Having Too Many Co-Founders

A good founding team is a very important part of a good business plan. Co-founders bring in a multitude of skill sets which help in executing and growing the business idea. So does that mean the bigger the team, the better it is? The answer is no.

During Bitequest, I started it as a single founder. I soon asked a friend to join in. Sometime later we got another two to join us. Once we were 4 in number, the growth did increase but so did the conflicts. There were constant conflicts in how we should work and grow our startup. This led to a lot of discontent amongst the team members and eventually was a big reason for me exiting the startup.

Co-founders do bring their skill sets to the table. However, with the skills, they bring in their experiences, vision, mindset and emotions as well. These variables of one co-founders interact with the variables of the other co-founders. In big teams, with so many variables interacting, a conflict or clash of variables is bound to happen, leading to eventual destruction of value in some way or the other.

Personally, I feel a team of 2 is ideal. However, is there is a need of additional skill sets, the number can go upto 3 at maximum.

First Time Founders - can they succeed?

A question a lot of budding entrepreneurs think when they start out. During my first attempt at starting up, I used to feel that I am young and have no experience in building a business. Will I be able to succeed competing against people with previous startup experience?

I feel that starting up the first time has it's disadvantages but also has a host of advantages. An untested entrepreneur will have no baggage, i.e. he will not have any bad experiences to be careful about and will not tend to over analyse things. He would be energetic about his/her idea and will keep on experimenting. His lack of experience may lead to him/her wasting some time and resources on some experiments, but overall having no previous baggage will ensure he keeps on pushing hard at all things he feels will deliver. Entrepreneurship is a lot about gut feeling as well, and a first time founder can use this better than an experienced one.

Quoting an article based on a survey by Shasta Ventures, they found that

'Surprisingly, it is most often untested founders, rather than experienced entrepreneurs, who are at the helm of large, fast growing companies. Three-out-of-four of the companies in our survey, of how billion dollar companies look like at the Series A, were built and run by people who were doing it for the first time.'

Finding a Co-Founder!

This is one of the common problems we face when we startup. Since we have limited resources and skills, we need complementary ones to make our team more complete.

The common ways of starting your search include the following:

- We need to start off by first identifying what we are looking for in a co-founder. We need to write down a very clear description of who my ideal co-founder would be like, his/her qualities, skill sets and what we expect him/her to bring to the table. Also we need to clearly write what we will offer in return. This description should be very precise and attractive as this will be used to generate interest of potential co-founders in your startup.

- Once we have a description, We have a tendency to first look within our friends and family groups. It's fine to start here as you already have an understanding of the people and vice versa, However, we need to clearly assess whether any of these people are adding value to the startup and to make sure there are no biases which become part of my decision.

- We should also start uploading the description we have written onto our own blog and other platforms which connect co-founders. We should try to reach out to as many people as possible so that we can get more applications, thereby making our decision making easier. Promotion of our story through social media and other blogs can also be good options to spread the word.

- Startup events are also places which budding entrepreneurs frequent. Attending events, networking with others and telling your story can prove very useful.

Finding a co-founder can prove to be a long and tedious task. Owing to the importance of the founding team, we need to ensure that this is done comprehensively and a co-founder should be selected based on skill sets and fit and not based on desperation and anxiety.

Finding a spouse or a co-founder, is it any different?

A co-founder is like a spouse in many ways. You need to form a healthy relationship with both to ensure longevity of the same. Some similarities include:

- both demand and deserve attention and respect
- ideally you and your partner should have complementary skills (for the sake of the child or the startup)
- to sustain either relationship, you and your partner should have aligned goals and visions
- overall, there should be a good personality fit in either case or else there would be conflicts
- before being a partner, either should be a friend you can trust

Keep looking till you find a good fit in both cases (also it would be great if your co-founder and your spouse can be the same person. saves time :))).

The Importance of a Good Founding Team!!!

This is a very sore point for me. I cannot emphasize enough how important a good founding/management team is. Currently I have some good ideas in my mind and have this great urge to start out again on one of them, I am just staying back because I don't have and am not currently being able to build a good team around the idea. I believe that ideas contribute around 30% of a startup's success, the rest comes from the ability to execute the idea. And to execute well, you need a 'good team'!

Let's take an analogy to understand this. In raising a child, the mother and father both have a significant role to play. The mother can provide the child with the warmth, love, care and the finer things in life. The father is more responsible for the safety, comfort and the more basic needs of the child (this is generally the case and differs totally from case to case :). Hence, the parents need to jointly complement each other and provide the child an environment where the latter can fully grow and realise his/her potential. Same is the case in a startup as well. Founders, with complementary skills, need to come together and create a structure and culture in which the business can grow and flourish. Skill sets of the initial team are key. For example, in the case of a Online Tea Retailing company, ideally founders should have the following skills within the team:
Online - Technology Expertise
Tea - Domain Expertise
Retailing - FMCG Retailing Expertise
Not necessarily will all teams have all requisite skills. But I suggest that each founding team should try to incorporate as many skills as we can within the team as it betters the chance of success.

Startups are all about risk. A good team is a big factor which can help mitigate the risks involved. So the better the team, the better will be the execution and the better the chance of building a sustainable business.