Great Startup Cofounders Have to Pass This One, Nearly Impossible Test
The test will be hard, but the results will be worth it.
One of the entrepreneurs I’m currently advising is struggling to find a cofounder. He’s working on a genuinely compelling startup opportunity, but it’s the kind of project that requires at least one more person to be viable, and, as a result, he’s struggling to grow. During a recent conversation, I asked how his search for a cofounder was progressing.
“Not well,” he replied. “I just haven’t had the time to search. It’s so much work.”
“Finding a great cofounder is supposed to be hard work,” I reminded him. “Your cofounder isn’t some random person off the street. A truly great cofounder is a lifelong partner. In some ways, the relationship you’ll have with your cofounder will be deeper and more meaningful than the relationship you have with your significant other. Do you really think finding that person is going to be easy?”
“No, I guess not,” he agreed. “I’ll keep looking. Actually, some of my friends mentioned being interested. I’ve been meaning to follow up with them. I should make sure to do that today.”
I shook my head. “None of your friends are going to be good cofounders,” I warned.
“Why not?” he asked. “They’re smart. They said they liked my idea. And we already enjoy hanging out together. Isn’t that exactly what I should want in a cofounder? Or is having a friend as your cofounder a bad idea?”
“Friends can be good cofounders or bad cofounders,” I explained. “That’s not the issue. The issue is that the friends you’ve been talking with don’t sound like the kinds of friends you’ll want.”
“How can you tell?” he asked. “You don’t even know who I’m talking about.”
“I know they already failed the most important test of a great cofounder,” I told him.
“Test?” he repeated. “What test?”
“The test every great cofounder has to pass,” I answered.
The biggest reason founders fail each other
The entrepreneur from my story is roughly the 4,378th entrepreneur I’ve worked with who’s struggled trying to find a great cofounder.
Fine. I’m lying. I haven’t counted the exact number of times I’ve encountered an entrepreneur struggling to find a great cofounder, and I’m sure the 4,000-ish number I’ve shared is a slight exaggeration. But it’s not too far from the truth, and that’s the important part.
Simply put, finding startup cofounders is hard, and finding great startup cofounders is damn near impossible. The reason finding cofounders is so hard is because lots of people like the idea of building startups, but few people are capable of devoting the kind of effort necessary for turning a viable idea into a functioning, sustainable, scaled-out business. As a result, most cofounder relationships fail because of an uneven commitment to the venture.
To be clear, I’m not describing the reason startups fail. I’m describing the reason cofounder relationships fail. Cofounder relationships almost always fail because one founder starts to resent another founder for an uneven amount of commitment.
I should also be clear that “commitment” isn’t necessarily correlated with time. After all, if your cofounder is working 10 hour weeks while generating millions in sales, you’re not likely to complain.
Instead, commitment is about perceived passion toward a startup. If one founder believes another founder isn’t as committed, resentment will brew and ultimately rip apart the founding team’s relationship.
That’s what I was trying to explain to the entrepreneur in my story. His friends clearly weren’t demonstrating the right level of commitment, and it was obvious from the test he’d already given them.
How cofounders demonstrate commitment
“What kind of test does every cofounder have to pass?” the entrepreneur I was talking with asked.
“It’s actually just a one question test,” I told him, “and, based on what you’ve told me about your friends, it sounds like you already gave them the test.”
“I have?” he wondered.
“You have!” I assured him. “You said you told them about your startup and they liked your idea. That was the test, and they didn’t pass it.”
“How was that the test?” he asked. “They haven’t done anything yet.”
“Exactly!” I exclaimed. “The best startup cofounder isn’t a cofounder you’ll have to chase. Anyone who isn’t banging down your door to work with you — heck, anyone who isn’t already doing some amount of work for you on their own just because they think your project is interesting — is a person you don’t want as a co-founder. Move on to someone else.”
“But don’t I have to convince people to partner with me?” the entrepreneur asked. “Don’t I have to sell a potential cofounder on the value of my startup idea and its potential before I can expect the person to start working on it.”
“No,” I assured him. “You don’t. The right cofounder won’t need to be sold. All you’ll have to do is tell the person what you’re working on. The right cofounder is going to sell him or herself on the project and then start pushing you to let them work on it.”
“So I just tell potential co-founders what I’m working on and wait?” he asked. “That doesn’t seem very hard.”
“The telling them part isn’t hard,” I explained. “But the waiting part is much harder than you think. In fact, it’s nearly impossible.”
“What makes it so hard?” he asked.
“Because great entrepreneurs are much better at chasing opportunities than waiting patiently for opportunities to come to them,” I told him. “Entrepreneurs are building something from nothing, and doing that requires chasing after the people they need help from. As a result, chasing after people you want something from is second nature for every great entrepreneur. But it’s also the one thing you can’t do if you want a truly great cofounder. You can’t chase after a great cofounder. A great cofounder needs to prove he’s willing to chase after you. So tell as many potential cofounders about your startup as possible, then be patient and wait for the right cofounder to chase you. It’s going to feel like a nearly impossible test for both of you, but, when you both pass it, you’ll have finally found a great cofounder.”