Becoming a Founder is Easier than being a Cofounder

The essential thing is to walk and not wait for your ideal path or a cofounder.

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As a founder, you might have felt the need or heard why you need a cofounder. I have heard so many different reasons for finding a cofounder. Surprisingly most of these reasons are not directly related to the product or service you are creating in the first place.

Some of the most common reasons are:

1. If you have a cofounder, you have more chances of being accepted into an incubator/accelerator program.
2. If you have a cofounder, it will be easier to find an investor.
3. New Employees will likely join your company if you have a cofounder.

When I see a maximum number of startups with one or more cofounders, the FOMO factor starts gripping a solopreneur like me. Hence, I registered myself on a Cofounder matching app and forums for cofounder searching.

So far, finding a cofounder has yet to yield positive results.

A year back, I wanted to join a Founder to gain more experience in startups and to work on someone’s idea, as I could not think of any idea on my own. I explored a few online forums to find a startup looking for cofounders. To my surprise, these startups were looking for an employee rather than a cofounder who should get similar stakes in terms of equity and ownership.

Here are the two instances that became my eye-opener on joining a startup as a cofounder.

Instance 1:

I had a few conversations with a founder about joining their team as a cofounder and COO. This guy had been working on this idea for around three years. I spent a week checking their existing deck + other documents.
During this week, whatever query I asked. The answer was always: You will be handling this.
These were some responses from his side:
You will be handling product development and business roadmap, setting up the team, sales, and other marketing activities, as well as investment and accelerator.
Whenever I suggested a new idea, he responded, Yes, if you can lead this project.
When I asked, what will be your responsibility? He answered, I only handle the investor or partner for a query.

I felt like drowning myself in a deep hole.

Instance 2:

On another cofounder post, the owner shared the following clauses:

1. Your equity share will be 2–8%, depending on your role.
2. Your share will vest over four years. You will get them annually. And it will depend on your performance. If you miss some goals, the vesting period will be moved to another year. E.g., your vesting period would expand by another year.
3. You need to work full-time.

These clauses sound so much like a job. All the clauses were skewed in the owner’s favor, like he gets to decide the equity % or the performance.
This is how it happens in any job too, where your manager decides your appraisal depending on his mercy and mood but seldom on performance.

The positive part about these two instances is that I understood that becoming a founder is easier and better than being a cofounder. I decided to go solo and started working on a SAAS product. I had to do many things for the first time, but I tried to do them to the best of my capabilities. I eventually launched a working product in the market. My expertise is in product management, but I had to wear multiple hats as a content generator, sales executive, website designer, etc.

All too often, we spend our days waiting for the ideal path to appear in front of us. We forget that paths are made by walking, not waiting. — Robin sharma

After the first product launch, I could badly see the need for a cofounder to take this product to the next level. I need to release the second version of this product, but I need a technical person, as I do not have the requisite technical knowledge for the next iteration of development work. I need a cofounder in Sales & Marketing. My non existing selling skills cannot persuade even my family & friends what to say about strangers.

I decided to register on YCombinator Cofounder matching app. Here you can search the fellow entrepreneurs and send a connection request. You can set up a call to discuss each other’s ideas and decide whether to work together.

I connected with a few people who mentioned in their profiles that they are passively looking to be a cofounder. They are already in a full-time job and would be ready in the next three months to take the cofounder role.
I talked to 2–3 such people. They wanted to meet a founder through this platform casually.

They have little intention of leaving their high salary, 9 to 5, predictable employment in favor of zero compensation, and endless, unpredictable entrepreneurship.

After these experiences, I stopped checking the profiles into a full-time job and passively looking for cofounder opportunities. It is a massive mindset change to transition from an employee to a cofounder. It may take a few months or years to embrace the startup mindset. And, It will not happen overnight, as shown in some articles or movies.

Recently a founder reached out to me with an opportunity to join him as a cofounder. It was my first invitation on the matching app, so I grabbed this chance. We had a few telephone conversations and emails. I could not connect 100% with his product idea. I still wanted to explore this collaboration as it could expose me to working with cofounders. I could also learn from the Founder and leverage his network for my product.

As I learned more about the Founder and his journey, I felt I was ahead of him in my startup journey. E.g. the Founder had yet to register his company, so the equity he plans to distribute is a promissory note. According to him, this is a usual scenario, but I was hearing it for the first time. He had been working on this idea for the last two years. When I asked him to show the product he had built, he agreed to demo it with his technical team member. But the demo was never scheduled in the three weeks of our interaction.

If I compare it with my journey, I have been working on my product idea for about a year. I have a registered company as well as a working product.

I overlooked this comparison as I wanted to hear his thoughts on equity distribution. He wanted to share 5% equity with part-time cofounders (which I was keen to be), with a cliff period of two years and three years vesting period. I have heard about one year cliff period and a four-year vesting period, so this was new information for me. I tried to convince him to change the cliff period to one year, as I cannot work for two years without equity or salary.

According to the Founder, it was due to his bad experience when the previous cofounder left him in the first year, and the Founder struggled to complete the unfinished tasks. I told him that a software product should not take more than a year to hit the market, as we should do quick market validation. In my opinion, waiting for two years to hit the market is a pessimistic target. He mentioned he could envision the results coming after two years, hence the cliff period.

We could not agree on this cliff clause, and I eventually decided to step out of this opportunity. We both parted amicably over this difference in opinions.

Irrespective that it did not work out how it should, I learned new things from this discussion. It was helpful to hear the Founder’s viewpoints. He was very transparent in his communication. I want to do the same for such communication with my future cofounders.

I have learned a bitter truth from all these interactions:

“Finding a Cofounder is not easy, but it is worth your efforts.”

I would still explore the Cofounder matching app or other platforms. But would also keep on walking ahead in my startup journey.

I might cross a cofounder’s path in this journey, and we can walk together. Or I might travel solo for the rest of this journey as the essential thing is to walk and not wait for your ideal path or a cofounder.