MC41 Running a business with someone else
Management Café
English - January 16, 2023 17:06 - 25 minutes - 23.2 MB - ★★ - 1 ratingManagement Business Careers leadership management virtualteams teamwork Homepage Download Apple Podcasts Google Podcasts Overcast Castro Pocket Casts RSS feed
Pilar and Tim explore their experiences of being co-founders or co-managers, as well as being solely in charge. The co-founder dynamic is inevitably going to experience some challenges as a business has its ups and downs. The way that founders communicate, collaborate, challenge and complement each other has a huge impact on the culture of the company and its success.
This coffee is, yet again, something like a joint therapy session... prepare for a lot of talk about communication, values and alignment!
0:30min It is a challenge to find someone with complementary skills but aligned values.
2:00 Pilar shares her experience of the work suffering when her co-founder was too similar to herself. And then afterwards with a very different person but where the values weren't aligned.
6:40 Founders need to start with a shared vision and agreement on why the company exists and what they want the atmosphere in the business to be.
7:55 For Tim and his co-founder their friendship was an important shared value. Sometimes when a conflict was proving too divisive they would set it aside in order to preserve harmony.
9:15 Understanding the values of yourself and your co-founder is important to establish as early as possible. Culture will build around the founders and the co-founder dynamic whether they mean it to or not.
11:00 Pros and cons of running an enterprise by yourself.
13:15 Tim tries to unpack how he and his co-founder were perceived by his employees.
15:00 Feedback on their dysfunctional dynamic triggered Tim and Duncan to understand the schism forming at the heart of their business.
18:00 Understanding the source of tension helped them re-align and ultimately had a profoundly positive impact on their company.
20:30 Tim advocates for using weekly calls to stay connected in an async environment.
What about you, dear listener? Have you been a solo founder or co-founder? Have you worked in an organisation where you could trace cultural dysfunctions or strengths to the co-founder relationship? We'd love to hear from you.
Get in touch through our Contact Form https://managementcafepodcast.com/contact/ or tell us on Twitter - we are @managementcaf