Looking for a co-founder? Hundreds of your potential matches are waiting out there for you. All you need is to follow the right steps to find them!
There are lots of questions to consider before you really go for finding the right co-founder for you.
The first question: ‘Do you need a co-founder at all?’
The second question: ‘How has the global business environment changed due to the coronavirus situation, and in what ways did it leave an impact on the techniques and processes of finding a co-founder?’ Put simply, will the generalized tips and suggestions or those that worked a couple of years ago really work in the dramatically changed ‘present world’ that the coronavirus has shaped?
Then there is another big ‘place and field’ factor wherein you are planning to launch your business.
We’ll try to guide you all the way towards finding a co-founder keeping in mind all the above questions.
The First Three Considerations
Do I Really Need Someone?
Your first issue is whether or not you really need a co-founder for your startup. What are the reasons that necessitate having a co-founder?
An important reason is to have the support of investors. They generally like companies run by a team rather than a person.
This reason is not applicable to you if you think you don’t need any external financial help and can finance your business yourself.
The second reason is better decision making. From medium-sized businesses to larger ones, so many unpredictable problems and obstacles can occur. Some of them are really confusing and bewildering. That’s when you need a team to find solutions.
For small businesses, teamwork often proves to be superfluous and extravagant. If you’re hardworking and a quick learner, you can get over most of the problems on your own and with your selected number of subordinates placed in the right positions.
We don’t think the other reasons, such as division of responsibility and complementary skills and risk mitigation, need any explanation.
The Coronavirus Impact
We are yet to get a full and clear picture of how the COVID-19 situation has twisted and reshaped the whole economic and business world. With hundreds of businesses that have closed down and millions of people who are laid off from their jobs, any new entrepreneurship and startup process will need to be studied with much caution and scrutiny.
This situation, however, has increased the risk and created an opportunity at the same time. You cannot possibly go for those businesses that have already been shut down. Yet you can, on the other hand, have people at your side more in number and quality than ever, only if you can plan something realistic and feasible in this ‘new normal’.
People are not just wailing out there. They are trying new ideas and opportunities.
Place and Field Factor
This could very well be counted under the next point: steps to finding the right co-founder. But I have chosen to mark it as a prerequisite for the finding process.
It doesn’t need a long and detailed explanation. Each of the tips you’ll get in the next discussion must be considered from this point: where is your business located and what kind of business have you planned? You’ll see how your decision varies with our tips when you keep these two questions in mind.
Steps to Finding the Right Co-Founder
- Write the Criteria
Your best friends, family members, or spouse are the first ones to be excluded from your list unless they are practically and professionally eligible. Keep the business in its own place and define some points that best describe your strengths and weaknesses. Now announce that you need someone to complement your characteristics.
- Get into Your Network
Go online on LinkedIn and Facebook to search for the right people. These are great places to meet people who fulfill your criteria. As discussed above, more and more people are hunting every social and network media frantically in search of jobs, and you are more likely to meet them there these days. All you need is to spend some time networking and doing some professional chats.
Offline, the entrepreneur forums, industry conferences, and local business organizations are some of the promising places for you.
- Online Matchmaking Sites
The internet is a miraculous world of finding your best match. There are some excellent sites like StartHawk—Find a co-founder, who has lots of great matches for you.
- Local University Entrepreneur Activities
There is no way you can look down on them. If you support them, you’ll shortly find that you’ve supported yourself. Professors of the universities and student leaders often have connections with so many top entrepreneurs, staff members, or alums. There you can find a bunch of smart and energetic youths who are waiting with their entrepreneurial ideas and skills.
Again, due to the continuing great and unprecedented employment crisis, the numbers are more than ever.
- Different Backgrounds, Different Ideas, different Opportunities
With the introduction of the internet and the development of communication channels, the global economy and commercial approaches and ideas have had lots of interchanges, and therefore, have got a mixed appearance. You don’t know, you could buy a certain product from another part of the world with less than one-fourth of the cost you’ve known so far, or your best market could be in some other part of the world. Only someone from a different background and different experience could lead you to newer horizons that you could never have imagined.
You need to be smart enough to readily recognize people who talk from a different angle. That could bless your business with a new look and enormous benefits.
The world of business doesn’t always run on tips and theories. There are several calculations you need to do for yourself. You cannot copy others’ ideas; they may not apply to you and your business at all. You need to keep your eyes open to any changes around you and, most importantly, do whatever is best for your business.
There is every possibility of success for your business!
