Launching a Startup? You Shouldn’t Do It Without A Co-Founder

If you are going to launch a startup and thinking of doing it alone, then you may become one of those people whose idea remain an idea forever. Coming up with an idea and an execution plan is all great but building a startup from scratch is not that easy, especially if you are doing it solo.

Although doing it alone sounds exciting since you wouldn’t have to share ownership, it leads to a single point of failure and unless you have 20 years of experience under your belt, chances are you are going to fail. The most important thing is that there will be no one to stand against you if you make a wrong decision.

Although some people are fully capable of doing it alone and many businesses can handle a few bumps, most of you would need a co-founder for many reasons. Some of which are given below:

Your Weakness May Be Someone Else’s Strength

No matter how much of an expert you are, you have weaknesses like everyone else. So before you start working, you should do a SWOT analysis of yourself. SWOT analysis means analysis for identifying your Strength, Weakness, Opportunities and Threats. When you know your strengths and weaknesses, you know you would need someone who complements yours nicely.

You May Not Be Tough Enough

I have seen people thinking of an idea and in the middle of working, they realize how difficult it is to follow through with it. Even if success lies behind challenges, only tough and determined people can go through it. A strong partner would never let you go down by supporting you morally and would aid you in working.

They Will Share Your Stress

Starting a new business presents an enormous amount of workload and pressure. Think about what would you do with all that stress. Would you would take it home with you and hope your family members would understand what you are going through? No! Are you foolish enough to think you would discuss it with your employees and your employees are loyal enough? Not at all! Are you lucky enough to think you would take it to your friends who would really understand you at that moment?

Since nothing is possible, the only person you can share your stress with is the one who is working with you every day, as your equivalent can understand you the best.

You Can’t Be Always Right

You would be well aware of the fact that problems are going to rise on everyday basis. You would be taking many decisions a day. You can’t be right every time and you will not listen to your employees if you think you are right. Hence, you need another opinion from someone you can trust. However, keep in mind that hiring a co-founder who has same opinions as yours and think like you do is worse than having no partner at all.

Advisors Are Not Your Partner

Having a great squad of skilled advisors is not enough. No one is as loyal to your company as you are or your partner can be. You cannot call them for everyday problems and even for big problems, you would have to wait to gather them all since real experts are busy people and it is difficult to gather them all in a short term notice.

Seed Investors Prefer Team

If your startup is in early stage then note that seed-investors (those who invest in very small businesses like yours) prefer teams over solo entrepreneurs.

Takeaway

Forging partnerships in the early stages of your business, specially when you have zero revenue us the ideal time to make a partner because at the moment you have nothing to lose. If you are thinking that you would have to share your future revenue and you do not want to do that, then my friend, having a 50% of anything is far better than having 100% of nothing.