How To Choose The Right Co-Founder For Your Startup
If you are looking to grow a successful startup, it will be of benefit to know that most solopreneur startups don’t succeed. Businesses with partners succeed more than those that don’t. VC’s like businesses with founding partners vs. solopreneurs and that’s who gets funded. However, choosing founding partners is like choosing a spouse.
You are in it together and that means you will need to do some due diligence on them and yourself. Why? Because like a marriage you are bound with these people through thick and thin; in sickness and in health; till death of your business or exit plan do you part. As a smart entrepreneur, you look for something even deeper.
For example, I currently have a powerful co-founding team. My Co-founding team and I are friends and all of us are entrepreneurs that have business experience outside of our current startup. Everyone has the same great attitude and a work ethic to match. We work hard and have fun. We are like a rock band that travels, lives, and works together in a healthy, fun manner. We have similar goals with complementary skill sets.
My co-founding team came together by having smart skill sets, and for me this is the most important aspect. My partners empower our projects because they see the world through a different lens than I do. This gives our creative force more abilities, options, and opportunities to seize, because we allow each other’s creativity to thrive. We merged our two skill sets after we deepened our friendship. However, the power of having a great co-founding team is to understand what makes them great, and what they need to have in order to be at their best.
Some of the team is much more introverted, quiet and reflective. Where others are outgoing and extroverted. Some need more peace and quiet. The others need lots of hugs and conversation. As a smart life leader, this requires that I pay attention and DO NOT have a one size fits all leadership style. This is an important skill set.
The team is the best at what they do. We have both opposite and complementary skills sets and value the gifts and talents we bring. We are all people with a strong love for humanity, and this is our secret ingredient. By supporting the group effort with what they actually need, it helps everyone have success. The biggest success comes by learning how to be the best partner for the team and allowing them to do what they do best.
For me, it is not always important to find someone who matches my skills sets, but it is important to find a partner that matches my mindset. Communication skills and ethics are key, and just about everything else is learnable. If you can trust your partner, then the foundation of your relationship will be strong and success comes more easily.
Trust takes time to build, but it can’t take a long time. If it does take a long time, you may not be with the right co-founding partner. Business grows quickly and decisions need to be made in a timely fashion so your partnership must have a growing and deepening trust that moves the business forward.
When I choose a co-founding partner, I value them having emotional intelligence over any other skill set they can bring to the table. I too, must be willing to be as emotionally intelligent as I expect them to be. Empathy is also important when starting up. You want to have partners who will not run away if you make a mistake and you don’t want to run if one of your partners makes a mistake. Everyone works hard during startup.
You want a co-founder that will think about what it must be like to do your job, or walk in your shoes. You also want to give that back because you will be dealing with problems together. There will be setbacks. No company starts up without a couple of fails. If you can visualize what it must be like to walk in your partner’s shoes, you will develop support for each other vs. judgmental division. I always say, “Focus on what is working and not on what isn’t working.” Unfortunately, most partners do the opposite. This hurts success because what you focus on grows.
Being able to tell when a co-founder needs encouragement or a supportive word is an undervalued, but powerful skill. To be a successful co-founding team you must realize that one of the most important skill sets is authentic motivation. Tell your partners why they are great and why you love working with them. When you bring out the best in each other, you will have the best as a standard.
Finally, I value the ability to work through disagreements together. Yes, success is great. It feels great and builds wealth and that is awesome. Startup life isn’t all success and happiness. You will have differences of opinion and disagreements. Can you calmly work through those disagreements?
If not, you are in the wrong co-founding partnership. If a small misunderstanding causes drama, then when the road gets bumpy you will be fighting all the time. Business partnerships that are strong and grow together over time mean long-term success.
It’s so important to understand how vital a strong co-founding partnership is, because over time you will realize that the asset isn’t the business. The real asset is the quality of the partnership you build.
If the partnership and team are strong, it won’t matter what business you give a founding team, they will make it a success. If you want to have long-term success, continue to grow your co-founding partnerships until you are invincible and unstoppable.
Vickie Helm is a bestselling author, business and asset strategist, and the CEO of Smart Group Firm. She has improved the success of more than a thousand companies and the lives of thousands of individuals throughout her career. You can learn more about Vickie at https://thesmartlifeclub.com or https://vickiehelm.com.