Starting up with a friend • Hacker News Board

Re: Starting up with a friend

#21

Post by robteix » Wed, Mar 11, 2009, 3:42 PM UTC

Great advice. A few years back a couple of friends and I decided to start a new company. Both were (and continue to be) really good friends to me, but just before we formally created the company, I decided to back down. The reason -- and I told both of them that -- was that I was afraid that the company would eventually destroy the friendship.

We all decided to go our own ways and thus the friendship survived. I often wonder if we could have pulled it out, but I really don't regret the decision.

Re: Starting up with a friend

#22

Post by sho » Wed, Mar 11, 2009, 3:53 PM UTC

forkqueue wrote: post #19

Best business advice I've been given: always make sure there are an odd number of founders so you can always get a resolution to any disagreements.

I heard something similar, but with a slight twist - when any decision is to be made, make sure you have a prime number of deciders, otherwise there is the possibility of deadlock. I think that's from the founder of Sony? He had a lot of cool ideas like that.

Not too many companies have 9 founders, though, so I guess your version works well enough for startups.

Re: Starting up with a friend

#23

Post by known » Wed, Mar 11, 2009, 3:56 PM UTC

Transparency Begets Trust.

Re: Starting up with a friend

#24

Post by A-Merchant » Wed, Mar 11, 2009, 3:57 PM UTC

Great advice. I wish I had some of this prior to going in on a business venture with a good friend of mine. The biggest problem we faced was that my partner had just gotten into a relationship which requires almost as much time as a new venture. So while I was envisioning 10 hour work days, he was envisioning days filled with several breaks to catch up with his girlfriend and/or his work hours were based around her schedule. This made it extremely hard for me to focus and set time for us to work together.

With that said, I would add to the list of questions - What other outside relationships will you need to spend significant time on and how will this affect our work days/schedule?

Re: Starting up with a friend

#25

Post by bpm140 » Wed, Mar 11, 2009, 3:57 PM UTC

Great article, and the "friend" part is superfluous. All of Daniel's lessons apply whether you're starting something with a friend you've known for two decades (my previous startup) or with someone you met at the partner pitch (my current startup).

Re: Starting up with a friend

#26

Post by rustartup » Wed, Mar 11, 2009, 4:12 PM UTC

ovi256 wrote: post #17

rustartup wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

downvote it but you cannot change the truth

I would really like to know, if you would not mind explaining, how are we all egotists. I believe myself that HN tends to attract better-than-average, educated, ambitious people. Egotism goes a bit with that. But to all being like that.

What you have just said is exactly egotism. From wikipedia: "Egotism is the motivation to maintain and enhance favorable views of self."

and also:

"Various forms of "empirical egoism" can be consistent with egotism, as long as the value of one's own self-benefit is entirely individual."

It just comes out in the difficult situations like doing a startup (in a war, etc).

That particular thread shows how people fight to remain egotists. Seems like me alone do not care about favorable view of myself (think karma)

Re: Starting up with a friend

#27

Post by donw » Wed, Mar 11, 2009, 4:35 PM UTC

This is a great post. I am starting a company with a good friend of mine, and it's amazing how much time it takes to make sure we're both going down the same path, not just code-wise, but also in terms of marketing, pricing, hell, even the logo has required a lot of back-and-forth.

The one thing that I can add to this, is that make sure you go into business with somebody you can both win and lose an argument with. Plans change, markets change, and most importantly, people working together need to compromise. I'm lucky, in that my co-founder is a really reasonable guy -- hopefully he'd say the same about me.

To borrow a concept from PG: Make sure neither partner looks at the business as part of their identity.

Having done decently-sized projects (that never made money) on my own, I can definitely testify that the two-man-route is much, much harder.

Re: Starting up with a friend

#28

Post by alain94040 » Wed, Mar 11, 2009, 4:49 PM UTC

donw wrote: post #27

This is a great post. I am starting a company with a good friend of mine, and it's amazing how much time it takes to make sure we're both going down the same path, not just code-wise, but also in terms of marketing, pricing, hell, even the logo has required a lot of back-and-forth. The one thing that I can add to this, is that make sure you go into business with somebody you can both win and lose an argument with. Pl…

Yes it's tough and takes a lot of work to stay in sync, but it's also very healthy. I share the same experience.

Re: Starting up with a friend

#29

Post by chiffonade » Wed, Mar 11, 2009, 4:51 PM UTC

In other words, make sure you aren't both a couple of passive-aggressive powderpuffs that will steam roll each other into oblivion.

Re: Starting up with a friend

#30

Post by chiffonade » Wed, Mar 11, 2009, 4:55 PM UTC

A-Merchant wrote: post #24

Great advice. I wish I had some of this prior to going in on a business venture with a good friend of mine. The biggest problem we faced was that my partner had just gotten into a relationship which requires almost as much time as a new venture. So while I was envisioning 10 hour work days, he was envisioning days filled with several breaks to catch up with his girlfriend and/or his work hours were based around her s…

> The biggest problem we faced was that my partner had just gotten into a relationship which requires almost as much time as a new venture.

This is when you start giving people ultimatums. Sounds dramatic, but it isn't. It's what's required to run a successful business - having a girlfriend isn't business, it's charity.