Before you choose a co-founder, read this.
Why it matters more than you think.
Welcome to another episode of The Honest Founder.
Every week, I share two types of articles:
Free article (Every Tuesday): Personal story from my founder journey building two AI companies, selling one for $60M, and navigating burnout along the way.
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I had the privilege of working with exceptionally good founders.
One of them I met back in high school.
We were best friends, stayed in touch even after he moved abroad, and coincidentally ended up studying at the same university.
We grew up in similar neighbourhoods and shared the same core values, which turned out to matter a lot more than I realized at the time.
The other co-founder came from a cold message. On paper, we barely knew each other. But from the very beginning, it felt right. Heart in the right place, extremely hardworking, and smart in a very practical way.
With both of them, there was uncertainty at the start. One was my best friend, but we had never worked together. The other was almost a stranger.
That’s something people often underestimate.
Sometimes choosing a co-founder is like building an MVP. You don’t really know upfront. You test it. You work together. You see if it’s fun, if values align, and if trust builds naturally. And if it doesn’t, it should be easy to walk away early.
I didn’t fully realize it at the time, but looking back, one thing stands out: throughout the entire journey, we never really had fights. We had plenty of discussions, disagreements, and hard conversations, but they were always respectful, calm, and focused on the problem, not the person.
That’s rare. And it matters more than most people think.
One of the most common reasons companies fail isn’t the market, the product, or even execution.
It’s co-founders falling out.
Most of the time, it comes down to ego, one co-founder carrying more weight than the others, or fundamental disagreements on important decisions. Often, it’s not just one of these, but a combination that slowly builds tension over time.
And once that happens, the company almost always suffers.
That’s why choosing the right co-founder is one of the most important decisions you’ll ever make.
So what makes the right co-founder?
In my view, there are three non-negotiables:
