You find cofounders by working on projects with them. What you need in a cofounder is someone who's good at what they do and that you work well with, and the only way to judge this is to work with them on things.
This is so, so true. But the author makes it sound so easy to solve. A word of warning: just because you worked on projects together, doesn't mean things will work out once you found a company. It just means your chances of success are slightly higher. But I do think the author's advice is extremely important to follow.
In my case, I had worked together with my former co-founder on projects at university. It all went very well, and we decided to cofound a company after graduation.
We had done so with the agreement that he'd take care of one part of the startup (essentially CTO) and I'd take care of the other (more or less everything else), with us splitting some of the work.
This worked out well for the first couple of months. Then, it turned out, real life was different than life at university. Real life means you need to make money. Real life means if you don't sell your goods or services, you have no income. Real life means if you're not successful, your investment is gone. Real life means pressure.
Pressure to deliver. Pressure to succeed. Pressure to solve problems you could never see coming but that just keep on piling up on your desk. And that pressure has either of two things on you: either you deal with it, or it destroys you. Because it won't go away. Ever. Today it's something small. Tomorrow it's something big. But there's never a day without some new challenge popping up that initially may seem unsurmountable.
You can guess what that pressure did with my co-founder. It affected me too, but I wasn't about to give up, because I expected things to be more difficult than when we set out on our journey. My co-founder apparently thought things would be easy as pie, but it was the opposite. And I could see how heavily it affected him.
First, he became physically ill all the time. I'd not hear from him for days, and when I did, he sounded really sick. Next, I noticed he couldn't sleep, because I got business-related messages sent to me at 3-4 am from time to time. And whenever I got around to visiting him at his home, his place would a mess, despite him having been very tidy in the past. Clearly, this was a person that had lost control of their life. I'm not a doctor, but I suffer from chronic depression, and this looked a whole lot like an untreated acute episode.
So I ended things with him. For his good, but also for mine. His lack of drive, his constant fear about every little risk imaginable, his empty promises of doing things and then not delivering, his inability to communicate, his refusal to accept help in dire times.
This all pulled me down and resulted in myself starting to crumble too. I gave him all my compassion. I told him to take as much time off as necessary. I took over his tasks, which I absolutely hated. And in turn, he just didn't engage with the company at all anymore whatsoever. Yet I though I still had a co-founder when I had clearly lost him a long while ago. The situation distracted me from running a company. From generating an income. From being mentally sound.
So we officially parted ways. And that's when things got much better. I found a new co-founder and instantly things started flourishing again. It was like night and day.
Finding the right co-founder is crucial for success; the author got that right. His way of finding one is necessary but not sufficient. Life after co-founding is much different than some project that isn't about money and actual customers with way higher standards than some unpaid project. It gets nasty.
Over the past two years I've been talking to a lot of entrepreneurs in real life, and it's shocking how many people went through what I did in some slight variation or mildly different flavor. I initially thought my situation was an outlier, but my experience now has been that it's not.
By all means, do go into entrepreneurship. Do find a co-founder. But don't be surprised if things don't work out. And make sure you realize early on if you can handle the pressure or not. It has nothing to do with hustle culture which was recently discussed — It's a simple reality. The pressure will be there. And it'll their make or break you. Good luck!
I met someone at work years ago and we were both sure we’d found a company together. But it became clear during the values conversations (good on him for initiating these) that we had wildly different goals for our company.
He confided in me that he still held on to insecurity from his childhood that he needs to prove he’s the best. He needs the prestige of founding a wildly successful company to protect himself from this insecurity. To his credit he also definitely has the skills and work ethic to have a chance.
I want a company not for money. Not for prestige. A little bit because I like computers and bit because I think I have the temperament to handle being a complete owner. But a major part is my desire to spite other business owners. All of the bullshit in our society about how owners deserve to underpay their employees. They deserve to exploit market capture because they were so smart. I know it’s a lie. They’re just greedy. Our society feeds these mental illnesses with the myth of the genius CEO. If I get so lucky to found a company I will use the opportunity to be uncommonly generous to employees and customers, with obvious consideration to maintaining profitability. I dream regularly about going to Silicon Valley dinner parties and subtly shaming greedy people for not giving themselves and their employees the same compensation (until I don’t get invited anymore).
Fundamentally, it’s wrong to decide that getting somewhere first means you get most of the rewards from that thing forever.
It is obvious when you read it, but there are so many people selling "entrepreneurship courses" out there that, funnily enough, get promoted by Google over Paul Graham's website, so it's hard to find good advice. It's hard for people to figure out that all you need to start a business is years of experience and hard work when there are thousands of people online telling you that they have a secret to getting rich.
Paul Graham is also trying to sell you on the idea of getting rich because he wants more people funneling into Y-combinator, but he needs quality over quantity unlike the online "business gurus".
douchebag | 1 year, 9 months ago
This is so, so true. But the author makes it sound so easy to solve. A word of warning: just because you worked on projects together, doesn't mean things will work out once you found a company. It just means your chances of success are slightly higher. But I do think the author's advice is extremely important to follow.
In my case, I had worked together with my former co-founder on projects at university. It all went very well, and we decided to cofound a company after graduation.
We had done so with the agreement that he'd take care of one part of the startup (essentially CTO) and I'd take care of the other (more or less everything else), with us splitting some of the work.
This worked out well for the first couple of months. Then, it turned out, real life was different than life at university. Real life means you need to make money. Real life means if you don't sell your goods or services, you have no income. Real life means if you're not successful, your investment is gone. Real life means pressure.
Pressure to deliver. Pressure to succeed. Pressure to solve problems you could never see coming but that just keep on piling up on your desk. And that pressure has either of two things on you: either you deal with it, or it destroys you. Because it won't go away. Ever. Today it's something small. Tomorrow it's something big. But there's never a day without some new challenge popping up that initially may seem unsurmountable.
You can guess what that pressure did with my co-founder. It affected me too, but I wasn't about to give up, because I expected things to be more difficult than when we set out on our journey. My co-founder apparently thought things would be easy as pie, but it was the opposite. And I could see how heavily it affected him.
First, he became physically ill all the time. I'd not hear from him for days, and when I did, he sounded really sick. Next, I noticed he couldn't sleep, because I got business-related messages sent to me at 3-4 am from time to time. And whenever I got around to visiting him at his home, his place would a mess, despite him having been very tidy in the past. Clearly, this was a person that had lost control of their life. I'm not a doctor, but I suffer from chronic depression, and this looked a whole lot like an untreated acute episode.
So I ended things with him. For his good, but also for mine. His lack of drive, his constant fear about every little risk imaginable, his empty promises of doing things and then not delivering, his inability to communicate, his refusal to accept help in dire times.
This all pulled me down and resulted in myself starting to crumble too. I gave him all my compassion. I told him to take as much time off as necessary. I took over his tasks, which I absolutely hated. And in turn, he just didn't engage with the company at all anymore whatsoever. Yet I though I still had a co-founder when I had clearly lost him a long while ago. The situation distracted me from running a company. From generating an income. From being mentally sound.
So we officially parted ways. And that's when things got much better. I found a new co-founder and instantly things started flourishing again. It was like night and day.
Finding the right co-founder is crucial for success; the author got that right. His way of finding one is necessary but not sufficient. Life after co-founding is much different than some project that isn't about money and actual customers with way higher standards than some unpaid project. It gets nasty.
Over the past two years I've been talking to a lot of entrepreneurs in real life, and it's shocking how many people went through what I did in some slight variation or mildly different flavor. I initially thought my situation was an outlier, but my experience now has been that it's not.
By all means, do go into entrepreneurship. Do find a co-founder. But don't be surprised if things don't work out. And make sure you realize early on if you can handle the pressure or not. It has nothing to do with hustle culture which was recently discussed — It's a simple reality. The pressure will be there. And it'll their make or break you. Good luck!
teaearlgraycold | 1 year, 9 months ago
I met someone at work years ago and we were both sure we’d found a company together. But it became clear during the values conversations (good on him for initiating these) that we had wildly different goals for our company.
He confided in me that he still held on to insecurity from his childhood that he needs to prove he’s the best. He needs the prestige of founding a wildly successful company to protect himself from this insecurity. To his credit he also definitely has the skills and work ethic to have a chance.
I want a company not for money. Not for prestige. A little bit because I like computers and bit because I think I have the temperament to handle being a complete owner. But a major part is my desire to spite other business owners. All of the bullshit in our society about how owners deserve to underpay their employees. They deserve to exploit market capture because they were so smart. I know it’s a lie. They’re just greedy. Our society feeds these mental illnesses with the myth of the genius CEO. If I get so lucky to found a company I will use the opportunity to be uncommonly generous to employees and customers, with obvious consideration to maintaining profitability. I dream regularly about going to Silicon Valley dinner parties and subtly shaming greedy people for not giving themselves and their employees the same compensation (until I don’t get invited anymore).
Fundamentally, it’s wrong to decide that getting somewhere first means you get most of the rewards from that thing forever.
ackables | 1 year, 9 months ago
I feel like this article would be a good addition to this entrepreneurship discussion from a few days ago.
Any friendly entrepreneurship communities that aren't rotten with the whole "grindset," hustle culture stuff?
skybrian | 1 year, 9 months ago
I've been reading Graham's essays for a long time. There's nothing new here; it's more or less the same thing he's been saying for a while.
It's probably news to some in the intended audience, though?
ackables | 1 year, 9 months ago
It is obvious when you read it, but there are so many people selling "entrepreneurship courses" out there that, funnily enough, get promoted by Google over Paul Graham's website, so it's hard to find good advice. It's hard for people to figure out that all you need to start a business is years of experience and hard work when there are thousands of people online telling you that they have a secret to getting rich.
Paul Graham is also trying to sell you on the idea of getting rich because he wants more people funneling into Y-combinator, but he needs quality over quantity unlike the online "business gurus".
teaearlgraycold | 1 year, 9 months ago
These are the PUAs of the business world.