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.