For the success of your startup, finding the right co-founder is one of the most important things that a new entrepreneur needs to do. Surprisingly, after studying and working together on intensive projects, a lot of alumni found their co-founder in Le Wagon bootcamp!
Summary
Two heads are always better than one in a startup.
Investors worry about a single entrepreneur getting overloaded, disabled or led astray, with no balancing and supporting partner. Finding a co-founder with complementary skills can help you to face the challenge of every entrepreneur.Find your co-founder
The challenge is how to find that elusive perfect-fit partner. Here are five steps that might help you to get in the right path of finding your co-founder!
Step one: Write a "job description" for that ideal partner.
Take a hard look at your own business strengths and weaknesses, and write down what partner skills and experiences would best complement yours. Demo Day
Step two: Network to find co-founders just as you network to find investors.
Attend local entrepreneur activities. In fact, many of the same venues, such as industry conferences, entrepreneur forums and local business organizations are useful for both. Le Wagon community has been organizing lots of events, workshops, job fair and Demo Day, these are great opportunities for you to network with these digital talents for a potential co-founder.Demo Day
Step three: Follow up with associates from prior job assignments.
If you were impressed with someone’s drive and capabilities in a prior work role, now is the time to connect again to check their interest and availability, or recommendations they may offer.
Step four: Explore candidate common interests outside of work.
Co-founder chemistry and interest matches are best explored outside the office. Find some common hobbies or sports to get acquainted before giving away half your company.
Step five: Jointly define major milestones and key metrics for the startup.
This process is the ultimate test of a true shared vision and working style. Building a startup is hard and unpredictable work, and people get busy, so now is the time to jointly commit. If you can’t work as a team now and easily agree, it probably won’t happen at all in the future.
For the success of your startup, finding the right co-founder is one of the most important things that a new entrepreneur needs to do. Surprisingly, after studying and working together on intensive projects, a lot of alumni found their co-founder in Le Wagon bootcamp!
Here's the story of HOW two co-founders met at Le Wagon!
We are a community of diverse and talented creatives, designers, and developers. Every project deserves a tailored team, and that is what we deliver.
When thinking about how to find a co-founder, I can only say what worked for us. Audrey and I went through Le Wagon bootcamp together and became friends. After graduation, she was working freelance while I had joined a startup. The startup contracted her for some UI work, which she did very well.
She and I always discussed the ups and downs we were having with work and pushing each other to have those difficult conversations with clients and demand more for ourselves. We eventually entered a hackathon with a few friends. That helped us understand how well we can coordinate. Le Wagon Batch #112
We had an idea for a product that we were really excited for but eventually decided to shift to an agency model. Today our portfolio under A3Collective has grown, and we have had the opportunity to work on many different kinds of products (such as WeChat mini programs, and custom and template websites) and understand how they fit in the greater picture of our clients’ businesses. Our goal is always to develop a relationship with our clients so we can understand their core business needs and build the best solution for that need.
If you are looking for a co-founder and have a potential prospect, work together on low-stakes projects here and there, see how you flow and handling challenges. Understand who they are as people, and what their personal commitments are. If you can see that they are really committed to the work you are doing together, and are able to deliver, then give it a shot.Adam is presenting their mini program.Audrey Gourdji
Studying for long hours with classmates and working intensely on projects throughout made us develop very strong bonds with each other. There's no better way to discover who you work well with and who you enjoy working with.
Classmates come from so many different backgrounds, so those close bonds you create during the course can often turn into really great synergy for a business partnership.
There are so many challenges in a startup that no founder should try to go it alone. When you find someone that works, I’m betting you will be together on your next startup and the one after that. Great teams persevere, and success breeds success.
If you are looking for a co-founder, you might find one in our bootcamp!
