A fair question about the team

First of all, you can never fully know or understand how things will develop, prior to getting together as founders. No book can teach you to grasp the notion of how somebody behaves in certain situations. You can know a good friend for 20 years. Almost intimately. And during the growth of a company see him/her behave totally atypical vs how you imagined.

This is because the things you share and are responsible for, change, within a company. Interests change, responsibilities change, and expectations change.

I firmly believe that (good) inter-personal relationships matter a lot. Especially in a startup, between founders. I see it as this:

• It's already a very hard job you have, and 50 problems to fix, without the need to create more problems by picking fights with your cofounders, or having someone that is toxic for the company or for the mood/discipline. People that are very defensive or very aggressive are an issue. They will eventually rub someone the wrong way (aggressive), or just put extra pressure and delay on things needed to be built by always explaining why or finding reasons why not instead of focusing on building, applying, learning, refocusing (defensive).

The way I look at this, after at least 10 companies I founded with at least one other cofounder:

• Define a clear list of responsibilities. Everyone discusses things, chips in, and brings knowledge, but one person decides and at the same time is responsible for the success of that particular area. This doesn't mean it's a "one-man army" or the only person responsible to make it work. Every founder needs help. But somebody has to decide.
• If the other cofounders feel somebody is slacking, this could be either true or not true for the "accused". Thing is, it doesn't matter, since it probably won't work. Why? Because you already have a "set goal" for what you think should happen. Even if the other person comes in to "explain" you would always be left with something "unfinished". If you guys feel the other person slacked, it means expectations weren't met. This means 1) you didn't had a discussion on expectations, and you assumed what would happen or 2) you had a discussion on this, and the person isn't rising to meet it.

It's almost always better to settle these things straight out, like "men". There is no point going around the bush, since you don't want to waste anyone's time or life. You have years of work ahead of you.

About pre-seeds ... Funding can be easy and hard at the same time. It's easy when you have a track record. It's really hard when you don't. Don't be afraid to push. I was skipped by at least 60 funds and more than 100 angels with my first (very small) round, more than 15 years ago. Rejection is bad and tends to demotivate you and make that impostor syndrome appear. You have to keep at it, until you find that one person that believes in a combination of market, product and team. If the product is super early stage, sell the market and team.

Considering you're all having a life (honestly, everyone has. I've been married since 23; I'm 40 now. I could always navigate), and from what I understand, other jobs or companies to run, I'm 100% sure you need to have that discussion on expectations. As cofounders, you NEED to rely on each other to make the company work. I firmly believe that you need to be fully invested in a company, to make it work. You should dream about it and only about it, to come up with the things you need to be better than the rest of the 1000 companies who already failed this month. BUT, some people do manage to start things even with a full-time job. This means discipline and consistency.

The thing with already having "engagements" (and most founders do, since something's gotta pay the bills), is you'll treat your company as a sidegig. And it's almost a recipe for failure.

Sometimes (not always, and not if you are risk-averse and play it "safe") it’s best to burn your ships. The story of Hernan Cortes who had 600 men who didn't want to fight, after arriving in the New World. To make them fight, he burned all the ships, so they don't have a "backup plan" to run to. Fight or Die. 2 years later, he conquered the Aztec Empire.

You can fail (and you probably will). But you have a much better chance to succeed than playing it safe. Risk vs reward.

This could've been a blog post. I do want to start a blog where I answer questions from founders or aspiring founders.

Cheers and hope it helped.

'Life is like a box of chocolates. You never know what you're gonna get.'" - Forrest Gump Movie

It means you will never know how a chocolate tastes until you taste it. :)

Pedro

Hello!
I am far from this situation, but I've read about it in a book The Millionaire Fastlane by MJ DeMarco. Having a business partner is like getting married. It's a serious deal. Either fabulous or ends in divorce. You have to make sure, you know the person.
The book mentions some examples:

• Do you have same vision?
• Do you really trust each other?
• Do you have same personality type?
  ... the list continues...

I am interested on what others think about this on the forum. I will keep an eye on this post.