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“You need someone that behaves like James Bond more than you need someone that is an expert in some particular domain.” #cofounder
No one has ever made it to the top of the roost all by themselves with zero support and help. A startup venture at least can almost never survive unless you have someone next to you sharing your passion and working along with you to realize that business dream.
This is a careful and tedious choice as you need to remember that this is the one person who will have equal stakes in all the outcomes and the one person with whom you will have to see this dream through till the finish line.
Finding that special partner or cofounder based on your venture’s purpose and your own temperament can be quite a task as you need to tick off a few boxes here.
Open up with your company’s core beliefs and ethics and place them before the prospective partner. Your cofounder needs to have complete clarity on what belief system your startup stands on. This will define your goals, priorities, and general attitude toward business. The person you want to team up with must be on the same page as you as far as your value system is concerned.
There is no shame in knowing and being aware of your weaknesses and working on getting the right team members to fill up those gaps and shortcomings. This approach goes a long way in finding the right co-founder for your new venture. Look for someone who can make up for the skills you lack and can complement your strengths for the benefit of the company.
The common tendency at first would always be to find someone who is your brain twin and is similar to you in terms of belief system, drive, and skill. Although finding someone with a similar work attitude and temperament will help immensely in setting the right kind of office atmosphere. Your cofounder must be someone who has a different skill set than you and makes up for things which you might lack.
Whether you want to be beer buddies with your co-founder or whether you prefer a formal work-only rapport with them where you maintain your tag as the primary founder depends on you. Make this clear right at the start of settling on a deal.
You may choose to work together on most things or give each other space to work as individuals toward company goals. Both ways are fine as long as you and your partner are on the same page. At the end of the day, there can be only one head of the business. Decide that right at the beginning to avoid conflict when it comes to crunch time decision making power.
It is always wise to look beyond your local region and reach out to prospective co-founders in other geographical areas. There is a plethora of young and new talent and creativity just waiting to be tapped and exploited.
Sticking to your area of comfort may make you miss out on an opportunity to partner with someone who can really make a difference to your venture.
If required, relocate the business to an area where you may find specialized skills based on your startup needs. For instance, for a tech startup, move to the hub of tech like Silicon Valley to find not only your cofounder but also your pool of investors and customers.
Being cautious while picking out the person you will share the venture with is important to avoid conflicts and disagreements in the future. Ensure a background check on the individual from connections in their previous workplaces and assess recommendations, just as you would for all your other team members.
Startup conferences and business meets are the best places to find likeminded and self-driven individuals to partner. Making connections in these meets will help you in deciding the best person for the job.
Online networking sites like LinkedIn and Facebook are proven and tested grounds to interact and meet people who would fit the bill for your venture.
New to join the family of social media networking are online business partner search sites like StartupWeekend and CoFoundersLab, which may be explored to find that perfect partnership.
A startup journey has got to be one of the most testing and toughest ones. However, with the right kind of people around you, these challenges and hardships will not only seem scaled-down but also a lot easier to overcome.
Founders club by AsiaTechDaily might be a great option for you.