This content was created by GHION.AI . This content was uploaded by GHION.AI . This is a YouTube interview titled "Jessica Mah: Co-Founders Provide a Sanity Check" (created 2011-12-06). The excerpt is a spoken interview between an interviewer (Speaker A) and Jessica Mah (Speaker B) in which they discuss the importance of having a co-founder, how decisions and tie-breaks are handled, Jessica's working history with her co-founder Andy, and thoughts on the optimal number of co-founders.
You mentioned a couple of times your co-founder. So first of all, how important is it do you think to have a co-founder? Could you have done this yourself?
No, not at all. I think it's super important to have a co-founder and I'm so thankful I have one. And why?
What do you think you get from a co-founder? Is it just another pair of hands or eyes or something else or what is it?
It's real-time sanity checks, So on all the decisions I make, my co-founder would often give a differing opinion. Like I'd say, oh, this guy is like so cool, he graduated from a top CS school, we should totally hire him. And my co-founder would say, no, you don't want to hire him, here is why. Or I would just say a bunch of things and he would just refute that and I'd say, wow, thank God I have you.
And had you worked together before?
We had throughout college together.
So you had a working relationship before you did the company and you knew each other?
Yeah.
And how do you break ties?
How do you divide up?
No, how do you break ties? So he says one thing, you say another, how do you decide?
Well, at first it was who is more charismatic and that was usually me. I would be like— I would just come up with a bunch of reasons and tell Andy why he is wrong. But over time I tended to be more wrong than he is.
So— Sounds like a marriage to me.
Geez, well, now we default to his decision.
And you still like each other?
Oh yeah, we've actually gotten closer because of it.
Interesting. And could you imagine having more co-founders or is 2 the right number for you? What do you feel like?
2 or 3 might be right, 4 feels like it would be a lot, but it really depends on the people you're working with and with My co-founder Andy, we're like we're best friends, we live with each other and it just feels right.
