Ideas and cofounders

The plan

•Ideas, good and bad

•Idea reach

•Cofounder horror stories

•Cofounder howto

•Some thoughts on shares & employees

1. Ideas, good and bad

What is a bad idea???

What is a bad idea???

... a million different ways to

fail...

“I could build this cool thing...”

Change of mindset?

Opportunity-led ideas

2. Idea reach

3. Cofounder horror stories

Vocalix

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4. Cofounder Howto

How to find cofounders

A common process?

1.Sign up to a dating site // go to event/club

2.Find a wife

3.Get married

A common process

1.Sign up to a cofounder site // go to event

2.Find a cofounder

3.Start something

A better process

1.Go meet people

2.Make friends and work with people

3.Start a startup

The best process

Start up with an existing friend!

But...

So what can you do?

Disagreements

“What do we both mean by...?”

Don’t assume, check!

Make agreements explicit

How?

Detail your agreements

•Explicit numbers

•“We’re going to give this 2 years”

•“I’ll be happy if we each make £50k/year out of this”

How?

Write things down

•Until it’s written down, it’s implicit

•People forget what they agreed

•Clear writing brings out disagreements

•Writing = coding for people

Don’t be afraid of the bad stuff

•Embarrassing topics

•People’s circumstances change

•Shit happens

Don’t make it work at all costs

•Grab opportunities - don’t jump off a cliff

•If there’s a major disagreement, seriously consider pulling the plug

•Trust your gut

In short...

•Make agreements explicit

•Detail your agreements

•Write things down

•Don’t be afraid of discussing negative scenarios

•Don’t make it work at all costs

5. Shares, employees, etc

Silicon Valley model

Protect your shares like your blood

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Motivation

Drive: Autonomy, Mastery, Purpose

Fairness

37Signals model

“Business Guys”

“Dev Guys”

“I’ll pay you in shares”?

Protect your shares like your blood

•Ideas, good and bad

•Idea reach

•Cofounder horror stories

•Cofounder howto

•Some thoughts on shares & employees

Thank you!