon to be business partner is our close friend. Just don’t take it lightly. We will regret it.
Honestly, this happened to me. I left Singapore for some bullshits my friend promised me.
So you can’t be more careful when it comes to deals or partnership that involves money.
IV. Choose a partner that completes you
My late brother and I were perfect partner to each other. I had ideas, visions, plans. I’m kind of “act first, think later” person. I always believe that we’ll never know if we never try.
So my brother will grab me back to earth with his reasoning, potential risks and obstacles. This makes me re-think about the ideas and the strategy, and we’re back to the drawing board.
We also compliment each other when it comes to skills. I honestly am not really good at visual design, I’m quite good at bringing in projects. My brother, in the other hand, are really good at design, illustration, branding, and other visual design stuff.
So when you’re good at marketing but lack of programming or design skills, consider to find co-founders with those skills.
V. Choose a partner who have commitment and ready to work their ass up
The early stages of running the business are always challenging, especially with limited capital or money. Founders must wear many hats. Commitment and hard work are really needed from all of the team members.
Discussing and brainstorm ideas back and forth consume lots of time and energy. At those times, observe the person we consider to choose as our partner. Does he/she shows the same passion, same enthusiastic like when the first time you throw in the ideas?
If they don’t, just walk away. Find another co-founders. Running business is like a marathon. It’s a long journey. What we need are partners who can support and take the journey together side by side with us.
So what do you think we need in order to find the right co-founder?
