Co-Founder Roles: How to Build an Unshakeable Co-Founder Relationship

If you want to do business with a co-founder, this might just be the most important article you ever read.

I’m not just saying this to hook you to read my article – and I wouldn’t say that if this topic wasn’t so complex and important.

Co-founder conflicts can cost you part of your share in the business… or even your entire share in the business.

I’ve had some bad experiences myself, and trust me, they suck.

Not saying that they will happen, but they definitely can. Having blurry co-founder roles and not knowing how to resolve conflict maturely can be super expensive.

Like, potentially millions of dollars expensive…

(Have I hooked you though?😉)

By the end of this article, you’ll learn how to choose the right co-founder for you, how to grow together, and exactly which potential conflicts you HAVE to watch out for.

You and your co-founder, if you implement my advice…

Self-Awareness: Here’s Some Tough Love You Need To Hear

Look, if you came into this thinking “I’ll just find out exactly what boxes my ideal co-founder needs to tick”… you’re probably a nightmare to work with.

Every successful relationship starts with self-awareness. You need to become the founder people dream of working with, instead of just “having high standards”.

Romantic, friendship, and co-founder relationships are all similar in this sense. Your business journey won’t take a lot of external work… it will also take hours of internal work.

Yes, you’ll build a business. But you’ll also build yourself.

Especially if you work with a co-founder.

Now that we’ve got this little detail out of the way, let me show you all the things you need to look out for in a potential co-founder. For some of these things, you’ll think “wow, I haven’t even thought of this.” Trust.

Back to your dream co-founder checklist ✅

Expectations: What Do You Want Their Involvement To Look Like?

This is probably the number ONE threat to your co-founder relationship.

I’m talking about the “feeling of giving more than your co-founder does”.

If you don’t communicate this feeling… resentment will build up. If you’ve ever been in a romantic relationship, you know this isn’t nice.

That’s how arguments, passive aggression, and self-sabotage happen.

It’s important to understand that the project will 100 PERCENT require different levels of involvement from different co-founders over time.

And that’s okay. Sometimes you’ll give more, and sometimes they will. The only thing that matters is that it gets balanced over time and that any negative thoughts/feelings are communicated.

So also talk about your expectations with your founder:

• Do you expect strong involvement from them, similar to yours?
• Do you expect them to motivate you, to set tasks for you, and to bear the main responsibility? Or are you ready to do this on your own?
• Do you expect motivation from them, their expert evaluation, or their significant time investment in this project?
• Do you expect a lot of chaos and changes in this project, and are your co-founders ready for this?
• Or do you want to move slowly, calmly, and steadily, and are you not ready for drastic changes, preferring to align this with your partners?

Let’s Talk About Money: Is Someone Willing To Put In More Of It?

Another very, very super important strength to mention and discuss with your co-founder, and even with yourself, is how much money you are willing to invest in this project.

If the money you guys put in is unequal, you have to find a way to make it fair.

Here are two things you could do:

• Working different hours: If someone puts in more money, they can put in less of their time.
• Different equity: This one is quite obvious. If someone puts in way more money, they can be rewarded by owning a higher percentage of the business.

It’s important to be very honest with yourself. The project will likely require more money than you think now.

Pro tip unrelated to co-founders: be prepared for the possibility that you’ll invest money that might not come back.

This is harsh but true. It’s better to be a pessimist here. If you start off as a pessimist and things go well, it will be much better than you planned.

Just felt like saying that 😛

How Much Money Do You Want To Make Right NOW?

You and your special someone (your co-founder) have to communicate when and how much money you want to make.

“SEVEN BILLION TRILLION MEGA–”

Hold up. That’s not what I meant.

In the short term, you might want a certain amount of money. Maybe you need to pay rent and other bills.

So you want a certain amount of money per hour, per day, per week, per month, etc. This is your preferred immediate aim. It’s important to be very direct and honest about this at the moment, stating that these are your expectations as a founder or co-founder of this project.

But maybe, your current goal is NOT to start making money from this project immediately.  You should state that too.

Because perhaps, at the moment, you are able to support yourself, and you don’t need a salary right now.

Founders love it when you DON’T need immediate income from this project.

That means you can reinvest profits into development, advertising, possibly hiring, etc.

If you do not need to withdraw money from the project right from the first months or quarters of its development, that is always a good thing and gives a HUGE advantage.

How Much Will You Hold Onto Shares?

Another important aim you might want to state at the very beginning of the project is how much your share in the project matters to you.

Are you willing to sell or reduce your share if necessary to cover short-term or medium-term financial needs?

If you get into a situation where you MUST sell some of your shares to survive… but your co-founder explicitly says “No go to hell”, then what will you do?

Or… are you ready to endure a long wait for returns from this project in order to maximize your share, ownership, and future value of this project?

You and your co-founder should be on the same page for this!

Again, see the picture at the beginning of the article for motivation.

Vision and Mission

Ah yes… the two cliché words that nobody really likes. But here’s a hot take: corporations have ruined (and I mean, absolutely decimated) the word ‘mission’.

It’s cringe

A mission is something companies LOVE to formulate and declare on their websites and talk about at every corporate training. And often, this mission becomes a general set of words, like “we want to be successful, we want to change the world,” and so on.

Because of this, missions are generally disliked, especially by employees of large corporations, because they do not correlate with their own private goals.

Okay, I’m done with the hot take.

Now… as a small startup, it’s still important to think about the mission – at least a little.

If you and your co-founder have radically different visions of where you want to take the business in the future… that might be a serious problem later on.

Sure, right now you align – but what about in a year or two? What if you have completely different dreams, past the point of making a little money?

Talk about it and avoid a (possible) huge conundrum later on.

Pivots: They’ll Most Likely Happen, But Does Everyone Understand That?

Right now, you might have a plan (I mean, I hope you do). However, you’ll likely make change your strategy at some point… totally normal.

Today, you can probably already think of a few of these POSSIBLE pivots. You should communicate that with your co-founder and see if you align with this too.

It allows you to think in advance and to understand together if you are willing to move in this direction later.

Skills

Don’t just choose someone because you like them. List your strengths and weaknesses and have them complement each other.

Where you lack, they excel – and vice versa. Again, this requires a LOT of introspection from both sides.

Identify each co-founder’s skills, professional qualities, areas of expertise, languages spoken, past experiences, and how these can be leveraged in the project.

Takeaways

The ‘talking topics’ in this article will help you avoid potentially HUGE conflicts and disagreements in the future. Trust me, they will appear.

These conflicts will likely appear, be prepared for this.

Most likely, all the people who are with you now, all your co-founders of the project, are smiling at you right now, but in a few months or a year or two, you will likely find yourself in a situation where financial and emotional disagreements arise in the project.

If you discuss and state your intentions in advance, you might prevent lots of conflicts. At the very least, you’ll be able to deal with them better. Here’s a summary of what you should talk about with your co-founder:

• First of all, talk to yourself. Dive deep and be introspective. This is the most important step.
• What are your expectations of their involvement? What do you EXACTLY expect them to do?
• How much money are you guys willing to put into this project? Is someone willing to put in more? How will you make it worth their while?
• Do you need to make money immediately, or can you reinvest the profits into the business?
• Are you willing to give away some of your equity if times get rough? Are you willing to wait longer for profits to start coming in?
• Do you guys share the same long-term vision and mission?
• What pivots are you already anticipating and is everyone on board with those potential changes?