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Do I Need a Co-Founder: The 90/50 Rule of Startup Founders

26 points by alain94040 17y ago

alain94040 17y ago
This is partly a rebuttal to the thread http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=77246 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=77246 which basically says never to have a co-founder!
michael_dorfman 17y ago
Remember: you need vision alignment, a co-founder who watches your back and who you completely trust. And even if you do trust them completely, make sure you have legal documents in place which protect your interests. Just because you completely trust them today doesn't mean that they won't wake up one day several years down the road and decide to screw you. Trust me on this...
- alain94040 17y ago
  True. On the other hand, you can't be completely paranoid. You have to make progress and move forward. But yes, protect yourself.
- teej 17y ago
  > Trust me on this... It sounds like there's a story behind this advice. Care to share?
skmurphy 17y ago
"When two men in business always agree, one of them is unnecessary." William Wrigley Jr. I think you need to distinguish between values conflicts, where you should have very high agreement, and disagreements over strategies or tactics to implement or sell your product. If your co-founder can't make suggestions to improve what you are working on at least half the time I don't think you have a lot of synergy. Michael Schrage studied a number of collaborative teams for his books "Shared Minds" and "Serious Play." He concluded that it was a shared focus on a problem that was larger than they could solve individually that encouraged collaboration. That does not mean that team members agree most of the time.
- MrSartorial 17y ago
  I think co-founders are most useful when you have a similar vision but bring different expertise to the issue. I agree with what you are saying though, that you should have similar values and vision, but then want to discuss the implementation from different perspectives. It's kind of like having a mini focus group or think tank. Those different understandings of the issue are important to come to the BEST implementation and to avoid groupthink.
gkoberger 17y ago
This article doesn't really answer the question "Do I Need a Co-Founder." More accurately, it answered "Should This Person Be My Co-Founder?"
- alain94040 17y ago
  I guess the full algorithm is: while(potential cofounders available) { evaluate using 90/50 rule } The article only focuses on the inner loop, it sort of assumed that you knew how to code the rest on your own :-)

26 points by alain94040 17y ago

This is partly a rebuttal to the thread http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=77246 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=77246 which basically says never to have a co-founder!

michael_dorfman 17y ago

Remember: you need vision alignment, a co-founder who watches your back and who you completely trust. And even if you do trust them completely, make sure you have legal documents in place which protect your interests. Just because you completely trust them today doesn't mean that they won't wake up one day several years down the road and decide to screw you. Trust me on this...

alain94040 17y ago
True. On the other hand, you can't be completely paranoid. You have to make progress and move forward. But yes, protect yourself.
teej 17y ago
> Trust me on this... It sounds like there's a story behind this advice. Care to share?

skmurphy 17y ago

"When two men in business always agree, one of them is unnecessary." William Wrigley Jr. I think you need to distinguish between values conflicts, where you should have very high agreement, and disagreements over strategies or tactics to implement or sell your product. If your co-founder can't make suggestions to improve what you are working on at least half the time I don't think you have a lot of synergy. Michael Schrage studied a number of collaborative teams for his books "Shared Minds" and "Serious Play." He concluded that it was a shared focus on a problem that was larger than they could solve individually that encouraged collaboration. That does not mean that team members agree most of the time.

MrSartorial 17y ago
I think co-founders are most useful when you have a similar vision but bring different expertise to the issue. I agree with what you are saying though, that you should have similar values and vision, but then want to discuss the implementation from different perspectives. It's kind of like having a mini focus group or think tank. Those different understandings of the issue are important to come to the BEST implementation and to avoid groupthink.

gkoberger 17y ago

This article doesn't really answer the question "Do I Need a Co-Founder." More accurately, it answered "Should This Person Be My Co-Founder?"

alain94040 17y ago
I guess the full algorithm is: while(potential cofounders available) { evaluate using 90/50 rule } The article only focuses on the inner loop, it sort of assumed that you knew how to code the rest on your own :-)