Hey friends,
A couple of weeks ago I attended a meetup to hear the Founder & CEO of Slice, Ilir Sela, speak about his journey. He was an insightful speaker with a lot of practical advice for founders. One piece of advice that was timely for me was:
“you want to be in business for yourself, not by yourself”
A quick google found that Ilir was not the first person to say this. It was a popular slogan used by Ray Kroc, the founder of McDonalds as he was pitching the value prop for running McDs franchises to potential franchisees. Nevertheless, I love this quote in the context of any founder's journey.
As a solo founder in the middle of recruiting a co-founder, this succinctly captured what I have been working towards so far this year.
Since we last spoke…
💍 Met with 30 potential co-founders
I’ve had conversations with 30 potential co-founders and a handful with VCs who are keeping an ear to the ground for more introductions.
Overall, it’s been…fun! I’ve been exposed to unexpected opportunities where there are real needs for better technology. As one example, I met with a founder who’s helping tattoo artists and shops get customers and grow their business. Through this conversation, I learned that almost half of Americans have at least one tattoo 🤯. And that people spend about $1.5 Billion each year on tattoos in the US alone.
For any of these opportunities though, one of the questions I ask myself is “do I want to work on this problem for the next 5-10 years (whether it succeeds or not)?”. As of now, I keep this list of missions where the answer to this question is yes.
I also ask myself other questions which I turned into a rubric (customized from the one shared in this post) to consistently evaluate potential fits.
The search has also been challenging. The “finding a co-founder is like dating and getting married” analogy is an apt one. I did a trial period with a co-founder for 3 weeks full-time and that didn’t work out. In the end, I was like “wow that’s three weeks gone”. For the next trial, I decided to dedicate only part of my time for 2 weeks. The result was a bit better and I was able to decide not to move forward for now. But I also have a shadow of a doubt wondering if it would’ve worked out if I was fully committed to the trial. 😅
So, I’m iterating while also acknowledging that I can’t rush the process. It’s one of the, if not the, most important decisions for the success of the business.
👥 Joined a fellowship for founders in the Future of Work and Learning space
I applied for, got accepted to, and started a fellowship program run by the folks at Transcend Network 🥳. It’s a six-week program followed by continued access to the community (network, resources, events, etc).
The first week has been energizing! It’s exciting to be in a cohort and a community of other founders who are re-thinking how we learn, how we work, or how we learn at work.
It’s already a big step towards feeling more like I’m in business for myself but not by myself. (get it? that’s the title of this post 🙃)
Oh also…
As part of a trial with one co-founding team, I built and launched this:
And finally, if you’re looking to join an early-stage startup, let me know! I’ve seen and met a lot of founders in various spaces and can at least share what I’ve found interesting.
Thanks for reading.