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4 Warning Signs Before You Partner With Someone

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4 Warning Signs Before You Partner With Someone

“As an entrepreneur, you have to hire right and you have to retain talent!” – From Richa Kar: Founder and CEO of Zivame.

LET’S GET STRAIGHT INTO THE TOPIC.

Having a co-founder for a startup is beneficial as compared to Solopreneurship. Being an entrepreneur, it demands several resources for use at the right timing.  It can range anywhere from your initial capital investment to getting your goods and services for a better price. Regardless of the nature of your resource, having a supporting head (besides yours) is an advantage to running your business smoothly.

BUT IS IT EASY TO FIND A CO-FOUNDER FOR YOUR STARTUP PARTNERSHIP?

The CEO and Chairman of ‘ArcelorMittal’, the biggest steel-making company in the world, Lakshmi Narayan Mittal, stresses on the importance of business dedication as here: “In business life, first of all, you need to have the commitment, dedication, and passion for what you are doing.

Developing commitment, dedication, and passion are quite challenging, even to someone who is completely business-oriented, at least in their initial stages. Now, think about finding a co-founder, who must help, grow, sustain, change, and evolve along with your startup community. Even though it’s a critical part for a startup looking for a co-founder, you can nail the art of choosing a partner using some corporate signs.

Karan Chowdhary and Manish Chowdhary had 2 friends Arvind and Ashwin Sokke. All 4 were digital marketing professionals before they left their jobs. They had 1 perspective about health and wellness that was unique in the industry.  Laying the foundation for their ideas in 2014, the startup was once providing dietary and some nutritional supplements to everyone, but today had 4 gentle-care brands that are chemical-free beauty products and cosmetics as the brand we know today as WOW Skin Science Fit and Glow Healthcare founded by these 4 friends wins the ‘Bootstrap Champ‘ in 2019. Started with 5 to 6 elements, now they have 150+ pure beauty products in the markets!

ALSO READ:- Inspirational Success Story of “Nykaa”

4 Warning Signs Before You Partner With Someone - Colitco

AND NOW, MANISH SAYS, “BOOTSTRAPPING OUR BUSINESS AND SEEING IT GROW THIS WAY HAS LEFT US WITH THE SENSE THAT WE HAVE THE POWER TO CONTROL OUR DESTINY.”

Finding a co-partner is hence not easy or simple as read online. The CEO of Lingerie brand Buttercups, ‘Arpita Ganesh’, even after the chance meeting her co-founder ‘Aaditi Sinha’ gives this statement:But we still have trouble finding the right talent, no matter where we look. It’s a long drawn and tedious prospect to hire great tech people. So, remember, the startup partnership is a tedious procedure, yet with the right person, your brand can reach the Unicorn level within a short time period!

Before we learn the hacks on how to find a co-founder for a startup in India, it is essential to remove 4 red-flags in your partnership hunt.

The following are 4 ‘warning signs’ to decide if he/she is suitable to be a co-founder for your startup.

4 Warning Signs Before You Partner With Someone - Colitco

1. WHEN ONLY SPEECH IS YOUR CANDIDATE’S CAPABILITY

There are 3 kinds of co-founders:

  • The one with excellent communication skills and shows productive results.
  • One with productive results but poor communication.
  • The individual with excellent communication skills but lags concrete results.

Now, if the ball is in your court, whom will you pick among 3 as the co-founder for your startup? If you said 1, well and good. But if you picked 3, then it’s time to work more than expected. Because the one who speaks a lot but does now help in the development of your business is not a good choice. Finally, you will be the one handling multiple things on 1-go.

But things can’t go right if the partner is either unstable in ideas, dominates and puts his/her idea front and shows disinterest in your plans. Having such a partner is a loss for your startup.

Did you know that the world-famous Flipkart is the successful product of 2 differently-talking heads?

  • Sachin Bansal and Binny Bansal are 2 young boys who once in 2007 delivered books to Flipkart itself. Flipkart was started as an online book store at that time and the 2 Bansalas were intuitive to do something impactful with Technology. The frequency in their thoughts was constant but both their skills were differing on multiple terms. However, having shared the commonalities of doing something with tech and maintaining things with simplicity. This duo then changed the entire system of e-commerce with 3 failed attempts and incidental discovery on the platform online commerce!

2. WHEN 2 HEADS HAVE COMPLEMENTARY IDEAS

A vast majority of the partners have complementary ideas. You might think your startup is good for SEO but your co-founder feels Affiliation word better. The difference in opinions is natural to the business partnership but in the end, both of your ideas should link and help the startup develop. Say, you wanted to optimize for higher ranking but your partner wants to channelize the business using marketing, then take responsibilities each and work together with different ideas to bring 1 positive result.

But things can’t go right if the partner is either unstable in ideas, dominates and puts his/her idea front and shows disinterest in your plans. Having such a partner is a loss for your startup.

DID YOU KNOW THAT THE WORLD-FAMOUS FLIPKART IS THE SUCCESSFUL PRODUCT OF 2 DIFFERENTLY-TALKING HEADS?

4 Warning Signs Before You Partner With Someone - Colitco

The co-founder Binny once said – “We both did what we were good at. Sachin’s thinking was always ahead of time — he was thinking hard about marketing (he was an SEO god within one year of Flipkart), he was very good at thinking design, website design, floating the website — basically the demand side.”

3. WHEN EMOTIONAL STABILITY IS ABSENT

Do you wish to talk to someone moody? Or Angry all the time?

The psychology of emotions is paramount to any business. Choosing an emotionally unstable partner is no fit to work at all. The disadvantages are more when your partner lacks empathy and control of his/her self. Overall, it leads to a business partnership breakup, resulting back to Solopreneurship.

And also, remember, emotional stability is different from emotional intelligence but both are required in a balanced amount in your co-founder.

4. WHEN AVOIDING CONFLICTS IS NOT GOOD

Avoiding conflict is good for inside a family or friendship, but this is not the case with your business partner. Having a few fights at times is not going to ruin your relationship or the startup. Remember to convince and give-up when things move out of hand. But, at times of quarrel or conflict, if your partner is always accepting YOUR words and does not oppose your idea, then he/she has to move out of your brand.

A healthy partnership is where friends or partners fight for the growth and well-being of their company and do not console themselves that the CEO or Founder is always right. Sometimes, even unpleasant situations of life can give better results.

On the light side, when taking a look back at the startup India scenario, we have the description of 2 IIT Boys, who had unique complications to each other for 1 subject and together they resolved it, only to bring the best!

4 Warning Signs Before You Partner With Someone - Colitco

  • Bhavish Aggarwal, a Punjabi Engineer, had a few unpleasant experiences from travelling in cabs. He wanted to do something to correct this situation. Ankit Bhati, another Mechanical Engineer from IIT Bombay holding a post-graduate in CAD Automation left his job as a researcher and wanted to start something all by himself. Both their dreams joined together in December 2010, in the name of “OlaCabs”. And today, Ola is a mandatory cab application on all our smartphones, handling 110 cities across India and boasting with 6000+ employees.

ALSO READ:- Inspirational Success Story of “Byjus” – The Learning App

Having a fair fight (with equal justice to something) can even give better outcomes and a collaborative structure than before. But, if you already have a partner who is avoiding conflicts and moving away from your simple arguments, then it’s time to take your decision!

FROM THE WORDS OF BAVISH – “OUR GENERATION HAS THE POWER AND OPPORTUNITY TO CREATE THE FUTURE NOT JUST FOR OUR COUNTRY BUT TO BUILD THE TECHNOLOGICAL PARADIGMS FOR THE FUTURE FOR THE WORLD. IT IS A GREAT TIME TO BE AN ENTREPRENEUR IN INDIA.”

Moving onto the important section:

HOW TO CHOOSE AN IDEAL CO-FOUNDER FOR YOUR STARTUP?

IF YOU FOUND A PERSON WITH THE FOLLOWING QUALITIES, THEN GET READY TO BOOST YOUR BUSINESS JOURNEY WITH YOUR CO-FOUNDER:

  • Well-defined Vision and mission values
  • Have a unique super-skill or talent
  • Balances both technical and creative knowledge
  • Have expertise in more than 3 subject-matters
  • Impeccable communication and presentation skills
  • Long-term thinking ability
  • Adheres to national and government initiatives (for eg. Vocal For Local, Make In India, etc.)
  • Leadership without dominance and “I know everything” attitude
  • Stands in the shoes of your customer/client
  • Good listener
  • A non-judgemental
  • Notified when there is a flaw from your side
  • Extends gratification
  • Have funding support when time demands
  • Not a trend-follower but a trend-setter
  • Extremely scheduled and obsessive to results (not a money-minded person)
  • Highly consistent

To sum up, you must have a co-founder who is alike to your nature and character and helps the startup flourish and sustain. And one day, you will be advising other budding entrepreneurs and students on “how I was finding a co-founder for my startup?

Again saying, finding your business partner may be difficult, but with the right person, it is all worth it in the end!

From his quotes, Dhirubhai Ambani – “Give the youth a proper environment. Motivate them. Extend them the support they need. Each one of them has an infinite source of energy!”

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