IIT Bombay alum on finding the perfect co-founder: ‘Definition of success should be similar’
An IIT Bombay alum who is also a co-founder and CEO of a startup shared how “conflicts” with a co-founder can “kill a venture”.
IIT Bombay alumnus Aman Goel, who is also a co-founder and CEO of a startup, took to X to shed light on how one can find a perfect co-founder. He also stressed the importance of co-founders and how “conflicts” with them can “easily kill a venture”.
Read| Ola CEO Bhavish Aggarwal’s father tells him to ‘raise the bar higher’. Here’s why
“When looking for a co-founder, look for someone whose definition of success is similar to yours,” wrote Goel on X. He explained this with the help of an example.
He added, “For instance, if you come from a small, middle-class family, an outcome of ₹5 crores might be huge for you. However, if your co-founder comes from a wealthy business family, for them, it might be peanuts. This might lead to a large difference in vision/outcome.”
The Mumbai-based entrepreneur gave yet another example of how one can be “keen to pursue” a client, but the “co-founder might not be interested”.
“For instance, you might be keen to pursue that client who will pay ₹25 lakhs a year because that brings you closer to your goal of ₹1 crore per year revenue by a fourth. However, your co-founder might not be interested in that client simply because they are aiming for ₹25 crores per year revenue, and this client would be just 1% of that,” Goel further expressed.
Also Read| Engineer spits ‘hard truth’ about salary, says ‘if you’re underpaid, it’s your fault’
He went on to say that whether or not to pursue a particular client depends on “how large of an outcome the founders are looking for”.
Goel said that “differences in appetite might lead to friction in taking this decision”, which in turn, leads to “co-founder conflicts” and “kill a venture”.
Take a look at the entire post here:
Since being shared a day ago on X, the post has accumulated over 22,800 views and numerous likes and reshares. Many even took to the comments section of the post to share their thoughts.
Check out how people reacted to this post here:
“This is good advice, Aman. I was recently privy to a falling out between co-founders exactly because of such life expectations mismatch,” wrote Abhijeet Mukherjee, former CEO of Guiding Tech.
Another added, “This is a true story that happened to me. Luckily, it did not kill my venture, but part (1) differential wealth is a massive no-go between co-founder.”
“Dear Aman, although you are much younger than me, you are a lot wiser in terms of wisdom. What you say is pure common sense and simple. Wish you all the success,” expressed a third.
