Building a business is a novel task that can literally have a powerful impact on thousands or even millions of people. As much as the whole tech world is glamorized by the media, becoming a founder and starting a business is extremely difficult. It is so difficult that only a few of us manage to navigate their way through. Crafting new ideas and building a startup is often compared to running a marathon. It's a lengthy process that requires extreme patience and skill. There are numerous cases where you have a solo founder running a business; however, it is a lot more likely to get more positive funding support when there is more than one person in the team. One of my favorite launchpad programs, Y Combinator, wrote an article on how to choose the right co-founder for your business idea, and I found it extremely useful. I would like to share my perspective on it with you.

Why do you want to do this startup? What are your personal goals here, both financial and non-financial?

Intentions may vary here, however, I personally seek passion for solving a problem that can improve an existing business process. Personal goals should be discussed; you should watch out for people who are looking for quick gains and don't show a clear intention of staying long term.

What will our roles and titles be? How will we divide responsibilities? Who will be the CEO?

It all makes sense to have a multifaceted team that takes over a certain domain of responsibility. Even though the roles tend to change over time, making a decision on who is leading the project as a CEO is incredibly important. Projects without the leadership of a CEO are destined to fail; they tend to have participants with a lot of opinions but no true voice and mind that has a responsibility to oversee the big picture. I would even dare to say that in some cases, this role needs to be a little authoritarian rather than democratic, as having the power to make certain decisions against opposing opinions can be healthy for your organization. If there isn't anyone stepping into this role, it could often mean your group doesn't have enough knowledge and passion in this field.

How will we split up equity?

Splitting equity shouldn't be complicated and, realistically speaking, should always be split equally between co-founders. At the very beginning of a startup, there shouldn't be any doubt about having equity split unevenly. If you are getting some thoughts about getting a bigger piece of the pie than your partner, I think it's a massive red flag, and you shouldn't continue working on this. Your co-founder team should bring you confidence, as the road to product-market fit is challenging and often frustrating.

Where will the company be based? Where will we each live? Will we work together in-person or remotely?

As much as we get praised these days for remote work, there is nothing more productive than getting together in one place. You can achieve 10x more than working remotely, and most importantly, if you don't know the person very well, you will be able to figure out if it is a good match a lot faster. As much as I like innovation and being able to work remotely, my personal choice in the early stages is to get together, accelerate the process, and build a structure that can be shifted into a remote model. The talent pool is a lot larger out there on the web, which makes it very useful in the growth stage.

What idea will we work on? If that idea doesn’t work out, are you willing to change the idea? Are you only interested in working on ideas in certain areas?

Coming up with an idea isn't easy and should bring not only excitement but also confidence that your group has enough knowledge to execute. Being specialized in a specific field gives you a competitive advantage over your competition. The better you understand the problem you are trying to solve, the higher possibility that you will succeed.

What needs to happen for each of us to go full-time (quit other jobs or school commitments)?

It's very likely most of us have some kind of commitments, whether it's jobs or education, however, things never really take off until all of you depart on the idea full time.

What is your personal financial situation? Are you willing to work for free and live on your savings? For how long? If you'll need a salary to work on this full-time (either now or at some point), how much do you need to feel comfortable? Will either of us put money into the company?

This one is quite awkward to talk about but should be done in the most efficient manner and put on a high priority. This topic in work is usually a taboo and tends to be covered in secrecy; no one really knows how much your colleagues are earning. We even see new anonymous services coming in to fill this gap in demand to find out the wage numbers. Pairing up with somebody to start a business should be open and transparent. Figure out your partner's finance, what is the runway of their budget, and how long can they survive without getting paid. You don't want to end up getting left behind in the middle of your journey because of poor financial planning.

What will our typical working schedule be (what days we work, what hours / day, etc)? How long do we want to keep that up? Are there any things outside of work that are important to you to make time for?

This one can seem self-explanatory; however, reality can bring some surprises. As much as I loved to believe that people have common working hours, the reality is we are all different, and we tend to have very different preferences on working hours. Make sure to figure out when your partner is able to commit to a working schedule!

If we are successful enough to get to build a team of employees, are there things that are important to you about how we do that? I.e., building an in-person vs. remote company, having certain cultural values, having a particular approach to hiring or managing people?

Team building preferences are important and bring the best out of your partnership.

What will we do if we’re having trouble agreeing on an important decision? What will happen if we decide we don’t want to work together anymore?

It's a scenario that no one is ready to talk about. Running through this scenario can be very helpful in difficult parts of your journey.

Conclusion

I don't know about you, but I find these questions very helpful when building a founding team. Thanks again to Y Combinator for providing guidance. You can read the original here.