I'm starting to sound like a grandmother to all the "single" entrepreneurs I meet. They may not be single in their personal lives, but they are the one and only founder of their companies. Here's why finding a co-founder is important:
- Because "1" is a lonely number. People are social. You find friends and partners in all other aspects of your life, so why is building a business any different? Think about it - most people find soul mates to share their life experiences; friends to share social experiences; schoolmates to share the homework load. So, if only to share the pain and joy of creating an entrepreneurial venture, entrepreneurs need to find a co-founder.
- Entrepreneurship is about finding customers, partners, advisors, employees, and sometimes, investors. Your co-founder should be your first big believer. Align interests - entrepreneurs should not use hard earned investment capital to hire executives. A guy getting paid six figures doesn't have the same interests as you if you're taking a minimal entrepreneur's salary.
- You can't do it all. Entrepreneurs need to understand what they are good at, and what they are not good at (Think hard about this one, because "I'm too much of a perfectionist" is a BS answer). Find somebody with a complementary skill set - think Hewlett and Packard, Page and Brin, Jobs and Wozniak, Gates and Ballmer, Dell and Rollins (ok, maybe not the last one, but you get the idea).
- Learning to share. It's tough for most entrepreneurs to share their company's vision with others. The fear is that people will change that vision. They have to get over this - people must internalize and personalize a company's vision to get passionate about it. One of the reasons why Google has such passionate employees is because Larry & Sergei have shared their vision with their employees, and have allowed employees to add to that vision. Allowing a co-founder to share in, and add to an entrepreneur's original vision is a great first step in creating a scalable enterprise.
So, for all the single founders out there: Whatsa matta with you? - when are you going to get a nice co-founder and settle down?
Special thanks to Austin Hill for reminding me how important this issue is.
Thanks for this advice. I think a lot of entrepreneurs see themselves as "lone wolves", but the fact that we can't do it all is critical. You made me see that, as good as I am with the operations, I'm not as knowledgeable on the business/marketing side as I like to think I am, and need somebody with those strengths (and I've already contacted someone who has those abilities).
ReplyDeleteThinking back, all of the entrepreneurs I've worked for who are successful have the ability to recognize their own weaknesses and find someone to fill the gaps.