33 - Co-Founder Mini-Series - Deciding Whether I Wanted a Co-Founder

Welcome back to the Co-Founder mini-series. I am working with my dream Co-Founder in building Mayday, the person I’ve long dreamed of starting a business with. I’m someone who seldom gives himself 10/10. This is a rare exception. This mini-series shares my Co-Founding story and learnings.

The last post covered what a startup Co-Founder is, with my definition of:

“Someone who shares the ultimate responsibility for first navigating the startup to a sustainable business”

This post is the “why”; whether and why I wanted to work with a Co-Founder in building my next startup.

The Quantifiable

It would be great if there were a mathematical proof as to whether having a Co-Founder is preferable. There isn’t. 

I took a lot from reading The Founder’s Dilemmas. There were some statistics in there about Co-Founded startups growing faster than Solo-Founded ones (statistics that I don’t have to hand because I’ve lent my copy to my Co-Founder!). But then a study by Wharton and NYU found that Solo-Founded companies survive longer and generate more revenue than Co-Founded ones.

Even if one were convinced that having a Co-Founder increases your chances of success, it’s still not a clear cut decision whether you want one. It’s then a trade off of whether it’s worth the percentage ownership of the business, as well as decision making control, that you would need to give up.

Deciding whether you want a Co-Founder is inherently subjective. These were the key factors in my decision.

A Problem Shared

Startups are roller coasters, with high highs and deep lows. When the lows come, it can be a challenge to be self-aware enough to realise what’s going on. It’s easy to get stuck and not realise you’re stuck. That can be really damaging. In the words of Dr Seuss:

“And when you’re in a Slump,

You’re not in for much fun.

Un-slumping yourself

Is not easily done”

This is something I realise with hindsight I let happen to me multiple times with my first startup. As covered in the last post, to be a Co-Founder means nothing is off limits for you to have a view on or be drawn into. A great Co-Founder can and will hold me to account. They have both the authority and incentive to do so. They are a bulwark against getting stuck. The potential existential value of that to the startup is incalculable.

There is another related benefit to this; the other side of the coin. The potential synergy a great Co-Founder can offer in shaping ideas. He or she also has meta responsibility for helping the business find product-market fit. I’ve seen this countless times already with my Co-Founder. Recent weekly breakfasts have shaped our collective thinking in ways that, individually, I struggle to see how we’d have got to.

You Only Live Once

Statistically, I have 378,672 hours left in my life. I’m going to spend a decent chunk of those working. I want to maximise my enjoyment of those working hours.

I’ll hire people I enjoy working with. But those people will not have the ultimate responsibility for first navigating Mayday to a sustainable business. There will inevitably be times where it will be lonely at the top. At those times the enjoyment value (or unenjoyment prevention value) of a great Co-Founder is huge. 

There’s then the flip side with times of triumph. Having a Co-Founder offers the ability to enjoy successes of the startup in a unique way, the same way as only parents can of their child.

This brings me back to the parenthood analogy. I enjoy being a parent alongside my wife. I can’t imagine any ways in which I’d enjoy it more being a solo-parent. I can imagine lots of ways in which I’d enjoy it less. The same logic applies to having a great Co-Founder.

The Nuance

In reading back over the preceding draft, I realised I’d unwittingly written the qualifier “great” in front of Co-Founder multiple times. That qualifier is all important. It was clear to me that there were immense, greater than some of the parts, potential benefits of having a Co-Founder. But only if I could find the right person to deliver those benefits. Otherwise the Co-Founder trade off was not worth it. The next post in the series focuses on what I identified I needed in a great Co-Founder.

Thanks for reading and stay tuned!