Friends as co-founders?
Hi there!
I have always wondered this, as two of my best friends are also developers and we are all creative people...
But we all joined to start a project that was exciting. This was almost three years ago. Project never launched. In this time I was able to ship a few solo projects, because I think that I can organize myself better when I am alone.
The issues that I encountered while cofounding with my friends:
- No defined schedule, everyone codes from time to time (this sometimes meant once every 6 months...)
- I like to keep my code clean but they do not seem to care much. I try to hint them but dont wanna be rude with my friends
- I kinda took the lead since it was my idea and all, they were like yeah lets do it but they do not seem as excited as I am, so its more difficult for them to show up and code
- We all live abroad and separate from each other, so sometimes we have calls to decide things or code together, but end up just chit chatting and having fun. This is actually positive I think, as we have a motive to keep in touch and spend time together remotely. But not good for the project.
- Our git repository is a mess. Everyone commits without any clear pattern (branches, commit messages and so on). Many times we had to rollback changes or even re-clone the project
And probably I am forgetting a bunch of things that are downsides of cofounding with your friends (probably same for family). Anyways, I do not regret embarking in this project since it made me an experienced Android developer which brought me some nice clients (I am full time freelancer, and part time indie maker). It was also fun and I guess it brought me a few life lessons.
What are your thoughts about starting a project with your friends?
I have not founded anything with friends yet, but I did work on a newsletter with my partner for a big part of 2021. While not exactly the same as working with friends, there is some overlap.
We were lucky as I think it was the first year https://startupschool.org was open and they accepted curious non-committed listeners. If you can get access or get hold on the lectures - there was one lecture in particular that spoke about cofounder relationships. What surprised me there, was it it's main thesis - having cofounders has a lot similarities to marriage, as opposed to just business relationships. They also suggested learning a bit more about your communication and attachment styles. I can't remember the name of the lecturer, but the two lecture names in my notes are "How To Find The Right Co-Founder" and "How to work together?" in Week 4. My TLDR from the notes:
How To Work Together (TLDR)
• Everyone fights, so make a plan.
• Figure out roles, goals and a process before emotions get involved.
• Start having hard conversations now.
• Use non-violent communication to share honest feedback.
• Pay down emotional debt regularly.
As for me and my partner - we set some ground rules ahead of time. What are our responsibilities. How do we handle disagreements. (Who has the final say in what) What do we do when things get tough. How do we reward ourselves when we succeed. And most importantly, when do we draw the line when it becomes too difficult for one or both of us. I don't recall writing it all out, but we talked about all this for a couple of weekends. If I were to do it with friends, I'd probably suggest documenting all of it.
Our project was a situation leadership newsletter https://leadershipkoans.email/ (it does not send new issues, but the archive is still online). We worked on it for 9 months sending it out every two weeks. In the end we had to stop, as it required a disproportionate effort from both of us to research each email, we didn't know how to monetise it. We also weren't very experienced with newsletters, and Substack didn't exist at the time (or we weren't aware). We stopped it after having an honest discussion about cost vs return, and while you could call the project a failure, we actually learned a lot individually and as a couple.
Whatever you choose to work on with your friends - I hope this helps. Good luck!
Thanks for the big reply! Very good advice here :)