Every startup needs core skills to run a business. As a human being, every person has limited skills that he can offer. Hence, startup co-founder is a need for additional skills and work efficiency in the shortest time possible. More importantly, every individual has only 24 hours in a day to utilize it for work. And, a single human being cannot do all the work by himself. Even if someone can pull it off, it will consume time. I hope you have a clear understanding of the need for confounders in startups.
Majority of successfully founded company had more than one founders. If you are capable enough to take on the job and have the basic skills required to run the business, you may not need a startup co-founder. There is nothing wrong with running a startup with a single founder, as long as you can handle it. Honestly, it makes no sense to give up equity for the same skills. So whether or not to have a startup co-founder is a tough decision to make, but let me make it easy for you. We will ask four simple questions and find out the answers.
- What are the core skills for your business?
- Do you lack any of the core skills?
- Does the person bring additional core skills?
- Is the person the right fit for the startup in the long term?
Once you start asking these questions, they lead you down the crystal clear path of having co-founders or not. On the way, you will also realize what you need in a co-founder. So, let’s start our journey to find the right fit for your startup.
Required core skills for Startup Co-founder
As I said, every startup needs people who have the core skills to run the startup. Please mind that I am not talking about entrepreneurship, self-confidence, and blah blah. For example, a finance advisory startup needs someone who has a finance background. Of course, there can be multiple core skills such as finance and tech in a tech finance advisory startup. Similarly, your startup must have some core skills required.
List down all those core skills that your startup needs to be successful. I do not want you to consider the HR team, Accountant, Sales and marketing head, CEO, and all those designations. We are talking about the skills and not the company designations.
So now you have a clear understanding of the pillar skills that will keep your startup alive. And, I want you to congratulate yourself if you have found something new that you never thought of already. Let’s take this information to the next phase.
Lack of core skills
So we have listed out the core skills, and now it is time to find out where we lack that. We know that our core skills are building and keeping the business alive. If we lack some skills, it might ruin our startup completely. We must fill this gap if we want to survive. Assuming you have all the basic skills required, you probably do not need a co-founder for your startup. But, in case you want to say goodbye to some load, you can hire employees with more experience in the same skills.
Things get interesting when you lack basic required skills. There is no doubt that you need people to fill this gap. You can hire employees or you can search for a startup co-founder. I would recommend that you find a co-founder instead of hiring employees in this case because investors are not likely to fund if they see a lack of basic skills in co-founders. I hope you are clear on when startups need a co-founder. It is time to understand how to choose the right startup co-founder.
Picking the right Startup Co-founder
We have already discussed what startups require from founders. Choosing the right co-founders means filling the skills gap. Depending on the business, these skills can be sales, marketing, technical skills, et cetera. But finding a co-founder is like finding a spouse because they will stay with you for the rest of your life. So besides skills, there are other factors that you should also consider.
I want you to understand that skill is the priority. Second, the person must have a different point of view that can bring new ideas to your company. The last thing is that the person must have the same vision as the whole team. It will help you avoid long-term problems. Failure to do any of these can lead to legal proceedings for the removal of your co-founders, and no one wants that. If you already have a co-founder on your team, you can even use this method to evaluate them.
Conclusion
In conclusion, the journey to find a co-founder is not about choosing a random person. You must have noticed that I never mentioned friends or relatives as startup co-founders. Choosing someone as a co-founder because they are your friend and family could ruin your business. Keep your emotions aside and think like an entrepreneur building a multi-billion dollar business. You are not the one who needs a co-founder. It is more about the startup trying to live and make money at the end of the day. So check the skills that are necessary for your business. Then fill in the gaps by finding a person you can stay with for the long term. I hope you have learned when to look for a co-founder and how to choose one when the time comes. Please share this article with your team and get feedback if they thought this way before appointing a co-founder.