Advice for finding a cofounder?
I'm at a point where I think I'm ready to find a cofounder for my project, Learnify.
How did you find your cofounder?
What are some red flags to keep in mind?
In your opinion, what are the most important qualities for a successful cofounder relationship?
This 'Co-Founder dating questionnaire' from the VC First Round might be interesting for you. I found this to be valuable multiple times as it would prompted me and a potential co-founder to surface critical issues right away and end the conversation, or recognize that we resonate on all foundational issues and build our trust much faster.
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1x7JYzvqw6Rlt4AZFzXm-XBVtWXDIn7WQFVUBoQfueFQ/edit
This is amazing, thank you so much!!
Would also help to know, what type of cofounder are you looking for? Technical? Non-Technical? The link provided by pascalmichel is solid. You should really know what areas of expertise you want in your co-founder, this is critical. I've worked with many founders where that is often a miss, they bring in someone into the business that isn't a good fit.
To Flurly's point and your comment. You can bring in a partner outside of your network. But what is critical is to try and build a relationship/trust over time working together not as partners -- if possible. I know the path may feel like I have to make this big co-founder offer to get the person to join the team. But try to avoid that. Offer a little equity to help with a small piece of the company (why I say what is the area of expertise) and work with this person for a few months. If they are amazing and doing awesome then look to build. But if the person can't be committed or deliver quality work. then cut them. What you don't want to do is promise 10-20% of the company to someone that never does anything....
Good point, specifying what kind is important. I am looking for a technical cofounder. I'm working on the business and technical side of things right now and am okay with doing either, but I envision more success with myself in a strategy/growth role which is why I'd say I'm looking for technical cofounder to complement my skillset.
And to your point, I guess you're implying vested equity with a cliff? Eg. They have to work for 6 months for no equity, and after that point, they start to gradually accumulate their equity share, until 1-2 years where all of their equity has been vested.
Sorry holidays gobbled me up. Regarding equity, not sure if you have a registered c-corp or not and if so have determined the size of your equity pool. If you haven't set that up yet, it is fine. Arguably, I made the mistake once of setting this up to soon and incurred expenses that I could of deferred.
But, a good place to start is offer a quarter or half-point of equity -- this is .25% or .50% of 1%. This is common for advisory equity, and can be used also for an early opportunity. Structure it as a 1-year vesting schedule and the cliff can vary here. 6-months might turn some folks off, maybe do 3-month or 1-month even. Make sure though you've clearly defined their role in this agreement -- in terms of how many hours of work can the give (week/month) and what deliverables they are accountable. Try to make this align with the cliff (why 3-month is good) to ensure they can actually delivery work.
I think trust is the biggest one. Unfortunately it takes time. Trust is built by repeated experiences conforming to your expectations.
Absolutely. In that sense, would you say it's only realistic to partner up with someone you know really well? (ruling out the idea of finding someone beyond your immediate network)