The Entrepreneurial Manifesto #1: Find the right partner. Or partners.

Preface

I’ve decided to publish something I’ve written for myself a while ago. I refer to it as my entrepreneurial manifesto, and it will consist of a series of posts, in which I’ll share my two cents regarding various aspects of entrepreneurship. This is something I developed during my years as an entrepreneur, and is based on my experience, beliefs, and analyses of situations, in addition to some advice I came across and embraced. While nothing written here is sacred, I have a strong sense of conviction that these are good guidelines to follow, in order to build a lasting, meaningful, and successful venture.

Find the right partner. Or partners.

I believe the most important aspect of every startup is the team, so this is the first post. The only other aspect that might be considered as important is the initial direction, but the team is something that is much harder to change along the way, so in my opinion, it is more important than anything else. Your partner(s) is going to be your second wife/husband (some would say your first), so getting this right is absolutely crucial. It’s hard to find the perfect partner, as everyone has flaws, but this list, organized by importance, should guide you through some things to consider.

1. Your partner should be someone you trust
   This is a must. Your partner should be someone you trust blindly. Trust is divided into two — personal trust, and professional trust. Personal trust means you trust your partner to serve your own interest as loyally as his/her own. A startup is an extremely intensive and tense experience, always with a lot at stake, and you want to be sure your partner always has the entire team’s best interest in mind. Professional trust means you trust your partner’s judgement over things that fall under his/her responsibility. In addition, it means you trust your partner to always present the state of things to the best of his/her knowledge at the time. Failing to create trust would almost certainly result in ego wars, bad information flow, unneeded internal politics and alliances, negative influence on employees, and possibly even the demise of the startup.
2. Your partner should be someone you have fun with
   Since your partner is someone you are going to spend A LOT of time with, you should be able to have fun together. Your partner should be someone you can have a beer with, joke about stuff, and discuss interesting non-work related things. The best case is when your partner actually becomes a good friend, someone you’ll want to see outside of work, and would want to stay friends with for many years to come.
3. Your partner should be someone you appreciate
   Your partner should be someone you look up to, at least in some aspects. Maybe it’s the ability to make a sale, maybe the ability to give a speech, to develop amazing software, or to hire amazing people — you should appreciate, be happy, and be proud your partner is your partner.
4. Your partner should be someone that agrees with you on your own “entrepreneurial manifesto”, whichever that might be
   If you believe the game is supposed to be played a certain way, you want a partner with the same mindset. Whether it’s a dilemma regarding client relations, organizational culture or business ethics, you want your partner to believe in the same principles and values when weighing a decision. The conclusion itself might not be similar between you, but at least the factors would.
5. All of the partners, without exception, should be f***ing passionate
   The founders should be a team of people who really really, really want to create a company. Not kinda want, not sorta want, really want, and passionate about doing it. Passionate for adventure, passionate for pleasing clients, passionate for creating a firm that employees would love coming work for every day, and yes, passionate to work hard, and make sacrifices in order for things to work out.
6. At least one of the partners should have a strong business sense and sales skills
   Having a good business sense is not the same as having sales skills. Someone can have a great business sense without being great at sales, and vice versa. When I think of a business sense I think of the ability to understand the client and the value proposition, the market dynamics and the possible risks and opportunities, the competitive landscape and possible differentiation, and coming up with valid strategies. Business is chess, and you want a good player on your side. When I think about sale skills I think about getting along with people, being likable, reading and correctly interpreting small hints during the conversation, giving the feeling of trustworthiness and professionalism, understanding the person you are facing, his goals, fears and objections, and being able to convince him/her you can really help in achieving those goal. You need someone who can be good at both these games, and that someone would be your CEO.
7. At least one of the partners should be strong technologically
   Since you’re creating a technological venture, it’s really important that you’ll have a technological leader in the founding team. While some might argue that not all technological ventures actually require advanced technology on day (or year) one, I would argue that even if your specific venture falls in this category, you will need someone to design, build and monitor the product, plus identify, hire, train and manage great engineers. Outsourcing your product and technology development will only get you this far, and a technological “first hire” would never be as committed (and in many cases as qualified) as a founder. Apart from the technological founder (CTO usually), the CEO should also have a technological background. He/She doesn’t have to be the strongest engineer, but the CEO should be able to sit with a client, explain the technology and understand nuances without the CTO being present.
8. The founders should cover all the areas required to run the company
   This does not mean one of you should be amazing at operations, or marketing, or sales, or even product, but it does mean that at least one of you will have the skills to choose the right head of operations or marketing or sales or product.
9. 2–3 founders is probably the best number
   Startups are hard, so you want at least one person to be on this ride with you, with 100% commitment. On the other hand, having many founders (more than three) might make decision making complex, and would also leave less equity to be given to employees, and on later rounds. Between two and three the question would be how much do you actually need the “third” founder to get going, and would it be worth the extra complexity?

What are other things you think are important in a partner / team? Share your thoughts in the comments below.