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Ask HN: Texts to share with my co-founder re time-management and teamwork?

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Re: Ask HN: Texts to share with my co-founder re time-management and teamwork?

#11

Post by tseoeo »

almostarockstar wrote: post #8

1. You are not a founder. A founder is there at the beginning...when the company is founded. You are a business partner. It's a very different dynamic. The business is a machine in your eyes and a child in your partner's. 2. Are you sure your partner actually wants the business the grow? Sounds to me like you are treating a lifestyle business like a corporation. You are swimming against the tide. I would hire somebod…

1. Technically - yes. Although if we go to discuss this further we would go over this technicality. 2. That was clearly stated and discussed in depth in the beginning when I was joining. And yes - I am treating a lifestyle business as a growth potential business and that's what was clearly agreed from the beginning. He is having some difficulties with transitioning from this and thus I am trying to help him, not break him.

Re: Ask HN: Texts to share with my co-founder re time-management and teamwork?

#12

Post by tseoeo »

yowlingcat wrote: post #4

Hope you don't mind my frank opinion, but there are a lot of yellow (ostensibly red) flags in your post that give me cause for concern. You ask for a text to share with your co-founder regarding time-management and teamwork, but that presupposes that your cofounders weak spots can be ameliorated by him simply reading and applying lessons from a textbook. I think this is optimistic, to put it lightly. As you have stat…

These are mine lines of thought as well, although I feel positive (non-rationally, I guess) about how this can develop in the future. There is just this step of the way where I want to establish a common vocabulary and structure on which we can then build. I've already seen in conversations the will for that and there is a precedent in the opposite direction with some books about manufacturing - The Goal and The Toyota Way - which was very constructive to how we talk about things.

Re: Ask HN: Texts to share with my co-founder re time-management and teamwork?

#13

Post by tseoeo »

yowlingcat wrote: post #7
tseoeo wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The stone that I hit is mostly based on different backgrounds - for example for him the concept of divorcing time from money comes in the beginning of the business, as business and life are not two separate things in his life. Having said this - he is willing to learn, but I am not the best teach that can lay so much foundations.

> I am not the best teach that can lay so much foundations. To echo a point from my other comment, if there is so much in terms of foundations that is missing, do you think maybe you should be reconsidering whether this person is the right cofounder for you?

I think of it the same as with love - every morning you have to ask yourself if you still want to be with this person. In the business case - I always have it in my mind to evaluate such an option and for now I think - yes.

Re: Ask HN: Texts to share with my co-founder re time-management and teamwork?

#14

Post by travisjungroth »

tseoeo wrote: post #11
almostarockstar wrote: post #8

1. You are not a founder. A founder is there at the beginning...when the company is founded. You are a business partner. It's a very different dynamic. The business is a machine in your eyes and a child in your partner's. 2. Are you sure your partner actually wants the business the grow? Sounds to me like you are treating a lifestyle business like a corporation. You are swimming against the tide. I would hire somebod…

1. Technically - yes. Although if we go to discuss this further we would go over this technicality. 2. That was clearly stated and discussed in depth in the beginning when I was joining. And yes - I am treating a lifestyle business as a growth potential business and that's what was clearly agreed from the beginning. He is having some difficulties with transitioning from this and thus I am trying to help him, not brea…

On point 1, just expect to have this conversation pretty frequently. It is not a technicality. If you tell people that you are a startup founder and it comes out that you're recently taking on partner level responsibilities of a 7 year old company, they're very likely to see these things as in conflict. You said you've "always helped a bit". If by "always" you mean since year 0, that's at least a little more compelling.

Re: Ask HN: Texts to share with my co-founder re time-management and teamwork?

#16

Post by tseoeo »

travisjungroth wrote: post #14
tseoeo wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

1. Technically - yes. Although if we go to discuss this further we would go over this technicality. 2. That was clearly stated and discussed in depth in the beginning when I was joining. And yes - I am treating a lifestyle business as a growth potential business and that's what was clearly agreed from the beginning. He is having some difficulties with transitioning from this and thus I am trying to help him, not brea…

On point 1, just expect to have this conversation pretty frequently. It is not a technicality. If you tell people that you are a startup founder and it comes out that you're recently taking on partner level responsibilities of a 7 year old company, they're very likely to see these things as in conflict. You said you've "always helped a bit". If by "always" you mean since year 0, that's at least a little more compelli…

It is something that I have on top of my mind but even for the technicalities: - we are moving things to a brand new company now - there will be a new brand soon, old one would be left just for the domestic market (a very small percentage of expected sales) - working on new products, 80% of old ones would gradually be stopped

So I guess we are joining forces to create something new but in a step by step way so we can make bootstrapping it easier.

Re: Ask HN: Texts to share with my co-founder re time-management and teamwork?

#17

Post by tseoeo »

relocond wrote: post #15

Hmm I think this big focus on management without having gotten results first would be a red flag for the other founder. I'd say grow the business first, then you'll have more credibility in managing things the way you'd like to.

Already on it - 2.5x growth for now, and a lot more in the oven. I think that's the right moment for building this foundations, cause in a month or two we expect to be growing even faster and it would be good if we have a common language for this layer of things.

Re: Ask HN: Texts to share with my co-founder re time-management and teamwork?

#18

Post by tseoeo »

sokoloff wrote: post #5

You don’t need a book; you need to find one tiny example/experiment where putting in place a simple, visual information system will make things better according to them . Then, build from there. You’re not going to get him to make a large change to, from his perspective, accommodate your need for structure. Get a small whiteboard and make some kind of magnetic status system for jobs or whatever. Nothing that uses a s…

That has come up in my mind and it makes sense.

My biggest concern on this one is that it makes task management my responsibility, which at the end means that I have to go after him if he doesn't follow his deadlines for example. And I don't want to have this dynamic, at least in this way.

Re: Ask HN: Texts to share with my co-founder re time-management and teamwork?

#19

Post by bwh2 »

It sounds like you would both benefit from reading The E-Myth Revisited. I posted some notes online about this book: https://www.briansnotes.io/book/the-e-myth-revisited/

But I wouldn't recommend just sending someone a book or article to read. You need to approach this situation with more empathy.

Re: Ask HN: Texts to share with my co-founder re time-management and teamwork?

#20

Post by ramphastidae »

You picked a cofounder who has never worked on a team or had a structured job in his life?

He’s unwilling to install Discord to communicate with the team but you expect him to read and absorb time management and teamwork books?

Sorry for the snark but what the heck are you thinking ... sounds like you have an intern, not a business partner.

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