MC41 Running a business with someone else

Management Café

Pilar and Tim explore their experiences of being co-founders or co-managers, as well as being solely in charge. The co-founder dynamic is inevitably going to experience some challenges as a business has its ups and downs. The way that founders communicate, collaborate, challenge and complement each other has a huge impact on the culture of the company and its success.

This coffee is, yet again, something like a joint therapy session... prepare for a lot of talk about communication, values and alignment!

0:30min It is a challenge to find someone with complementary skills but aligned values.

2:00 Pilar shares her experience of the work suffering when her co-founder was too similar to herself. And then afterwards with a very different person but where the values weren't aligned.

6:40 Founders need to start with a shared vision and agreement on why the company exists and what they want the atmosphere in the business to be.

7:55 For Tim and his co-founder their friendship was an important shared value. Sometimes when a conflict was proving too divisive they would set it aside in order to preserve harmony.

9:15 Understanding the values of yourself and your co-founder is important to establish as early as possible. Culture will build around the founders and the co-founder dynamic whether they mean it to or not.

11:00 Pros and cons of running an enterprise by yourself.

13:15 Tim tries to unpack how he and his co-founder were perceived by his employees.

15:00 Feedback on their dysfunctional dynamic triggered Tim and Duncan to understand the schism forming at the heart of their business.

18:00 Understanding the source of tension helped them re-align and ultimately had a profoundly positive impact on their company.

20:30 Tim advocates for using weekly calls to stay connected in an async environment.

What about you, dear listener? Have you been a solo founder or co-founder? Have you worked in an organisation where you could trace cultural dysfunctions or strengths to the co-founder relationship? We'd love to hear from you.

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