Do you wonder if your startup could benefit from having a co-founder? Some people are worried that adding a co-founder will slow them down, it will take too much time to discuss everything. They also think they can pretty much figure out everything on their own so why take the risk to add a co-founder? Statistics on the question are inconclusive.
The answer is to apply the 90/50 rule for co-founders. If you tend to agree 90% of the time with your potential co-founder, form a team. If you tend to agree about 50% of the time, keep off, it would kill your startup.
Why?
You are smart. You can figure most stuff on your own, most of the time. But just once in a while, you’ll go off and embark on some goofy plan. You need a second look, someone you trust, to tell you that you are wrong. The rest of the time, you need a co-founder who shares your vision. Hence, you should agree 90% of the time.
If you only agree 50% of the time, it means your co-founder doesn’t share your vision. Working together will be very painful. You basically don’t agree on the goals of the product, who your target customer is, or which technology to deploy to solve your problems. You’ll keep arguing. It will be destructive.
Remember: you need vision alignment, a co-founder who watches your back and who you completely trust. Anything below 90% is calling for failure at the first sign of trouble.
For a longer discussion on compatibility criteria, read this excellent post from venturehacks on the topic.
Do you like this kind of shorter blog post, not quite short enough for a tweet, but not quite the usual length either – do you want more details or is the format good enough?
