The Case for a Co-Founder
You need help. You do. It’s OK. Help is great. When you’re starting a business, particularly in its infancy, help is going to keep you alive on the toughest days. Working with someone else is hard, but doing this solo is exponentially harder.
Let’s set the table. 80% of all billion-dollar companies launched since 2005 have had two or more founders. And while this does also suggest you can go it alone, most of the data around solo founders points to the fact that they actually do have a ton of support - from employees, benefactors, corporate alliances - they just don’t literally have a co-founder. In either case, there’s a team, whether they’re called co-founders or not. It’s safe to suggest that you can do this literally by yourself.
For many entrepreneurs, the team is only, well, themselves. They may go to others for advice - perhaps a mentor, other friends they know who are entrepreneurs, old professors/teachers, work colleagues or family - which is all fine and dandy. But when it comes down to getting the work done, it can be helpful very early on to get a teammate who complements your strengths. I strongly urge you to consider a co-founder (and no, they don’t have to be your brother).
In the context of a co-founder this means that you should not find a co-founder with the same skills as you. Frankly, two sales people or two software developers as co-founders is a recipe for failure; you need a logical delineation of duties based on your strengths and weaknesses and you want to avoid the duplication of the same strengths, as that defeats the purpose of a co-founder. Read as: don’t start a company with another you.
Having a Co-Founder can seriously help you at all stages of your startup.
Chris and I work really well together because we clearly know our individual strengths and weaknesses. From his point of view being a solo entrepreneur for many years prior to teaming up with me, he often found it exceptionally difficult to be the “tech guy” and CEO. This is not to say that it's impossible to be a tech guy and CEO - see Shopify CEO Tobias Lütke and his fascinating story, explained efficiently in Masters of Scale by Reid Hoffman - but it can be difficult to run the gamut of software development to sales activities.
In effect, Chris and I matched well in terms of alignment. This is a very important consideration. Does one of you look to do this as side hustle only, while the other wants to lean in with 70 hours a week? Does one of you want to build to sell, whereas the other wants an empire? Does one of you want to just do good for people, while the other just wants to maximize profits? Does one of you want to be the “idea person” while the other person does the actual work? You need to be on the same page.
There’s a lot at stake here; alignment with your co-founder is incredibly important. You will need to make sure you’re seeing eye to eye on the direction of the business and your roles in it. To be clear, you will not agree on everything and it will cause tension between the two of you. You will step on each others’ toes, particularly early on, as you learn more about each others’ boundaries. But reaching alignment with your co-founder is something that needs to exist for your business to have a chance.
As an important thought exercise, I would suggest doing an audit of your strengths and weaknesses. Truthfully this is a tough exercise because it’s hard to evaluate ourselves objectively. Without getting too “click-baity”, some studies show that at least 65% of Americans believe that they are above average in intelligence, which of course can’t be true. With that in mind, after you create your list of strengths and weaknesses, don’t hesitate to share that list with your friends and family. Oh, and uhh, prepare yourself for some pretty real feedback.
These are just a few reasons that co-founders are a great idea for your startup. For more, check out our podcast on the topic where we go “deep” on the importance of a solid co-founder business relationship.
Until next time!
-Dave