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Starting up with a cofounder, a partner, a friend - Daniel Tenner
- 1. Starting Up with a cofounder, a partner, a friend Daniel Tenner Cofounder & CTO Woobius danieltenner.com @swombat
- 2. £1 ----------------- ??? -----------------> £2
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- 7. (£1 ----------------- ??? -----------------> £2)*N FAST Unpredictable :-) :-) :-) :-) :-( :-) :-) :-( :-) :-) :-) ++
- 8. Why a cofounder? Sanity Stability Persistence Perspective Skills Horsepower
- 9. But...
- 10. A better process... 1. Get to know people 2. Find cofounders among them
- 11. Or... start up with an existing friend
- 12. But...
- 13. So what can you do?
- 14. Disagreements ❖ Disagreements can happen when you haven’t discussed how to deal with things in advance. ❖ Disagreements between founders kill start- ups. ❖ Once a major disagreement is reached, it’s hard to think rationally.
- 16. What do we both mean by... ?
- 18. Make agreements explicit
- 19. How?
- 20. Detail your agreements ❖ Explicit numbers ❖ “We’re going to give this 2 years” ❖ “I’ll be happy if we each make £50k/year out of this”
- 21. How?
- 22. Write things down ❖ Until it’s written down, it’s implicit ❖ People forget what they agreed ❖ Clear writing brings out disagreements ❖ Writing = coding for people
- 24. Don’t be afraid of the bad stuff ❖ Embarrassing topics ❖ People’s circumstances change ❖ Shit happens
- 25. Don’t make it work at all costs ❖ Grab opportunities - don’t jump off a cliff ❖ If there’s a major disagreement, seriously consider pulling the plug ❖ Trust your gut
- 26. In short... ❖ Starting up is awesome ❖ Starting up with a good cofounder is even better ❖ But...
- 27. In short... ❖ Make agreements explicit ❖ Detail your agreements ❖ Write things down ❖ Don’t be afraid of discussing negative scenarios ❖ Don’t make it work at all costs
- 28. Daniel Tenner Cofounder, Woobius danieltenner.com @swombat
Editor's Notes
- Going to talk about what it’s like to start a business with someone else From the point of view of the tech cofounder How many people have their own startups already? How many want to start their own startup?
- You’re not completely crazy (or at least there’s two of you) If you’re starting your first start-up, it really makes sense to have a cofounder
- You don’t go looking for a cofounder to start a business with tomorrow anymore than you go looking for a wife to marry tomorrow
- Things can end badly need to be extra careful Don’t want to lose a friend as well as a business This is why I put together first an article and now these slides - because no business is worth losing your friends over, and there’s a few simple rules that you can put in practice to dramatically reduce the risk of falling out with your cofounder friend.
- When cofounders break up, it’s usually because they’re having a disagreement about something.
- Especially if starting with someone that you know well You assume they know what you mean
- - the business is successful - the business is unsuccessful - working hard on the startup
- Apart from bringing up the points that need to be discussed, there’s more you can do to make the agreements explicit.
- Another tool for making agreements explicit is writing things down...
- It might seem like your one chance...