You have validated your idea, and are now ready to jump into the next phase of building a Startup. What do you do next? Well, there are two simple options for you. Go solo and become a solopreneur or search for a reliable co-founder. We will go into detail if you even need co-founder(s), and if you do, then how to find a reliable one.

Do you really need a Co-Founder?

This decision is the most crucial part of your journey, and you have to think hard before deciding between the two options you have got, i.e. going solo vs having co-founder(s). The latter part though doesn’t have to be an immediate step initially, nor is it a compulsory goal while building a successful startup. There are many solopreneurs around who have gone ahead and built great things alone, without any teams or partners.

Not everyone is designed to work best in a group, and kudos to such founders if you can build something awesome alone. If you’re one of them, then you do not need to read more, and can just go ahead and build something amazing. You can always come back here if you think you need a reliable co-founder.

In the majority of cases, especially when you are thinking of going beyond bootstrapping and having to tap into the venture world, it is advisable to have co-founder(s), which can make your startup more approachable and more investor friendly, meanwhile also helping you share the burden of climbing this uphill journey of building great startups or businesses.

Ideally for investors, having more than one founder reduces business risk by diversifying skills, helps sharing key responsibilities, and prevents burnout which happens quite often than you think while building startups.

You also do not have to get a co-founder from the get go, and can start small yourself, while you keep searching for the right one. You can always jump into a partnership when the time is right, and you are being limited in scaling it with available skills, time or resources. If you’re one of the founders who doesn’t want to grind it solo, you have come to the right place. Let’s talk more about how to find a reliable co-founder.

Why do you need a Co-Founder?

Building alone is tough, not just because it takes more time and carries more responsibilities, but simply because a startup is not just about building a good product. There are so many components to turning your product into a great startup, which includes but is not limited to marketing, distribution, communication, finance, customer support, sales, retention, scaling, etc. The list will be endless if you really want to find a reason.

You also most probably cannot be an expert in all departments, and miraculously even if you are, you wouldn’t have enough time or energy to juggle through it all, and scale your startup fast. Yes, you may hire employees as you keep scaling, but a co-founder usually takes ownership, mostly because they have the skin in the game, and have a similar long-term vision.

Having necessary skills isn’t just a sole advantage of having good co-founders, but it does help in many other crucial aspects. We as humans tend to love almost every idea that keeps coming to our mind, which can either be adding unnecessary features to our products, or keep pivoting into whatever is the newest fad, or where and how to distribute, or just how to approach the oncoming problems without much thought into the next logical steps.

Having co-founders helps us in giving a time-to-time reality check, and hitting some sense back into us when we keep going astray. As a team we can constantly remind and guide each other towards a better path.

You also get to share the small wins, and uplift each other during the drought times, which will be many when you build something. You can be each other’s support system and cheerleaders, and when time comes be each other’s critiques too if it is for the betterment of your project.

Where can you find good co-founders?

Ideally you would already know someone personally who can be a good match for you as co-founder(s). They will always be someone from around your social circle, or colleagues, or friends, or students, or mentors, etc. whom you have observed up close and know their personality, their skills, their approach towards problem solving, and just the ability to handle pressure.

An ideal co-founder is someone whom you have spent ample time with, and can communicate easily with on a day to day basis. Many times you will have known them for a time even before you realize that you can build something together.

Personally speaking, I know my co-founder from the past 5 years as a friend, and we understand each other's capabilities and limitations, and know that we can fill in the gaps where necessary. We have known each other since the time we didn’t even have any plans to build anything as partners, and just knew each other casually.

We have also had our share of ups and downs even before we started building desifounder, and we always knew that we can always be frank with each other, and when time comes can also be critical of one another’s stupid decisions, be it about the product itself or just anything in general.

If you have tried and failed in finding a reliable co-founder in your close circle, and have exhausted options of finding someone who is as interested as you regarding your ideas, you do not have to be dejected. Not everyone around you wants to be an entrepreneur in a similar timeline as yours. There are still a lot of places to find co-founders from. Majorly online.

The internet isn’t just a weird space anymore which our parents have always warned us about. It is a beautiful invention which has helped billions of us to connect more easily and find like-minded people around. Even with all its flaws, it has helped so many of us to do so much more together, and brings us all closer to each other, be it in dating, or finding friends, or hobbies, growing businesses, or just as a support system.

You can find co-founder(s) online, if you’re looking at the right place, and can vet them enough before going into long term partnership, which is quite similar to dating actually. In the end a startup co-founder relationship is also a long one if done right, and lasts for at least a decade.

You can find co-founder(s) on social networking communities such as LinkedIn, Reddit, Twitter, YC Co-Founder Match, desifounder, Discord, WhatsApp groups, or just about any place you want. Just don’t rush into collaborating with unreliable or incompatible co-founders, as that is more disastrous for your startup in the long run.

Remember, having no co-founders is better than having a bad one, and forcing a co-founder relationship can be more harmful in the long run. Take your own time and do the due-diligence, by having discussions with them and trying to understand their visions and goals too. Start with some small projects, and see if you can accomplish them together, and then go ahead with bigger goals. Keep trying and someone somewhere will be compatible and hungry enough to resonate with you to build something great together.

What to do when you find a potential co-founder?

First and foremost, be honest and be respectful of each other and treat them as an equal partner. If you want to just boss around, better go find an employee, and torture them enough that they become miserable and quit.

Next, before seeking what you can expect from the co-founder(s), always make a list of things which you can offer to this partnership. Always be impartial during equity sharing and try to distribute it as equal as possible among each other.

You should also work towards bringing enough important skills, money or connections from your side, which can help kick-start the partnership and the growth of the startup at a tremendous speed. Having just an idea doesn’t make you the bigger partner, which is anyway useless without proper execution. Do not be delusional, and always offer to this partnership the weightage of what you yourself would expect if someone approached you with an idea to build something.

Talk about the long term goals, the period of commitment you both can put into this, the runway amount to survive with the available funds you have, and the vision for the product. As said before, be honest with each other. It is better to walk away initially, rather than wasting each other’s time and resources if things are not going to work out after a while. Be each other’s strength and support, and with time you can build amazing things together.

Lastly, before jumping into the long term thing, it is better to test out the partnership initially by setting up a specific time-frame and plan to build something small within that period, like an MVP and basic market research exercise. Put together your skills in building and then convincing the customer to pay for it. Do this exercise as a team together and test out the compatibility and limitations.

Once you’ve accomplished this goal, sit together and have an honest conversation with each other if this whole exercise was exciting for each one individually or if it was just too complicated and draining. If you guys enjoyed it as a team, then go ahead towards the next step of building great products, or if not went as planned it is better to part ways on good terms rather than making the future stressful, complicated and ugly.

Document Your Roles and Responsibilities

Once you have decided to start working together long term, keep your roles and responsibilities very specific on paper, and avoid vetoing each other’s decisions in your respective departments, unless it is really very crucial for the survival of the startup.

Pen everything down to the dot, and formalize your partnership, even if it's just an internal document or can even be a notarized legal document. Try to almost always have 50-50 equity distribution among the founders, even if they are joining in at the MVP stage. Make them feel as an equal partner, not just with words but by true gesture of documentation.

If all things go as planned, only then go ahead with the company registration and other important legal formalities. It is easier to walk away prior to having entangled yourselves in legal partnerships, than doing it later. Which is why keep the company formation and registration part as a later stage goal, after all initial exercises of compatibility are completed and both parties are satisfied in creating business partnership.

This is the second of the many resources among the Startup 101 series. You can check out more articles on this topic, as and when we keep writing and publishing them. Our goal is to provide an open, unbiased and helpful resource, which can help you build your startup, and avoid common pitfalls.