#03 | On finding the right co-founder
#03 | On finding the right co-founder
🔎 Why we're bad at evaluating ourselves and others and how this impacts our quest to find the right co-founder
Welcome to the 3rd edition of Day One - a newsletter designed to cultivate your curiosity and bring humanity back to entrepreneurship. Thanks for being here! If this email was forwarded to you, get your own here
✨ TL;DR
65% of startups fail due to problems within management. That's a lot.
Before starting kicking off the co-founder search, take some time to reflect and be clear on what you want. This involves thinking of your values, mission, ambition, strengths/limitations and commitment.
Beware of the Dunning-Kruger Effect. we're biased and can rarely assess our skills and growth areas objectively - the less you know about any given subject, the less you know how much you don't know. Whereas, the more you dig deep into a subject, the more you realise how rich and complex it is and how little you know. This applies to our own assessment and those of others.
Experiment around. Finding the right co-founder won't happen through a traditional recruiting process. Make sure to integrate as many interactions and actual working sessions as you can, to test what works and what doesn't: brainstorm and solve a tough problem together (that's the fun part!) but also take 1:1 time to answer some of the hardest questions upfront.
🔎The rollercoaster search for the right co-founder
About two weeks ago, I started my search for a co-founder 👩🏽🤝👨🏼. Now, deciding on who I'll spend most of my time with over the next years is a big scary step, so I've spent a significant amount of time reading, talking with people and asking myself existential questions.
"65% of startups fail due to problems within the management team"
— Noam Wasserman, author of The Founder's Dilemma
No pressure 😬
This search has often been compared to dating for marriage for a reason: in both cases, you want more than just chemistry. You look for someone that shares your values, and has ambitions, plans and life situations that align with yours in the long run - yet you also want that sense of ignition that usually comes from someone that complements you, and isn't simply a living clone of yourself. That would be weird.
From my past experience as VP of Talent Acquisition of a LATAM venture studio, I learned that traditional recruiting processes don't give enough space to decide whether this is the person you want next to you through thick and thin. That would be like deciding whom to marry after a first date!
That said, this is the process I'm using for my own search:
💫 Reflect on your personal values to identify the key mindsets your co-founder must have to build a solid ground - independently on which complementary skills they might bring to the table. After a few days of introspecting, I've come mine to be emotional fitness, growth mindset, mission-driven resilience and critical thinking.
🗝️ Reflect on what needs to be done over the next 6-12 months, and assess your strengths and limitations to get there. This is much easier said than done - as we humans are biased. And when it comes to assessing our own skills and expertise, we are rarely objective. In fact, the Dunning-Kruger Effect (also called illusionary superiority) bias causes the least qualified to overestimate their skills and the most qualified to underestimate theirs. To reduce this bias, create a habit of self-reflection (I do this once a week, in an exercise that resembles a sprint retro).
⚖️ Search for people that bring experience and strengths in those areas you are most limited at. And don't worry if there's some overlap! In fact, I come to believe that some overlap is a good thing, as it can act as a common language between you two. Also, don't just judge by a CV, but dig deeper into their experiences in those areas: what did they accomplish? what were some challenges they faced? what have they learned?
🤑 Test for general fit. While in a traditional hiring process this would be all about cultural fit, in the case of finding a co-founder, you need to look for a fit in more than just that. You need to ask yourself (and potential partners) some really hard questions, like: how many hours per week are you willing (and able) to work? how does your family feel about this? what's more important for you: money or control? what does an ideal exit look like for you?
🤖 Test for match. Testing for match means to test how you two work together. This isn't always easy, specially if one or both of you might still have your full-time jobs. For my process, we're developing a moderated problem solving session in an area neither of us are experts in. Here I want to test for creativity, bias to action, decision making and collaborative skills.
🧨 Put it all together. This is, without a doubt, the hardest yet the most deciding step. It's also the one I'm most looking forward to! If all things seem quite good so far, the only way of knowing if they're the one is by getting to work. In my past job, we did this in a 3-day trial, but when it comes to co-founders, I think more is needed, as conflicts usually don't shop during that first honeymoon phase. A month would be the minimum time.
If all things move smoothly, there's still lots of important questions to answer (here's a list!). What's important to remember throughout this process is to make sure you are not rushing it (yet still keep a steady pace) or compromising on important stuff.
☕ Curiosity snippets
📰 Starting a company is less risky than you think [ Erik Torenberg's Thoughts Newsletter ]. As someone that was convinced you need to have had significant experience before starting your own business, this article really resonated with me. Starting a company is an asymmetric bet - the downsides are capped, while the upsides are not. If you've been mulling over whether this is the time to start a business, I highly recommend this read!
📰 How to become a strategic leader [ MITSloan Management review ]. I always love reading Julie Zhuo's articles - they're honest and actionable. And this one is no exception. If you've been moving towards a managerial position and don't know where to start to become a bit more strategic, this is the perfect place.
📰 Do things that don't scale [ Paul Graham's Blog ]. "The focus in early stage shouldn’t be on the product but on the experience you provide to your early customers. Constantly think how else you can delight them". Also, here’s a crowdsourced collection of unscalable startup hacks and stories to get you inspired.
💫 Thank you
Thank you so much for reading. If you have thoughts/feedback or any interesting content to share, I'd love to hear from you! And if you believe a friend might enjoy this newsletter - I'd very much appreciate you sending it to them by sending them this link or clicking below.
Thanks for being there!
— Kat