Lessons Learnt Co-Founding a Startup in the Middle of a Pandemic

2020, what a year.

And they say be prepared for future pandemics. I definitely feel less certain about the future. With that in mind, the business and life lessons many of us have picked up during this time are best kept in mind even when we leave this episode in the past.

Like many, at Akord we juggled lockdown life, remote work and the added pressure of childcare during the times when schools closed. We’ve been separated from families in different countries, our small team has been personally affected by Covid-19, and sadly we lost loved ones.

Trying to forge a new startup during a time when all of us were dealing with many personal upheavals was far from ideal. But it did mean that many things were put into sharp relief.

Here are some of the lessons I learnt from co-founding a startup in the middle of a pandemic.

1. Start off by giving everyone you work with complete trust.
   You can’t manage, check up or monitor people when you work remotely. You won’t be working normal hours under normal conditions. Set the goals and trust that each of you will find your own way there.

2. Find people who are really, really enthusiastic to be onboard.
   We ended up hiring based more on energy and enthusiasm than experience. That paid off big time. Everyone’s combined excitement for working on Akord made work the relaxed space we could all escape to from our stressful personal lives.

3. Be a co-founder and share the journey.
   Richard (my co-founder) comes from an engineering background and I’m a designer. We can get a lot done technically with just the two of us. We also have complementary personalities that balance each other out: he’s the Californian optimist and I’m the sceptical Brit. We’d also worked together at a previous startup, so our trust was already proven. I couldn’t imagine doing this journey alone — you absolutely need solid support for those inevitable tough times.

4. Give everyone skin in the game.
   During the 2020 roller coaster we’d seen how valuable it is to have capable people you can trust. We made the rest of our team shareholders and have further committed to a stock option plan over the coming years. If you have a great core team, your potential can be massive if you keep everyone together over the crucial first 3–5 years. For that kind of commitment you need people to be invested and feel a sense of shared ownership. We’re doubling down on that enthusiasm and trust in the team, creating a strong bond that’s priceless.

5. Find a great lawyer.
   We’ve been fortunate to find a lawyer from a small progressive law firm that’s helped us navigate incorporation, formulate a stock option plan, put together our first employee contract, connect us with an accountant and help us put together our terms of service. It’s not a cheap expense, and there are ways to do these things online for much cheaper, but these parts of your business need to be handled correctly. If not, you may just be delaying a crippling cost further down the line. It also freed us up to focus on the product during these critical early months.

6. Remote work can sometimes be a bit, well… remote.
   All four of us love the remote-work lifestyle. But sometimes there’s just no substitute for working and socialising together in the same space. I feel our little company is sorely missing that part of its culture. Once you’re used to working at home, you can sometimes feel hesitant about leaving that comfortable setup even when you have the chance to do so. We’ve decided to look into some co-working spaces for 2021, when that’s possible, even if it’s just for a day a week. We’re also committed to prioritising a group retreat as soon as we can.

7. If you don’t have values and a mission, don’t bother.
   In the middle of a pandemic the sole pursuit of profit will not be enough to carry you through. At least it wouldn’t be for me. Only something I’m truly inspired by, the idea of putting something of genuine value into the world, could have justified the risks involved with quitting a comfortable job and starting something from scratch during a recession.

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