Our recent fundraising-themed dinner had Flight Venture’s Nancy Fechnay talk on the “do’s and don’ts” of fundraising. Having a co-founder cropped up into the conversation which led to the reasons why it makes good sense to have a co-founder.

Co-founders are great
First and foremost, you need someone to share the stress with. Not only does it help to have someone to bounce ideas off (and complement your skills with their own) but it will save your mental health too.

You do not want to be a single founder.

If there’s anything that convinces you to grab a co-pilot in your business endeavours, know that seasoned investors will also want you to have one.

So how do you find a co-founder?
Speaking to many of our TableCrowd members, they each have different stories of how they met their co-founder. From meeting at a dinner party, or friend’s from school/college/university to colleagues at the same firm, or any variety of similar encounters –  there are plenty of ways in which you might meet your kindred spirit.

Be the Yin to their Yang
Nancy advised her fellow diners to spend every minute with their co-founder. To take personality tests and solve problems together. To, effectively, become two peas in a startup pod. But, it’s important that you don’t skip on the serious stuff either. Ensure you have a great legal agreement in place, and map out what you need to accomplish, when it needs to be achieved by and who is doing what. The last thing you would want is resentment growing between you, because one is doing more of the heavy lifting than the other.

And, don’t forget to have an independent person sit on your board.

For more great tips from our speakers, take a look at our other posts – or better yet – hear first-hand by joining us for dinner!