How to pick the right co-founders for a startup?
Co-founders make or break startups. They make for the base pillars of all its future successes. So how to pick the right people to start the business with?
Let’s talk about the importance of co-founders. Contrary to what people might believe, no startup can be a one man (or woman) show. There are exceptions of course, but they need very specific idea/environment/timing to work.
There is just too much to do on a day-to-day basis to go at it alone. Just trying to keep up with the competition can be fiercely overwhelming if you are attempting to juggle a full day’s worth of coding with, say, VC networking, marketing, and business strategy.
That in itself is a lot to handle, but throw one small crisis into the mix, and you could quickly find yourself drowning with no one on hand to toss you a lifeline.
The people you choose to stand by your side will essentially form the backbone of your company and in many ways will help drive its success or lead to its downfall. In other words, picking your co-founders will be the single most critical decision you will make as a chief executive, so take your time — think it through — and don’t rush it.
Know your limits
No one knows everything. Compile a list of your strengths and then search your network for people who excel in areas where you lack expertise. The aim is to assemble a diverse set of talent that will be able to steer your business in the right direction.
This may seem like a no-brainer, but oftentimes gets sidelined during the frenzied early days of a startup when you are consumed by programming and not much else.
What many fail to realize is that you need to start laying the foundation of your company’s future as soon as possible, beginning with the selection of your co-founders.
What to look for
First off, you want people who will complement your skills. You may be an ace coder but will likely know nothing about marketing to the masses. Or schmoozing with VCs might be right up your alley, but nailing down the details of a working business model bores you to death. That’s OK, you can’t do it all. Find your counterparts.
You’ll want co-founders who communicate well together. This does not mean people who blindly agree with one another, but rather people who can bring different perspectives to the table and aren’t shy about challenging their colleagues in a constructive way. All feedback should be welcomed. At the same time, make sure to designate one person as the ultimate decision-maker for those instances when you hit a stalemate because those will crop up more than once and can easily divert focus away from your main goals.
Your fellow founders should be people you trust. If there is conflict on the team, resolve it quickly. There is nothing that can deflate a startup faster than conflict among the founders.
Above all else, pick people who will boost you up and give you the energy to continue when all hope seems lost. Building a product for years on end without the promise of a return on your investment and time can easily lead one down this path.
I speak from experience. Supernova has been four years in the making. The first two years had me feeling at times like I was adrift at sea. What helped me persevere were my three loyal founders, who stood beside me even when there were no clients or investor financing.
Why? Because we shared a vision and a belief that Supernova would revolutionize software development.
Picking your founders
I spent months working on the first version of Supernova without telling a soul. Progress was frustratingly slow, but I was convinced I was on to something huge, which helped fuel my all-night coding sessions. I still had a day job, so I was living off Monster and my gut instinct.
It was only after I had nailed the very first design conversion that I begin to think of putting together a team. Supernova, I could already see, would be bigger than anything I could manage on my own.
Oskar Koristka, Vaclav ‘Ydus’ Lustek and Artem Ufimtcev were the first to sign on. I didn’t approach them on a whim. I’d meet these guys either through work or a personal connection. I admired their work ethic and professional prowess. Still, I was cautious, opening up to them little by little about what I’d been secretly working on in my spare time.
I was encouraged by their growing excitement and enthusiasm. We all seemed to be on the same page. However, what I wasn’t so sure about was whether they were crazy enough to walk away from great, well-paid jobs to join an uncertain startup.
After all, statistically speaking, only a small percentage of people are usually willing to make such a gamble because everyone realizes that not many startups are successful in the end.
By the time I finally approached Oskar, Ydus, and Artem with an offer, I already knew what role I could envision each of them playing at Supernova.
Luckily, it didn’t take much persuasion on my part. They immediately saw the potential of the product.
When it all pays off
Supernova is not such a little startup anymore. Over the last three years, we’ve started scaling the team. We recently graduated from Y Combinator’s Winter 2019 Batch and recently obtained very significant backing from the top investors. V6, with a host of cool new features, went live in early March.
Our future looks a bit brighter now than it used to. But the credit for this is not mine alone. I owe a debt of gratitude to my co-founders who risked a lot to travel this path with me. I know, I wouldn’t have gotten this far without them.
Jiri
CEO, Supernova
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