How to Find the Perfect Cofounder
At the heart of every business is its team. For most startup companies, this usually means two or more founders. If you want to grow your startup into a serious success, you need to have fellow founders that you can work well with. Unfortunately, many companies fail because their founding team doesn’t work well together. Read on to learn a little more about finding the perfect cofounder.
The Importance of the Right Founding Team
Like most relationships, founders work better together when they are aligned. Your goals need to be similar to have a productive relationship. If one person wants to grow a billion-dollar, venture-backed empire and the other wants a bootstrapped small business, you aren’t going to be on the same page on many decisions.
This doesn’t mean you should agree on anything. In fact, healthy disagreement can strengthen your business. However, for healthy disagreement to work, you need to compromise. This is impossible to achieve if you are too far apart to begin with.
When To Find More Founders
Many businesses start with a single visionary who then invites other people onto the founding team. There are two main reasons to look for a cofounder: you need to raise money, or you need a skillset that you don’t possess.
Typically, a robust founding team is essential to raising capital from investors. Expect to need to add at least one person to your team if you are looking for investment. If you need additional skills, consider looking for a contractor before a founder. Sometimes, however, bringing the right person onto your founding team can spell success for your company.
Finding the Right Person
Every business situation is a little different. However, everyone needs trustworthy, passionate and flexible people on their founding teams.
Depending on your skills, you may be looking for a business or technical partner. The former can help you with functions such as marketing and finance. The latter will lead your product development efforts. Find someone complimentary to your skills. There is no reason to have two people on a founding team who bring the same value.
Get Started Looking
Having the right person to found your business with you can be a huge boon to your success. You don’t necessarily need to work with them from the outset. However, you likely need to expand your team before raising money. Knowing who to look for and how to find them will be a huge benefit to your business.