Finding Co-Founders by Breaking Up

[embed]illustration: Aiste Papartyte

Entrepreneur First is an incubator of heartbreaks. It is about breaking up 2.4 times. It is also for software developers to build their own startups.

However, the goal was not to judge if the other person is the right one for me. The goal is to judge if, by working together, we had an efficient way to communicate, experiment, and create exponential growth.

How to find the right co-founder

You will not. If that is what your intentions are, you will fail. The only way is to be the right co-founder. I borrow this from aikido. There is nothing I can do to move the other person, but I can move myself.

How to be the right co-founder

The outcome is this, said amazingly by Anne-Laure Le Cunff:

We’re using methods we studied at EF to stress-test our assumptions and pivot when necessary. We’ve had more than a hundred phone conversations already, not including face-to-face meetings. Coming from a B2C background, it’s extremely unnerving to chat with a potential customer when you’re in the discovery phase. It’s also rewarding to feel like you’re going in the right direction. EF has taught us to leave our egos at the door and to go through this process–fast.

I broke up roughly 7 times in 3 weeks. Each time the match was destiny, and I was going to plunge my all into making this idea work. However, the goal was not to judge if the other person is the right one for me. The goal is to judge if, by working together, we had an efficient way to communicate, experiment, and create exponential growth. It’s not a magnitude of the most efficient versus the less efficient. It’s binary — yes it is present; no there is no magic.

Growing myself as a co-founder

[embed]What 10x’ing myself looks like, maybe. agathebb

Further, every breakup is an opportunity to grow:

1. Have I learned more about my edge
2. Have I learned more about being ambitious
3. Have I learned more about being flexible

With the personal goal of achieving a singular focus of becoming the definition of a startup founder: force of nature, persistent, and unstoppable.

And then repeat this, over and over. I failed at Entrepreneur First, so I can’t do this within the program anymore. But I’ve found it to be generally valid as a personal practice outside of an incubator setting, as long as I believe that I can 10x myself.

Since leaving Entrepreneur First, I’m doing some meditations on how I can enable others to 10x themselves.

¹ *Entrepreneur First is a top startup accelerator backed by Reid Hoffman (founder of LinkedIn), Greylock Partners, Mosaic Ventures, Founders Fund and Lakestar.*

[embed]A parting postscript for you; best regards.