Happy New Year. After a little hiatus from blog posts during the holiday season, I thought I would write a post about something that all my entrepreneurs struggle with-finding partners. I write this in having a long discussion with a start-up I am consulting for who is struggling to see value in equity partners, yet can’t afford to pay salaries or even hourly rates for the right people to grow the business, which will ultimately be their demise unfortunately.
As an entrepreneur you want your hands in every part of the business-it is your baby after all. But being involved doesn’t mean that you have to take on every task. With almost every start-up I have worked with over the last decade, the difference between being an entrepreneur and a wantrapreneur was self reflection in determining what you are and are not good at.
Henry Ford famously spoke on this subject, that we should never strive to be the smartest person in the room, but rather, learn from people in the room who are smarter than we are. The same logic that he applied before starting one of the largest companies in the world can be applied today. To be an entrepreneur, you don’t need to be the best engineer, the best marketing person, or the best CEO, but what you do need to have is the capacity to hire, or in your infancy, partner with the people that can take you to the top.
So, how do we choose the right people for these roles? Well, many times they are right under your nose. It is a co-worker who is incredible at graphic design and you know this because you see their work at your work. Other times, they are more difficult to locate, like finding the right CEO. I mean, you can’t just walk into the CEO of your current employer and say, “Hey John, do you want to be the CEO of my start-up that I am launching so I can quit this awful job.” Obviously, this will likely land you in hot water and potentially out on the street unable to fund your dream.
Once again, the right CEO, VP of Sales, Marketing Manager, etc. is usually right under your nose. They’re in your FaceBook friends list, your LinkedIn network, your college (or maybe even high school) yearbook. The true benefit of choosing a partner in your network is that they already know YOU! You don’t have to sell them on yourself-A huge hurdle.
Now, I mentioned earlier that as the “visionary” who started the company, you want to be involved in everything. So be involved in the process of choosing the right people. Here’s what I look for in a good partner:
- A Desire to Better Their Life: I no longer look for tenured people with huge pedigrees to partner with. When I first started out, my dad always gave me advice on the right people to choose because of who they were. And, guess what, every single one of them failed to do what they promised. Their reputation, and usually ego, got in the way of them being involved in the business the way I need them to be in the beginning. Plus-they always want more equity than an entrepreneur is willing to give up.
- Their Back is Against the Wall: Struggling to make mortgage payments, having multiple jobs, working too many hours-Bring it the f*ck on. It seems like it could go without saying, but I want the people who can’t afford to fail. 9 times out of 10 they will do whatever it takes to succeed. They see a light at the end of the tunnel as a partner in your start-up, and more times than not, they will also dream bigger than you yourself which keeps the momentum going. They will cheerlead like it was their idea, and they are not afraid to put in the hard work.
- They Have a Long Business Runway: What does this mean? Well, I am looking for someone who isn’t at the end of their career. This statement kind of speaks to the two above it, but at the same time, to me, it is totally different. I am looking for a person who will be with us through the long haul, during every peak and valley as the company grows. I don’t want to hear about how many houses a person has, or the Porsche in their driveway. Most of the time, those people have already peaked with their life goals. You want someone who will peak with you, or near you.
I want to take a second to note that the right partner is not the same as the right mentor. I’ll get into the mentor discussion in a future blog post, but there is a huge difference between someone who is there for your to bounce ideas off of versus someone who is going to develop your go to market strategy.
As a Mark Cuban fan the phrase of his I use almost every day is that I would rather have a bite of a watermelon than the bite of a grape. Choosing the right partners for your business, and giving up the right equity to take it to the next level helps you get the bite of the watermelon. This will be one of the single biggest differentiators between staying a wantrapreneur and becoming an entrepreneur.