Hi there -
Here is this week’s “1 principle, 2 strategies, and 3 actionable tactics” for running lean…
1 Universal Principle
“Finding good ideas requires breaking your curse of specialization.”
Steve Jobs had Steve Wozniak, Larry Page had Sergey Brin, and Bill Hewlett had Dave Packard. Eighty percent of billion-dollar startup founders had a co-founder.
Even Jeff Bezos, often considered a solo founder, co-founded Amazon with his wife and quickly built a solid team around him.
On the one hand, while it's absolutely possible and recommended (my reasons below) to start building a startup by yourself, there inevitably comes a point when progress hits a wall because there’s a limited number of working hours in a day.
A co-founder can:
- multiply your impact,
- provide emotional support, and
- keep you accountable.
But all ideas start in the head of one person: you.
How do you get someone to quit their comfortable job and join your risky startup?
Let’s find out...
2 Underlying Strategies at Play
I. Don't try to clone yourself.
The biggest mistake I see first-time founders make is looking for duplicates of themselves. When drowning in work, they think, "I need another developer" or "I need someone who sells exactly like me."
This is usually exactly wrong.
What you need is someone with different skills to counter your "curse of specialization" (when all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail).
II. Mission alignment matters as much as skills.
Beyond complementary skills, alignment on mission is non-negotiable.
I've watched promising co-founder relationships collapse because one person wanted to build a lifestyle business while the other expected a venture-scale company. Or one founder wanted to exit at the first decent offer, while the other was in it for the long term.
At the end of the day, you both need to be playing the same game to win.
If you haven’t clearly defined your mission or aren’t clear about how to do this, check out my business model design challenge, where I have several step-by-step how-tos on defining mission and pitching on how to effectively pitch your big idea to a potential co-founder.
3 Actionable Tactics
I. Start building relationships before you need them.
Finding a co-founder almost always takes longer than expected. Start building relationships with potential partners before you desperately need someone.
Join startup communities, attend industry events, and participate in online forums. LEANFoundry has a growing community of over 22k+ founders. Many founders have tapped into this network for support, learning, and, yes, finding co-founders for their projects. If you’re not yet a member and are interested in joining, details here.
II. Date before you tie the knot.
Finding a co-founder is more like marriage than hiring. You'll spend more time with this person than almost anyone else during the intense startup years.
To avoid a painful "divorce," work together on side projects first. These experiences reveal how someone:
- Handles pressure and setbacks
- Communicates during disagreements
- Follows through on commitments
- Makes decisions when things are uncertain
I once coached a founder who was ready to split equity 50/50 with someone they'd known for just two weeks. After working on a small project first, they discovered their potential co-founder avoided tough conversations and disappeared when challenges arose—imagine discovering that after incorporating!
III. De-risk your idea with early traction.
When non-technical founders tell me they can't find a technical co-founder (or vice versa), I always give the same advice: Don't wait. Move ahead on your own to get demonstrable early traction.
The true job of a founder is to systematically de-risk their business model. The best evidence of a working business is traction—proof that people other than yourself care about your idea.
Even without a co-founder or product, you can:
- Run customer interviews to validate the problem
- Create landing pages to test demand
- Use a demo-sell-build process to get pre-orders
- Secure letters of intent from potential customers
If you’re unsure how to do these things, I have a step-by-step (demand validation) playbook you can unlock as part of LEANFoundry membership. Become a member here.
This evidence of market demand becomes incredibly powerful when approaching potential co-founders. It shows you're serious and that your idea has merit beyond just your enthusiasm.
That's all for today. See you next week.
Ash
Author of Running Lean and creator of Lean Canvas
.
.
P.S.
To see a simple exercise I use for finding complementary co-founder super-powers, check out this video:
.
.
P.P.S.
Whenever you're ready, there are 3 ways I can help you:
1 - Get my Just Start course: If you're new to this framework, you'll learn the key mindsets for building the next generation of products that matter.
2 - Take the 30-day Business Model Design Challenge: If you're an aspiring or early-stage founder looking to launch a new idea in 2025, join my next Business Model Design Challenge, where you'll learn how to design and stress-test your idea without wasting resources.
3 - Join LEANFoundry: Join 21k+ founders who use our tools, courses, and coaching resources to build and launch their products to paying customers. Works like a gym membership. Cancel anytime.
