What it’s really like starting a company with your best friend.

Kara Cohen
Jul 24, 2017 · 3 min read
Prepping for our founder photos.

When I asked Ilana to become a co-founder of Dripkit with me, it felt like a no brainer. She had already put hours & hours into helping me bring this coffee innovation to life. We naturally fell into a team dynamic. Not only that, but Ilana and I have always had complimenting strengths and a innate trust of each other ever since we first met — on Craigslist in 2011.

I would say those are probably the two most important things you should have with your buisiness partner or co-founder.

I answered her ad for a roommate in 2011 which asked, “If you were a Disney character, which would you be?” I said, “the Genie.” And in a sea of princesses, it turned out to be truer that I ever imgined.

We were instant friends. We broke into our mailbox together, strategized against a pigeon nest in the hallway and punched a window into my bedroom/glorified closet. We knew we’d be friends for a long time, but we didn’t know we’d start a company together years later.

Here are 7 things I’ve learned from starting a company with my best friend.

  1. When you love someone, working with them is a LOT more emotional. You are so sensitive to the people you love, everything they say has a huge effect on you and you can’t just shrug it off. Sometimes that can create some major stress. But it forces you to actually listen to each other, communicate and solve problems quickly instead of letting them build up inside.
  2. It’s hard to separate friendship from work. Working with your best friend is so much fun. But there are times where you have to draw the line and table the personal stuff until the work day is over.
  3. You will yell at each other. It’s going to happen, so accept that and realize it’s actually a good thing. It forces you to fix problems early.
  4. You will sleep better at night knowing you trust your partner. Starting a company is really hard and often lonely. I don’t think I would be as determined without knowing that my partner has my back as much as I have hers.
  5. Knowing someone inside and out helps you delegate better, but sometimes that backfires. I know exactly where Ilana shines and she, me. This can make us unstoppable, but it can also make things trickier. You don’t want to rely on each other too much. I suck at scheduling, but I can’t just expect Ilana to schedule things 100% of the time. It’s not efficient.
  6. Every success feels bigger, but so does every failure. When you succeed, your best friend is succeeding and vice versa. It makes the highs, higher and the lows, lower.
  7. If you and your best friend make a great team in regular life, you’ll make and even better team in business.

Starting a company with my best friend has been the hardest and most-rewarding thing I have ever done.

If you want to learn more about us and what we are working on check out our Kickstarter campaign! It’s live now.

Kara Cohen

Written by

Ad-world escapee and founder of Dripkit coffee. Bringing down “big pod” one cup at a time.

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