Flying Solo? The Joys of Cofounders

The benefits of cofounders

If founding a business is like jumping off a cliff and building an airplane on the way down, to quote Reid Hoffman, cofounder of Linkedin, then the key question is whether you should be flying the airplane solo or not? There are compelling arguments for doing so. It’s all your idea and your baby. You’re in charge and in total control. You decide the direction and call the shots. If it’s successful then it’s all down to you – you’re the hero and you will receive all the glory and remuneration in the event of a successful exit. All of this is great but a word of caution. Running your own business brings a level of stress and exhaustion that nothing can prepare you for. Sophie Bruce , the founder of Molo, is a qualified sports psychologist and thought that she knew all about mental resilience but admits she was unprepared for the next level required as a founder. It doesn’t matter how loving, patient and supporting your family and friends are they will never quite get what you’re going through. The benefit of a cofounder is having someone to share the pain with. If you’re going to go through hell it’s good to have some company 😊 When you’re feeling low and tired and almost down and out, which is a given, then having a co-founder can help get you back up again as you push each other on. You can motivate each other. When cash holes hit or other existential disasters that threaten the business there is someone else to talk to, bounce ideas off and share the pain with.

As well as sharing the stress and mental burden it’s also good to have a range of skills. However much you are a generalist you will have skills gaps in product or sales or ops or tech or even finance. While it’s always possible to outsource these it’s infinitely better if you have a cofounder who brings different skills the the table and is part of the founding team, living it on a daily basis, as opposed to an outsourced function. Myself and Alan Shields (MAICD) , my cofounder, had completely different skill sets which complimented each other. At a simplistic level I was sales and he was product, hunter and hacker. This enabled us both to grow the business ourselves and limit how many key parts were outsourced.

Cofounders also brig diversity of thinking and viewpoints. When you’re growing a business mistakes will occur left right and centre- that’s normal and you need to accept it. In fact, the faster you grow the more frequently they occur.  Your continued fast growth as a business is based on how quickly you can spot mistakes and how quickly you can fix them with an optimal solution. The faster you can  do this, then the quicker you will grow. The more brains and hence viewpoints you have trying to solve a problem the quicker it will get solved and usually with a better solution. This is really important for your exec team but it is crucial at the top of the business. Cofounders give you this advantage.

This diversity of thought and opinion is also important for both your tactical and strategic decision making. Matthew Grant,founder of Instech, talks about how important it is to be able to come to work with a half-formed idea. Bouncing if off a cofounder allows you to either evolve it, knock it on the head or together go off on a completely different tangent. It also acts as a stress test. If you can’t even convince your cofounder of the merits of an idea, the same person who is by definition the most involved in hoping it works, then you should probably have a rethink.

If any further evidence is needed then look at the global success stories. Steve Jobs had a partner in Steve Wozniack, Bill Gates with Paul Allan, Elon Musk with Peter Thiel, Reid Hoffman at Linkedin, Airbnb, Uber, Whatsapp, the list goes on. While one partner may be front and centre and receiving more public attention, there is, more often than not, at least one other partner in the really big success stories.

This leads to the question of how may cofounders and the issue of decision making. Personally,  I think four is enough otherwise it starts to look like a photo shoot for a college band. Having said that Facebook was five so who am I to make a rule?

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Whatever the number someone has to be in charge- decision making cannot be done by committee. I would not recommend 50/50 shareholdings or 33/33/33. This sounds lovely to begin with it can lead to legal nightmares down the road. Whether the shareholdings are even or not you have to have a CEO – someone who ultimately calls the shots otherwise decision paralysis can kick in.

In the days when solopreneurs are being feted in the media I think the glamour of being a solo founder is undeniable but the reality is quite different. Founding a business is incredibly hard and stressful. The odds are stacked against you and there is a limited likelihood of success. While I am a massive advocate of doing so, despite the overwhelming odds, I strongly recommend having a cofounder. If for no other reason than it’s simply more fun flying with someone, even when you almost crash or are about to run our of fuel, than flying solo 😊ders