#008 - How to Find Your Startup Partner? Journey from Being a Partner to a Founder
Power in Partners - If You Can Get The Right Ones
Being in the game for over a decade - without doubt - working with Founders has been the best part of my gig. There’s just something beautiful about seeing the passion and drive within Founders come to fruition - and knowing that you were a part of that journey.
Consultancy taught me that being the right partner to the right person can 10x anything - under a year. My way of working with partners was always directed towards filling in the gaps. See where the other person lacks, and try my best to match the gaps.
So even though I found major success being a partner to many, when it came to finding a partner for my own gig - I failed.
In this digest, I want to go over lessons I learned from being a partner for many to finding a partner for my own business.
May you learn something from one who has played both sides.
Life as a Partner, that most Founders need
My way of working was always directed more towards partnering with folks who genuinely need the help. Get them to a place beyond that point. And then move on to the next Founder to work with.
A Founder who is driven in solving a real market need with a solution
A solution, the market is ready for. - was the best place I always wanted to be.
Breaking it down, it’s three things that attracted me:
1 - Bootstrap mentality - solving problems with limited resources at hand. As an ex-engineer, working with constraints is my playground - building a startup is very much the same. Founders who work within constraints - often go beyond limits.
2 - Openness to ideas - when you are in the business of solving problems, you need to be open to finding ‘alternative’ solutions. I love discovering possible solutions to old and new problems alike. New ways to cure old diseases. Founders who are usually open to new ideas are ones who create new possibilities.
3 - High motivation (for the right reasons) - Founders looking to build something they are proud of is rare. Most Founders will run with an idea 'just because' and think it is enough to bring change. It isn’t.
But every now and then you will meet truly exceptional folks. Folks who will give years to what they believe in - that’s the sweet spot.
If your pitch to me was that ‘this will raise millions USD of funding’ OR ‘if we only capture 1% of the market.’ - I would stop you right there, tell you to go back to the drawing board.
For a long time, I was the guy who showed the way to others.
Given they had the 3 things above, I led a lot of folks to a lot of treasures.
The problems most Founders have
Commonly speaking the biggest problem most Founders will have can be summed with one phrase.
‘I am doing everything, all, at once’ - fun
Wearing too many hats is fine, for a while.
The more you do, the bigger chance you have of not succeeding with your mission.
It’s common knowledge that Founders who partner up with a technical Co-Founder have a higher chance of success.
But if they are solo, I have often seen them having problems with:
1 - Day to Day operations
Managing your daily workload between
- thinking about what the product should be, discovering the right thing to build
- managing the team working towards your goal, executing without waste
- and then researching the market to make sure you are heading in the right direction - is just too much for most.
Most solo Founders, as a result, quit their jobs, sell all their belongings, and try to maximize the ROI on effort. Thing is, you can only go so long managing operations and growing a product at the same time. You will run into a wall where your attention is divided into a dozen dimensions.
Part of managing operations is also making sure the budget is spent wisely. Most Founders fall for marketing and positioning traps all the time. They go investing money into things they absolutely don’t need cough Slack subscription cough - yet.
And its not their fault. One can argue, pieces exist all over the internet, convincing Founders to make their money worth with products and services they might need, might not need.
2 - Managing teams, lots of teams
One big factor in attaining the gold standard status of product market fit is having the right team. Pretty obvious for anyone. The issue however is getting that right team to work with you.
Most Founders usually transition from a job themselves - and have no idea on how to build a team. Recruiting and sourcing people takes up more than half the time in the early days of the company. And what is left is taken over by onboarding the new team members and making sure they are following the vision set by you.
Not to mention the pains of offboarding employees. Making sure retention is good. And that the hiring budget is being wisely spent.
Remote work has been a cost saving blessing for thousands of startups. But it does have its own challenges.
Communication, time zone alignment, culture fit, and overall cohesion in the company to name a few. You need someone who can guide you to spend money where it matters and save where it doesn't matter much.
3 - Sticking to the Vision
I see Founders often make a critical mistake of latching on to a "revolutionary feature".
A feature that is going to make their product stand out from the market. A feature that will definitely not be copied by anyone else. Clubhouse anyone? Snap stories? list goes on
As a Founder you should stick to a grander vision of solving problems with holistic solutions, not just mere features.
I get it - market differentiation is a challenging problem. You want to have something unique about your startup.
So here's my advice - differentiate based on the ethos - not based on what feature your product has.
Example, if I am helping someone build an employee focused CRM that will enable better engagement and performance from the people using the CRM.
Instead of focusing on saying our CRM has XYZ feature, I would advise the Founder to say:
The CRMs in the market solve the symptoms, we want to solve the disease.
This kind of broader vision towards your mission can help you pivot anytime - not be tied down to one fad feature…AI anyone?
As a Founder, you need to be focused on the long term. Getting distracted away from what matters most is a really good way to dig a grave. Just having an idea is not enough, you need someone to help you validate, research, and offer comparisons.
The word 'Roadmap' is thrown around the product world all the time, funnily enough - many Founders don't have one. All they have is an idea, a pitch, and drive - which can be a recipe for disaster.
So you say - Ok Saqib, I am a Founder, and I think these problems define my situation. Then what? Well then maybe you should consider the following.
Why should you find a Partner as a Founder?
As a startup Founder your key responsibilities should include:
- Creating the vision and mission for your idea
- Researching the market for differentiation opportunities
- Developing a base business model
- Working closely on the product roadmap
- And if you are going the fundraising round, working on pitches and connecting with parties is basically your new day job.
Hiring a partner should ensure that you stick to the path that is the most optimal for you as a Founder.
And ideally speaking, you should be offloading:
- Day to day administration of the team and the business ops
- Making sure the dev and design plan is being executed
- How to find solutions to technical challenges with a build
- Making sure the budgets are being burnt appropriately
Just having a sturdy shoulder to rely on can open up a lot of time, and not to mention, a lot of mental capacity for you to focus on what matters as your duty being a Founder.
Last not least, having the right partner means having a shortcut to the right resources.
Be it team, tools, or hacks - if you get someone who has experience dealing with building from scratch to help you - your work just gets 10x easier.
Here’s a common analogy I make to Founders
Just because you love cars, and drive a car daily, and know what goes in a car - DOES NOT MEAN you can go and build one.
When it comes to building software (arguably easier than building a car) - the same logic still applies. A lot of Founder have the right heart and want to build the right thing - but their approach is usually wrong.
I’ve seen Founders
Waste money on expensive outsource teams,
Waste money on tools they never need,
Waste money on consultants to work on things that don’t matter - yet.
Present as a Founder, looking for the right Partner
And using my own analogy for myself. For years I partnered with others, but that DID NOT mean I knew how to find the right partners for my own needs.
I was the Yin to many Yangs, and I did it for so long, I forgot what to look for in a Yin for my own self (ok that sounded better in my head, pardon).
So after 5+ burnt partnerships, these are the 5 lessons I learnt when looking for a partner for my own gig.
Matching the missing frequency
My whole thing has always been execution first, talk later. As someone who is a strong believer in the fact that ‘ideas are cheap’ - the only thing that makes one stand out is execution and proof of it.
As someone who has never gone out of my home base for work (Pakistan) - I thought folks who have made it outside, maybe had something I was missing. So when I was looking for partners, I found a lot of interest, especially from folks stuck in jobs trying to get into business.
And the deal was simple - I will help them execute, they will help me get out there - on paper - it sounded perfect.
But in reality, it never happened. Time and time again, folks who talked big, never walked an inch.
So if I am the guy who lives on execution, I need to find someone who matches my pace.
How am I fixing this now?
I only partner with someone if they are willing to work based on execution, not just talk. They get an assigned workload, and they are expected to deliver it within a certain expectation.
I ask for proof of work, not promises of it.
You need to check 2 of 3 boxes
If you’re a self actualized and experienced person, you know what you are good at - and more than that you SHOULD know what you are bad at.
So when looking for a partner always try to aim 2 of 3 checkboxes:
- Lack of a particular skillset
- Lack of time to manage a department
- Lack of funds to scale an operation
If your newfound partner is not checking 2 of 3 boxes at least, it will end up as a failed partnership. Time, Money, and Skill is what runs a freshly started startup.
In most cases, you will be expected to front it the first 6 months, but after than you should be looking to fill the gaps, or at least compliment them.
My biggest mistake was that I thought the ‘skill’ I lacked was ‘networking’.
Always working online and in remote options, I never got to know any good network or be part of online guru groups. So if I found someone with a strong network, I can leverage their ‘skill’ to push forward my execution.
I was wrong
Network is not a skill, network is an investment.
To have a good network is not having followers on LinkedIn, or Subscribers on YouTube - it is to know the people who exchange favors. And if you need folks to owe you favors, you gotta start by owing to them.
Having that mindset shift on how to thing about network, helped me understand, that it doesn’t matter if the partner I find is famous para-socially, because when the need came to use their network - they were as good as me with basically no follower count.
How am I fixing this now?
On the Networking Side
I judge network based on impact, not vanity metrics. I ask about the initiatives behind their networking activities, and dive deeper into who they actually know.
Generally Speaking
I still lack the skill to be good with personal branding and marketing, I lack the time to build additional sales/marketing channels, and I lack the money to invest into anything other than the team I have. So if I partner with someone next, they better check 2 of 3 boxes.
Ruthless prioritization on long term pain
No matter what someone says, at the end of the day,
your strategy, your need to outcompete is what makes you successful - in the long run.
And sometimes, on the path, you have to make sacrifices.
‘Sunk Cost’ is the biggest concern of anyone launching a startup.
Especially when you partner with someone. Don’t let the downward spiral go beyond 3 months. Don’t partner on a ‘side thing’ that you will do for the long run, one of you won’t.
Ruthless prioritization is not just a concept you should apply to your dev, but also to how you work. If something isn’t working, cut it off as soon as possible.
My biggest mistake was giving too many chances and letting things go on for too long where they become way more painful to deal with or to cut out.
How am I fixing this now?
If someone approaches me for a partner role, they get a time limit.
No way around it. I need to see patterns of a successful future before I can commit to one.
You ‘need?’ a Technical CoFounder if you are Non-Tech (and vice versa)
Y-Combinator Cofounding platform is a nice start for many looking for their first match made in silicon valley heaven. But it pushes the idea of 50/50 too much.
You better find a exact opposite half or you are doomed as a startup.
But that is a big extra large sized lie.
You, as a good Founder, MUST have knowledge to some extent on all matters - tech or non tech. Just because you should find a Tech CoFounder does NOT mean you should have 0 technical understanding. Actually you should strive even better to have more technical understanding on the User front.
See, I’ve been a Product Manager at heart, and I still, to this day, don’t know how to code. But having worked with over a 100 developers, I do understand how to work on Apps and Products, and so on.
Do I still benefit from a Tech CoFounder? Yes
But will I be left to die without one - No.
And that is the important bit. If you are the Founder, you need to be prepared to be left alone at any stage. The help you get from a partner is extremely beneficial but don’t sink your trust in ‘too early’.
And same goes for if you are on the Tech Side. You need to understand how Business, Ops, Sales, and Marketing works - to a level. You can’t just have someone come in wave a wand and fix it all for you. That’s not how this happens.
Because at the end, when looking for the right Partner, You -
Don’t Find the Right Partner, You Build Em Up
Over the past 2 years looking for my folks to hire and partner up with, the best success I had was when I nurtured the relationship up even before the ask.
By far, the best folks I got to hire or partner with were from my community and networking efforts.
My months of investing into sharing knowledge like this very piece, helping others grow, and sharing my ideas with the world.
I found people who worked with me in my community, and knew how I work.
And those very people then grew to become the shoulders my ideas stand on.
Even though to this day, I am open to new random partners given the lessons I learned are applied to them.
I think the best way to find the right people is to lead the right people into working with you.
Show them how you work, inspire them, and great people love working on great things.
Simple as that.
Do ‘You’ need a partner?
See, when 2024 ended I made this post -
““
Fun fact, I've been gaming under the tag 'SoloKarry' for the past 15 years.
And I am fairly certain, I took that mentality literally when it comes to my life, work, and relationships.
I've done everything in loneliness (for the most part) - especially in career. I had people helping me, I had mentors, and I had good friends - but at the end of the day, I had my computer and a screen to work on.
That reached its limit - this year.
Solo won't work anymore if what I want to achieve is scale.
Scale requires people, and people require a tribe.
If I have to put my 2 biggest lessons of the year on paper - they will be as below ⬇️
Looking forward to not be Karrying everything Solo next year - I have people around me now.
““
So while it is true that not everyone needs a Partner or should have one. You do need to understand your limits, and to go beyond, you need the right 10x’ers by your side.
With that, I leave you on your search to find the right person who can fill that role in for you.
With or without my help – I wish you the best.
As always, thanks for reading this edition of The Rift. If you have any feedback.
A comment below would be appreciated.