Like many things in life, starting a business is a lot harder to do by yourself. In fact, not only is it harder, frankly it’s a lot less fun. That’s why we have co-founders! But how do you choose who to work with? What should you look for in a co-founder? And what should you avoid?
What Co-founders Bring to the Table
Before we discuss the traits that make for a good partner, let’s first look at some of the benefits of having a co-founder. Because there are some drawbacks. One in particular stands out: having co-founders means giving up a share of the ownership pie.
To counter this, your aim should be to find co-founders that bring enough to the table that it mitigates the loss in ownership. In essence you are looking for people who through their contribution will make the overall pie larger, so that a lesser share of this bigger pie is actually worth more than the whole of the original. (more…)
One of the best sources of information on startups is the obscenely talented Paul Graham who has written a wealth of essays on the subject. If you read a lot of these though you start wondering if the only route into the world of web startups is to be a developer or computer engineer of some kind. When I think of top web entrepeneurs, people like Mark Zuckerberg of Facebook, Page & Brin of Google, Jeff Bezos of Amazon and Evan WIlliams of Twitter & Blogger all spring to mind. Even less-obvious founders like the internet media personality and Digg founder Kevin Rose actually began in computer science. So it all begs the question, if you’re not from a tech background do you even have a shot at starting a web startup?
Non-Technology Driven Startups
The first question to ask is, is your startup idea technology driven? Are you inventing new technical solutions to a problem? In the cases of all the founders I just mentioned the answer was yes. Facebook was a new way to manage social interaction, Google was a new way to search, Amazon was a new way to purchase, both Twitter and Blogger were new ways to communicate, and Digg was a new way to determine the relevance of news. They were all completely new technologies or applications of technologies.
But it would be a mistake to think that that is the only kind of web startup there is! (more…)
