By now you probably know that I’ve recently kicked off my company. If you don’t, here’s some news for you: I’ve recently kicked off my company.
I am not, by any means, a full fledged entrepreneur; mainly because I haven’t been in the business of being my own boss for a long time. I can, however, try to share a few of the experiences that I’ve lived so far. Here’s the first one: Be mindful of who you choose to team up with.
I have been a part of various teams in many walks of life (previous jobs, music bands, football teams, etc.) with varying degrees of success. Let us clarify here that when talking team chemistry, success does not mean reaching your goals. Success, in this particular context means: Choosing the people that will make your project move forward. The success of the whole endeavor is a different thing altogether and depends on a great deal of factors. To put it differently: Having a good team does not warrant success. Not having a good team almost certainly warrants failure.
I’ve had both great partners and lousy ones. Here’s a few rules I believe can help when choosing who to team up with:
Balance the hard skills: Between you and your partners you should be able to cover the whole set of hard skills required to operate whatever business you run. I have no adequate rule of thumb, but I can say that regarding daily operation you should cover the commercial aspects (i.e. sales) the productive aspects (i.e. whatever it is your company does) and the financial (that crap that no one knows anything about.)
Balance the soft skills: I subscribe to the theory of the executive types by which you need to cover creativity, ambition and organization. All three aspects should be covered by the partners in any combination of partner-to-skills as long as the three are covered in a realistic way (i.e. it is very difficult to find a person who is both creative and organized)
Find mature partners: This may sound ironic when coming from a guy that has more toys now than when he was ten years old. Maturity, however, has nothing to do with the toy count, it’s how you deal with stuff. Maturity is dealing with crap and finding solutions, confronting your fears, acknowledging them, and occasionaly admiting that they have bested you, and re-group. Maturity comes in different flavors… physical, emotional, professional, etc. Make sure your partner has a well balanced maturity pack.
Achieve commitment equity: Equity confers benefits but also responsibilities. Basically if you have 20% of the shares of a company, you should contribute 20% enthusiasm, 20% balls, 20% of a lot of stuff that makes things work. Slight variations should of course be tolerated: Occasionally picking up a co-founder with doubts and cheering him up, is acceptable; constantly having to push someone means he is an employee, not a partner (i.e. where an employee would find problems a partner should find solutions.) Both are very valuable members of a company, but each in his/her corresponding place.
Tollerate your partner’s flaws: Pretty much like with your significant other you need to be able to tolerate the defects of your partners. Your marriage works fine because your wife smells in a different direction when you take off your shoes and because you put up with her constant yapping during your sports tv hour. Likewise you need to be able to tolerate with decorum the slight and sometimes not so slight annoyances your partner/s have. There will be differences, but they should be easy to overlook, never a deal-breaker.
Find the correct blend of work and personal affinity: Complementing skills is an essential requirement, but you cannot overlook that you need to share things beyond the professional with your partners. You cannot team up with people you dislike or have no personal chemistry with. Sooner or later you will find that it causes you trouble. On the other hand, you cannot expect to like all your employees, but that’s a different story.
Shuje
On my next post: Coverage of the funeral of Schrodinger’s cat. Yes. It was dead. The box smells really bad by the way.
Posted by shuje 
