

Do I Need a Co-Founder: The 90/50 Rule of Startup Founders - alain94040
http://blog.fairsoftware.net/2010/02/01/do-i-need-a-co-founder-the-9050-rule-of-startup-founders/

======
skmurphy
"When two men in business always agree, one of them is unnecessary." William
Wrigley Jr.

I think you need to distinguish between values conflicts, where you should
have very high agreement, and disagreements over strategies or tactics to
implement or sell your product.

If your co-founder can't make suggestions to improve what you are working on
at least half the time I don't think you have a lot of synergy.

Michael Schrage studied a number of collaborative teams for his books "Shared
Minds" and "Serious Play." He concluded that it was a shared focus on a
problem that was larger than they could solve individually that encouraged
collaboration. That does not mean that team members agree most of the time.

~~~
MrSartorial
I think co-founders are most useful when you have a similar vision but bring
different expertise to the issue. I agree with what you are saying though,
that you should have similar values and vision, but then want to discuss the
implementation from different perspectives. It's kind of like having a mini
focus group or think tank. Those different understandings of the issue are
important to come to the BEST implementation and to avoid groupthink.

------
michael_dorfman
_Remember: you need vision alignment, a co-founder who watches your back and
who you completely trust._

And even if you do trust them completely, make sure you have legal documents
in place which protect your interests. Just because you completely trust them
today doesn't mean that they won't wake up one day several years down the road
and decide to screw you. Trust me on this...

~~~
teej
> Trust me on this...

It sounds like there's a story behind this advice. Care to share?

------
gkoberger
This article doesn't really answer the question "Do I Need a Co-Founder." More
accurately, it answered "Should This Person Be My Co-Founder?"

~~~
alain94040
I guess the full algorithm is:

    
    
      while(potential cofounders available) {
        evaluate using 90/50 rule
      }
    

The article only focuses on the inner loop, it sort of assumed that you knew
how to code the rest on your own :-)

------
alain94040
This is partly a rebuttal to the thread
<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=77246> which basically says never to have
a co-founder!

