“I can do it all myself” declare many new entrepreneurs as they decide to go solo. However, cofounders can complement skills, help propel business and provide investment amongst many other things.
Unfortunately, it is difficult to find a suitable cofounder! So it’s common to have solopreneurs represent their ventures as ‘we’ and ‘my team’. And why shouldn’t they? They are indeed the CEO, CFO, CMO, Developer, Assistant, and Gopher.
As an entrepreneur makes progress, taking the time and effort to find a cofounder or a team to supplement his/her skill-set will prove valuable. VCs often prefer teams with complementary skills to protect their investment.
Some great resources to find the perfect match include: CoFoundersLab and FounderDating. Be ready for the tough conversations up front, as Noam Wasserman suggests. He reminds us to discuss equity based on output not just an arbitrary fraction. It’s prudent to have the expectations set upfront. It’s one less thing you will have to juggle on your journey.
Kriti Vichare is a marketer, entrepreneur, and cartoonist. She is the illustrator and co-founder of #entrepreneurfail, a web comic about the ironies of starting a company. Sign up at http://www.entrepreneurfail.com to get exclusive never-before-published comics.
Kriti is also the founder of IdeaKube (http://www.ideakube.com), a company that facilitates brainstorming through ‘ideation parties’. Kriti was a former marketer at PepsiCo and Kraft Foods. You can contact her at http://about.me/kritivichare.
