HOW TO FIND THE PERFECT CO-FOUNDER FOR YOUR START-UP

Often times you see people with fantastic ideas with no technical skills and others with technical skills but lack the groundbreaking idea. This has proved to be a road block for many aspiring entrepreneurs, and thus the growth of their startup suffers significant setback. However, most people are willing to find people who share the same chemistry and common interests and also have complementary skills to help them scale their business. The task is still not as easy as getting people with these qualities. To avoid post partnership problems and quarrels, we have made a list of suggestions on how to identify and choose a lifetime partners who will not only help you to build a successful business but will also become loyal and reliable friends.

       
        1. Recognize your need.

The first thing is to know your weakness. If you’re a techy who probably just does nothing but code, you will need someone with marketing and sales skills to help you take the world. And if you’re the visionary types who only have the idea and know how to perfectly create the product, you will want to find the tech guys (developers and designers) who will fine tune the product and make it market ready. This is where complimentary skills like operational skills and communication skills also play a part.

2.   Shared vision, values and culture.

The reason why some partners mostly go against each other later in life is because they had different visions and values right from start. If you are the type who will want to treat your company like a real baby i.e. starting small and gradually transforming into a larger corporation. You may want to avoid a person whose goal is to start making money after a few years. This is a very holistic issue and you will want to have someone who believes in the same things as you do. Things like to how you both see quality, service, work ethics and employee relationships. If you can cement this, you are definitely on your way to success.

3.   High integrity and commitment.

Most people tend to overlook this quality in a person if the person proves to have the first two qualities above. Indeed, the quality that makes a person a perfect partner and builder is his inability to be compromised. This coupled with undisputed commitment to the mission at hand is the ultimate ingredient to a viable and sustainable business. You have to add this to your checklist whenever you are choosing a business partner. It’s better to take the pain of doing this than to wake up one morning and find out that your partner is the sole reason you are not moving forward.

4.   Business ethics and moral values

The image of your company is greatly dependent on the caliber of people who runs it. In a world where everything is digital and a simple customer relationship error can go viral and negatively affect you. Caution must be taken therefore to ensure that your partner is someone with good moral ethics and possess a very good knowledge and understanding of ethics in business. You don’t want a product you’ve spent a lot of time and resources on to lose the market share simply because of bad business decisions and relationships.

If you can find and attract a business partner or two that satisfy all these criteria, your company may likely be the next Google, no matter what the business idea is behind it. That’s how important the right people are to a new startup and to its success as well.