CheatCodes - Courage beats intelligence, Advice for working with co-founders, and a podcast to listen to if you want to sell your business
More courage, less intelligence
“The best opportunities of your life come unexpectedly.
Whether you seize them or not is more a matter of courage rather than intelligence.”
Over time I’ve come to realise that the 10x achievements were not carefully planned.
They were moments out of the blue which asked whether I was ready to jump.
This is probably the same for you. Your big break was probably something you never planned for.
Your bigger break is going to come from something you couldn’t plan for.
So get used to being uncomfortable.
Unusual advice for working with co-founders
A question I get a lot is about how to build the right cofounder relationship.
People worry about every percentage point they’d give to investors not realising that the most important equity is to any co founders.
Here are 5 pieces of “you’ve probably never thought about this” advice on working with cofounders.
Don’t go 50:50.
We think we want to go 50:50 because it’s fair but truth is, it’s also kinda a cop out.
It avoids the hard conversation of who is more valuable to the business from a skill + effort perspective.
Lay out exactly what each person’s value is to the business then let the equity reflect the value.
2. Work on something small first.
You need to date before you get married.
Don’t make the business the first time you work together because there’s too much on the line at that point.
Pick a small project and work together to see whether you vibe.
3. Establish a “this is how we argue” plan.
You will argue in a business.
And you need to establish a way to solve it before it happens.
Example, one pair of co founders I advise had a specific “shouting period” where for 7 mins, they could just shout and let it all out.
Sounds weird but actually worked and they’re successful. If you don’t have something like this, you build resentment for the cofounder because of mixed communication styles.
4. Individually write down what life you want whilst running the business.
Maybe one of you wants to start a family soon.
Or one is happy to work from anywhere whilst the other wants to stay in one place.
Write down how you want your life to be for the next 5 years.
Then share it with each other to make sure you’re aligned.
You don’t want to be in year 3 when these cracks start to appear.
5. Write down what you want FROM the business.
Specifically what number do you want to sell for and what type of investors you want.
I have seen many cofounder relationships die because they had different end goals for the business especially when it started being successful.
Have you implemented any of these with your cofounder or do you have a a suggestion, let me know by replying!
Listen to this if you want to sell your business.
If you’re hoping to sell your business one day, you need to understand how buyers think.
A podcast I’ve been loving recently is Acquisitions Anonymous.
It's 3 people who go back to back on whether to buy a small business that week.
The businesses can be anything from a towel making business to a fireworks business...random!
The people are also credible entrepreneurs so you get credible perspectives.
It’s one of those, “have it on in the background and you’ll learn something” rather than something you have to intently listen to.
Highly recommend!
If there are any underground podcasts you listen to, send them to me. I'm looking to dig into some new ones.
