Venture Reflection 2 - Finding a cofounder

In just a little while, I've met with 50+ founders from all different backgounds. Some international, some local, some older, some newer. It's actually pretty amazing to step out and meet the wide breadth of people working in a relatively small space.

And in that short time it's interesting to see the topic of cofounders come up. I wanted to jot down a few notes:

1. Finding a cofounder is important - it's an early step in product market validation. If we think about recruiting as a proxy for future growth, this can get interesting. For example, if you have a company that everyone wants to work at - it could be a good indicator that user growth should be pretty strong (after all, why work there if it's going to be a bad experience?). People don't want to work for bad products. So in the beginning, what's the most important step? Selling to 1.
2. You can't find cofounders anywhere, and you have to be careful. Startups are common enough, commoditized enough, and have enough money on the line to now attract all sorts of characters. It's not easy to wade through all social networks because there's so much noise. People are good at hiding their true selves. It might not actually be in your best interest to immediately saddle up with the first person you meet. It's actually a lot like dating, just a ton less intimate. And like dating, people can be in it for different reasons. Some for fun, some for marriage, some out of boredom, some out of insecurity. And like dating, it matters where and when you meet them because those spaces and those times have values. Meeting someone at a bar is inherently different than meeting someone in school - and they attract different types of people, even if you like going to both.
3. The narrative should make sense. How did you meet? When did you meet? What makes you trust that person? Startups are littered with stories of bad breakups and shattered companies. Investors hate it when these things happen - founder breakups immediately tank the company and the investment. When things align and there's history, even personal connection, then the founding team can be pretty strong. If everything is kind of out of the blue, it makes people question: 'why these people' and 'why now?'. Startup ventures are risky enough, and everyone has a mental meter if how much risk is too much. Valuation too high? Cofounders too inexperienced? Industry too risk averse? Everyone's looking for a sufficient number of reasons to say 'no'.
4. It's okay for things to fall apart. It's how they fall apart that's important. I've heard enough stories of straight up disasters, but I think they shouldn't detract from a natural situation where - cofounders just stop talking. Life gets busy, and there's a thousand things to do. Sometimes things just stop making sense and people decide to work on other things. And that's fine. I think in situations where there's an explosive and disastrous break, you need to step back and reassess pretty harshly how that situation came to be. It's never just 1 party, but it's important for you to understand the limits of your work and the start of someone else.
5. Keep going. It's hard when things fall through. Don't stop, keep going.