On Founding Teams
It takes a lot to be a startup founder, make sure you and your co-founder(s) recognize what's ahead.
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Let's talk about the real costs of being an entrepreneur.
šø First, there's the financial strain - your bank balance approaching zero and credit card bills skyrocketing can be daunting.
š Second, there's the impact on relationships - your time balance can feel nonexistent, and the stress can take a toll on your personal connections.
ā° And finally, there's the cost of waiting - the uncertainty of when your next success will come can be agonizing.
Make sure you and your co-founders recognize these challenges and have a support system in place to deal with it BEFORE you embark on your startup journey.
Before committing to a co-founding relationship: run simulations, stress test the partnership, and have plenty of informal conversations.
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We started Within Health at Antler - a startup generator that pairs you up with ~80 like minded individuals who are ready to start companies at the same time.
The program gave you opportunities to run simulations, stress test the co-founding partnership, and have plenty of informal conversations with potential co-founders before committing.
1) Simulations refer to formal hackathons and design sprints where you work with others in high-stress environments. They are instrumental in evaluating whether you can collaborate with someone effectively and appreciate their work style, approach, and work product.
2) Stress testing the relationship involves an effective Q&A framework to minimize conflicts on core company-building questions. You can find my previous post on the topic here: https://lnkd.in/e52qYkC9)
3) Informal conversations occurred in coffee shops, hallways, or happy hours, and they are vital to determine whether you genuinely like the person and would enjoy embarking on a multi-year journey with them.
Ultimately, choose to work with individuals who can keep up, have complementary skills, grit, and genuinely impress you. They should share your vision and values, and should be ready to put the company first.
Co-found with, or bring-on a scrappy founding Engineer quickly.
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More often than not, the initial path a company takes is not the right one.
It's critical to have someone on the early team who can roll up their sleeves, build MVPs quickly, put out rough products in front of the market, and iterate quickly in case the direction changes.
Ask your co-founder(s) the most difficult behavioral questions on Day 1.
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It is important to have discussions with your co-founders on all the core co-founding questions, including:
- Do you have complementary skills?
- Do you see yourself building the same type of company (i.e. vc-backed, vs. acceleration capital, vs. bootstrapping, early exit to cash in?)
- Do you have common core values as a basis for successful team-work?
- Do your communication styles align?
- Do you have a similar level of commitment in terms of time and effort?
There are many frameworks that can help you with those conversations, including Antler's Track Out Questionnaire (DM me for framework).
But that's not enough. Ask your co-founders the most difficult behavioral questions on Day 1:
- Hiring: We made the wrong senior hire and s/he's not panning out. Do we let them go?
- Firing: Runway is short and we need to fire 20% of the workforce. How do we handle those conversations?
- Growth: We're not growing as quickly as we need to. How do we go about finding PM fit?
- Financing: Raising VC financing will be challenging. Do we continue building the company with limited resources?
- Competitive Pressures: Competitors with deep pockets have entered the market. How do we respond?
I would encourage you to read "The Hard Things About Hard Things" to inspire your behavioral questions.