Finding a Co-Founder & Your First Hires

One thing I speak to a lot of first-time founders about is finding a co-founder or finding your first key hires. How do you do it? What to look for? What are some of the pitfalls? First things first, most likely if you're thinking about starting a company, you have an idea, and most likely you've talked to other people about that idea. And most likely some of those people have resonated by saying, that sounds amazing. Or some of them have resonated by saying, hmm, I'm not so sure that's, that's a good idea. But people will start knowing that you're doing this. And so one thing you can try is as you're telling people about it, saying, and actually I need to find somebody with this skillset. So let's say I'm very good with technical stuff. I know that I need somebody along the journey who is very good at sales and marketing. So if you start telling people saying, I need to find somebody who could be my co-founder in this, somebody who's, who has the appetite for that journey, for that risk-taking, who can sustain it with their personal finances, maybe not making income for a while. Do you know anybody? Because the more people that know, the more likely it is that you're going to meet the right co-founder. So that's one way of doing it. Another way of doing it is actually thinking about people that you admire already. So people that you know in your network or that you've seen in other professional contexts and you think that person would be great to work with, tell them, go to them and saying, hey, I think you're amazing. I think what you've done with whatever it is that they're doing is great. I'm thinking about starting a company that does this. I need a co-founder who has your skillset. I would love for us to start talking about how that might look. Um, so that's on the co-founder side. On the hire side, that's a little bit more tricky, honestly, because what often ends up happening is we hire people that we know, and oftentimes people end up starting companies with people who are in their friendship circle. The problem with that is they might be great friends, but they may not be as good at marketing as you think they are. They may not be as working the same way that, that you would want them to work. So the first few hires are critical to get right. What I tend to tell people is make sure you spend a lot of time with your potential new hires in different environments, a cafe, the office, going for a walk at different times of the day. You know, maybe an interview is in the evening in one case and during the day in another. Mix it up a little bit. See if you can get them in unusual situations, not because you want to trick them, But because you really want to understand who are they as professional human beings. It's not enough just to do an ad on some job site, get resumes, start interviewing, and then picking the one that you think is the best because you've got to move on and you've got to hire somebody. The first few people you hire are absolutely instrumental to how your culture is going to be and what kind of company you're going to be able to build. So take your time. Don't just hire somebody because you know them. Don't just hire somebody because they're available, but hire them because you cannot see building the company without them. That's the criteria you need to use. It's hard, it takes time, but it's really important that you do this right. So those were a few thoughts on finding a co-founder and those first critical hires. I hope you enjoyed it. As always, let me know in the comments if you need anything else.