It has become relative common knowledge that 2-3 co-founders is ideal. The lone wolf and packs of 4 or more can also make it. It’s just harder. All investors will be more skeptical.
However, if you are 2-3 co-founders with similar skills and personalities, you are not going to get very far. Besides carrying each-other through hard times, being more than 1 founder is to complement each other in skillset and persona. Builder, seller, organizer.
If you can co-found your business with your long time friend or business partner, great, but that’s far from always the case. Looking outside your network might lead you to the right people, who will actually complement your skillset and persona.
If you are co-founder dating, I highly recommend YC’s matching platform. I almost found a co-founder for Mercado Legal there: YC co-founder matching.
Whether it’s your best friend or a stranger, you need to sit down and talk about some key conditions for your upcoming journey. Some key things include:
For a more complete run-down, bring the this questionnaire to your next meeting:
If you plan on a having a trial period, where you build and test without a formal entity, investors and so on, get your handshake on paper.
You can download our Co-founder agreement or make your own.
You will also get the advantage of having protected the IP to the idea against a co-founder who leaves before you incorporate and then later claim big bucks, when you exit (which can be really harmful to the exit process).
If you already incorporated, the legal stuff should be in your shareholders’ agreement and the individual founder/vesting agreements.
If you’re successful, the journey will be somewhere between 5 and 12 years. Not all co-founders will last. Early pivots, burnouts, co-founder skills not relevant as company grows, strategic disagreements, personal stuff.