Co-founder or Not, That’s the Question
Which is more important: skill or passion?
Fast forward from last episode: Lifeventure started as a 24 hour adventure race, where teams of 5 compete to finish as many tasks as possible. But with the major pivot in episode 3. We have to reposition what we are doing.
While we are pivoting dramatically, we decided to keep the Lifeventure brand because it encapsulates what we believe in: experiences worth more than possessions. Our mission is:
We curate experiences that can capture people’s imaginations, realize their dreams and unlock the city’s potential.
Instead of a 24 hour adventure race, we will be doing a night, city-wide game of tag in major cities around the world called Last One Standing. First city: Hong Kong.
The startup world is filled with jargons: VC, ARR, Runway, Burn rate… But one word symbolizes the startup boom in our generation: Cofounder.
In our parent’s generation, being the CEO of a large company, sitting in the top office, managing thousands of employees internationally is every business person’s dream. But then groups of ragtag youngsters started their crazy projects in garages, dorm rooms and within bigger companies. Those projects eventually become Google, Facebook, and the most desirable companies in the world. The concept of cofounding a startup also becomes the “new American dream” for a lot of us.
In episode 2, I mentioned a friend who encouraged me to start Lifeventure. But we have never defined the role of my friend clearly. Now, with our first event coming up in a few weeks, things are starting to get serious. We are starting to pay for advertisements and administrative cost. Legal responsibilities are being discussed. A question arose:
Should we be cofounders?
Things to consider
People always compare the cofounder relationship with a marriage. In some sense I do agree with that because: 1. cofounders spend a lot of time with each other; 2. they share a lot of important things (i.e. money, legal responsibility…)
While there are a lot of ways to find a cofounder, I already had a candidate. My friend who drove me to actually start Lifeventure had been helping me in flushing out the idea and researching on the market initially. But just like marriage, there are a lot of things to consider before making the relationship official:
Rights and responsibilities of co-founders
What is considered to be the “rights” of a cofounder? Does he/she have bragging rights? Does he/she share profits? Do co-founders have equal rights in making decisions for the company? In this situation, where I initiated the company, do I get more rights then my other co-founders?
It is the same set of questions for responsibilities as well, but added the fact that we are college students. Can we afford the responsibilities associated with this business (What if someone died whiling playing our game? Who should be bare the legal responsibilities?)
Commitment of co-founders
Commitment is dependent on the individual priorities and dedication to the business. While I am the initiator of this business, I cannot assume that everyone will put top priority and dedicate as much, if not more, than me in this business. Should people who do not prioritize this at the top, or dedicate as much as I do be my co-founder?
Skills and competencies of co-founders
People say cofounders should be complementary in terms of skillsets, different in terms of perspectives, align in terms of processes. But as college students, do we actually have skillsets/perspectives/processes, to begin with? Does it really matter at this stage for Lifeventure, which is still a baby? How do I determine whether the potential candidate have those qualities?
Other cooperating relationships
You don’t have to be co-founders in order to work together at the early stage of a business. Co-founder is just one type of work relationship, just as marriage is for a romantically attached couple. My friend and I talked about the possibility of her being a “City GM” or “Head of X” instead of a co-founder.
Co-founder Talk
I have never deliberately discussed about the “co-founder” relationship. My past project’s “co-founders” all emerged naturally or by chance (because someone appointed her to be my “vice-president”). But I feel that there is a need to clarify how will my friend and I be working, now that we are dedicated to the idea.
At first, I did most of the talking. I talked about the possibility of bringing her as a co-founder, the rights and responsibility of being a co-founder, what I expect from a co-founder (i.e. commitment, types of work).
But then, as we talked about what our work would be, she interrupted me, and said,
You know I may not be the best at those things that you were talking about, right?
I paused.
I can try doing those things, but I will need your help to guide me.
That hits right at the center of what I was concerned about bringing another person as co-founder: I need to hold his/her hand through the work. I wanted a co-founder who can do things I cannot do (i.e. marketing) so I can offload my work. But my friend said she may not be able to do that, and needed my guidance. It will increase, rather than decrease, my workload.
Initially, I thought it would be a deal breaker. I told her I could guide her, but that she may not be the best person for a co-founder. She agreed. We talked about other possibility of bringing her in as a “City GM” for Seoul and see what happens. But back in my head, there is still a lingering thought that she may be what I need as a co-founder. I saw her passion through her voice.
Skill vs Passion
When I interviewed for my first job, I was asked this question:
Which one is more important: skill or passion?
My answer back then was skills, because it was intuitive that you need the skills required for work. If you have them, you can hit the ground running. Skills are the fundamentals. You cannot talk about passion without having the basic skills for the job.
But as I worked at a fast-growing startup when they launched in my city, I realized that the skills required for the job are not as specific as I thought (i.e. financial modeling, supply chain management…), but very basic skills like how to consider options, make decisions based on evidence and communicate your idea concisely with respect to audience. Besides, we are doing something that no one did, so no one at the company had the specific skills needed. Rather, the most important trait for people who are successful at that startup is immense passion for the company’s values.
While skills is the tool for your work, passion is the engine of which you depend to drive you to work, especially in the early stages when failure is the normal. When I do not have results to show for, I get very frustrated. But the passion for the vision and values keeps me going, even when everything seems to be falling apart. I believe that if I stick it out longer, I will eventually get to realize the vision. Throughout the process, if I act based on the values, I will feel good even if the results are bad.
When I had second thoughts in considering bring my friend as a co-founder, I came back to the question about skills vs passion. But this time I had a different answer. I believe that her enthusiasm and passion for what we are doing will overcome the initial lack of specific skills.
3 days later, we hopped on Skype again for a call. I asked her:
Would you want to be my co-founder?
She said yes (it really sounds like a marriage proposal…)
Lesson Learned
- Lay down foundational principles early on: A constant question I had during this whole process of considering our working relationship is “should I do this now or do this when its needed?” Realistically, we do not need to define the relationship until we need to invest/take in revenue. But having this conversation early on allow us to be honest with each other, and think in isolation of other factors (e.g. how successful this business will be?). Laying down some foundational principles also helped us define the expectations we have for the future.
- Take my time to think: If I had this conversation younger, I would make the decision right before we finish our first Skype call. But I learned to take some time to think about the options, because impulsiveness sometimes is not our friend. We were overwhelmed with the factor we were considering at that moment (i.e. my friend’s lack of specific skills). But we weren’t looking at the big picture (i.e. passion > skills) until we had time ourselves to think clearly.
- Don’t wait for the perfect person, work to make him/her perfect: There is no “perfect” co-founder, just as any relationship. We initially are not “perfect”, but we work hard to understand and come up with a way that we can work with each other. It is not perfect yet, but I believe that we will be if we work hard and thoughtfully.
This is episode 4 of an ongoing series about me starting my first legit venture, Lifeventure. We just launched our “second” event, Last One Standing Seoul. It is a city-wide game of tag in Seoul, South Korea, happening in 10/28. Please support us by liking our Facebook page and sharing with your friends. It would mean a lot to me!!
