Finding the right co-founders 🤾‍♂️

In Episode 3 of Season 1, Kevin Chandra goes through his journey of building Typedream, a no-code, no drag-and-drop website builder that allows you to literally type your dream websites up, in minutes!

Kevin mentioned how he came about to building Typedream with his classmates, who have all inspired and pushed each other to build side projects and products to apply what they’ve learned at school. Kevin’s story summarizes how you can find your co-founders in the most unexpected scenarios - you could meet them at school, at an event or even a bar, they just need to bring you up better than if you were by yourself.

Finding the right co-founders is often compared with marriage, because both are usually long commitments that can be a costly partnership if not managed well.

⛳️ What to look for in co-founders

At the very foundational level, there are 4 things that you should look for most in a co-founder:

• Someone who fills your gaps and brings unfair advantages.
• Someone who is as passionate in the problem you want to solve.
• Someone who agrees with your approach on the principles of company and team building.
• Someone who makes you more productive, and pushes you.

🏹 Someone who fills your gaps and brings unfair advantages

We all know very well that we can’t do everything. And with co-founders being your founding team, it’s good for them to have complimentary skills that can boost your business.

Say you are good at relationship-building and aim to focus on sales - who is going to focus on the i.e. tech side of your business/product? See if their skill sets, valuable network of relationships or unique knowledge or expertise can also bring unfair advantages above your competitors - this will play a huge role in your growth!

💙 Someone who is as passionate in the problem you want to solve

Someone who can fill your gaps or bring an unfair advantage, may not be as passionate as you are in what you’re trying to build or solve.

It’s important to find someone who will not only be as financially invested in the business, but also mentally and emotionally so they are passionate in bringing your business to success!

🙌 Someone who agrees with your approach on the principles of company and team building

This is important because the direction of the growth of your company will rely on this, as well as your co-founder relationship! Make sure your values are aligned with each other’s:

• Values: Which core values can’t you compromise on?
• Culture: What type of culture and organization do you aim for?
• Business: Do you want to raise funding? Bootstrap? Want to be acquired?

🦾 Someone who makes you more productive, and pushes you

Usually your co-founders would be friends first, and can be hard to measure whether you would work well as a team - it’s easy to mistake a good relationship for a good “working” relationship. Of course you can be close to your co-founders, but when it comes to the growth of the business, you should be able to multiply your efforts and impact together more than not.

To measure this, see how productive you guys work together. See if it’s a great pleasure, and that you are accomplishing a lot together, than troublesome or face more challenges together.

One of the main risks for startups are co-founder issues, in not finding the right fit for yourself and the business.

The goal of finding the right co-founder should be focused on someone who fills your gaps, is as passionate as you are, have aligned values and makes you more productive.

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💥 Bonus:

Kevin’s top tips for entrepreneurs

⏰ Start early. Your risk appetite decreases as you age.
🚧 Nobody knows how to succeed. So fail fast, fail cheap, fail a lot of times.
💦 Just put in the hours. There’s no hidden secrets to how things work.

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