Tips to Find a Good Co-founder for your Start-up

It is tough to be a solopreneur. You enjoy all the success but at the same time, face all the challenges alone. The thought of finding a co-founder often comes across. Especially when you lack certain skills to bring your start-up to a higher level. I had that feeling and understand how desperate one can get to pursue a talent.

I was 21 and naïve. When I was running my first start-up, I actually had all the staff I needed. Things were running okay but I wanted to bring the business to a higher level. To do that, I identified that the business needed someone who is really passionate about the product.

I started looking for co-founders (or partners) within the company and was quick to give equity as part of the offer. Things didn’t go well. Even with equity, the work quality wasn’t good. I was as good as being alone. I started to regret and was fanatically looking for someone else. The same thing happened and after a few rounds, I was stuck with a group of unproductive partners with equity. It was a terrible series of mistakes. But I was lucky that all the partners were okay to return the equity unconditionally. After all, they are people with good characters.

With that, here are my seven lessons learned through my bad experience when finding a co-founder:

(1) Understand what you really need before searching for a co-founder. On hindsight, I realized I could have done it without a co-founder. I was just being a lazy bum.

(2) Employees who work well as employees don’t necessary work well as partners. Following and leading are two different ball games.

(3) Don’t pull out equity too quickly as a means to attract a talent. Make him work for it. If he sees potential in the business, he will take up the offer.

(4) Set goals and deliverables to test your potential co-founder’s ability. But tell him honestly that this is a trial to test if the partnership works.

(5) Have an attorney or at least a paper form agreement to detail what are agreed on to make the partnership work

(6) For a small start-up, small equities percentage means nothing. Find one good co-founder and invest a chunk of equity on him.

(7) Be brave to tell someone that he isn’t a good fit as a co-founder. Don’t let company harmony deter you from firing. If it is for a good reason, everyone will understand and support it eventually.

Coincidentally, while I was writing this post, I came across @JPaine’s tweet. The tweet calls for all Singapore based entrepreneurs who are looking for co-founders to sign up to the hunt list. You can check it out here.

Accompanying the subscription box is this video, which will also provide you some tips to finding a good co-founder too.