Startup Success Series: Finding a Co-Founder

on 20 Sep '20

The Startup Success Series is designed to provide insight and education on the topics that matter most to the founder community right now.

Each week Startup Victoria hosts a 1-hour webinar for the community, focussing on a specific topic. There’s only so much we can squeeze into 60 minutes, so following each webinar you can access further resources in our Startup Success Series articles.

The Startup Success Series is supported by LaunchVic.

LaunchVic is Victoria’s startup development agency. LaunchVic invests in organisations and projects that empower entrepreneurs to scale innovative companies and deliver new industry benefits to the Victorian economy.

In recent months, we’ve seen a huge influx of new, aspiring entrepreneurs enter the startup community. Many are on the hunt for a co-founder. Some are seeking technical co-founders, whilst others are looking for people who care about solving the same problem and want to dive in with them.

So do you need a co-founder?

Startups with co-founders rather than a solo entrepreneur have a much quicker journey to success, with Startup Genome reporting that lone founders take longer to reach scaling stage and are more averse to pivoting. On top of that, they also reported that startups with balanced co-founder teams raise more money – it’s clear that a co-founding team is usually greater than the sum of its parts.

This is why it’s so important to pick the right co-founder. Many compare co-founding to marriage – every decision has to be a joint decision; you have to manage and maintain the relationship and have shared values so you can move forward as a unit. Above all else, you have to trust your co-founder.

That’s why for this edition of the Startup Success Series, we spoke with experts Michelle Mannering, Hackathon Queen and founder; Alan Jones, startup founder coach and angel investor; and Tracie Thompson, CEO of HackHunter on how to find your perfect co-founder.

Virtual Event Recording

About: Watch the webinar recording below to learn more about Michelle, Alan and Tracie’s experiences with co-founders, as well as an audience Q&A.

Timestamps

2:16 – Introductions
8:05 – Do you need a co-founder?
13:10 – Diversity
16:50 – Panel’s experiences finding a co-founder
21:19 – When should you think about finding a co-founder?
29:00 – How to ‘test’ a co-founder practically?
36:20 – How to protect yourself and your business in case a co-founder relationship doesn’t work out?
40:40 – Q&A

Startup Success Series: Managing Co-Founder Relations in Times of Stress

About: In a previous edition of the Startup Success Series, we covered managing your relationship with your co-founder through times of stress.

Watch the webinar and access the resources here!

Reading Resources

About: A collection of reading resources and blogs on finding a co-founder.

Topics

Building great teams, Co-Founders, Finding a Cofounder