co-founder

“I have a co-founder in life, and that's, she helped me go through it, and I think everyone needs a co-founder, both either in life or in a startup to be able to talk through some of the things, both in the business, but some of the things that are outside of t…”

“People, friends, family, they're always there to give advice, but ultimately they're not seeing the same challenges and pressures day to day that your co-founder is, so you're not going to get you know, the same level of advice with the same level of buying as…”

“The number one reason why seed companies fail is because they hired the wrong co-founders.”

“Complementary is better, but make sure that you are aligned about like the core things you want to build.”

“If you do a great job, you get some traction, you get progress, you build, you know, you start really doing something, especially you raise some money. Now, all of a sudden you can go recruit your co-founders. And so that's what I did basically was One, I had …”

“There are some non-negotiable Things that are just co-founder decisions, and you shouldn't discuss them as a group. It filters through the company by following your vision, your intent for the business, and that's not something that should be up for group disc…”

“Most people choose to stay uninvolved, or they use juristics, like if two founders are fighting, you know, the obvious venture answer is like, kick this person out.”

“I think if you look at the data says that solo founders always have a tougher time. I think you really see a lot of success in the two through four group of co-founders. I think once you get five co-founders or more, there's just too many cooks in the kitchen.”

“That's actually probably one of the biggest benefits to having a co-founder or co-founders, right?”

“I think that's one of the reasons why it's good to have a co-founder, because your laws are not completely aligned, so there's always someone to pull the other up in those times.”

“You need a co-founder. Because there's, one, they should be complimentary with your skills. Two, you need a partner who you can share all the things you can't talk to the board about, or you can't talk to the management team about. You can't go talk to your si…”

“I don't like any, I don't like companies with more than three co-founders. I prefer it with two. Three can get as long as people, but four above forget. I don't want to go there.”

“I mean, the worst, and people make this work, so there's an exception to every rule, but the worst is being married to your co-founder.”

“So I think you inevitably, if you do it right, become friends. But I think what you want to start out as is colleagues.”

“The biggest mistake that no, the biggest mistake that entrepreneurs make is picking bad co-founders. The second biggest mistake that they make is not setting their sights on an ambitious enough target”

“And, you know, the probably most important thing that you do in your life is pick who your partner is in, in, in, in, you know, whether it's marriage or whatever, whatever you believe in. And I think then the private second most important thing, if you're a fo…”

“So it's like a Venn diagram where you want circles that have a tiny bit of overlap so that there's some ability for the people involved to relate to one another. But ideally each of those circles has a ton of space covering the problem area to do that.”

“As a rule, I would say, no, it's not required. I think it depends a lot on subject matter expertise. It depends a lot on also how you view the definition of what a co-founder is.”

“I tell entrepreneurs, why don't you go identify your idea? Why don't you go figure out what you want to go build and then go find the best person in the world to go help you solve that problem. It probably is not going to be your cousin. It probably isn't goin…”

“There's a higher likelihood that that partner from that VC will be on your board than your co-founder will, just statistically.”

“Cause you really, it's easier to get rid of your co-founder than your VC and on, on the board.”

“And the relationship didn't fracture, but actually got stronger in those lowest moments. And that is the best proof that you have something to build upon.”

“It's, ah, it has to be an organic process. It's very, very hard to create real connection that would last for, you know, a decade plus if you're thinking about, ah, ah, a long-term, ah, business. And, It simply works better when it's organic.”

“I think it really helps to think the other person is just far better than you are at pretty much everything, because you're both stretching to try to be as good as the other person, if that makes any sense, right?”

“As a VC, you should be fired if you write a hundred million dollar plus check and you don't meet the co-founders, period.”

“The other co-founders most often not there in three years.”