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A single tree is not a forest, and a great cause is difficult to accomplish independently by a genius. But many entrepreneurs find it difficult to find their own Steve Wozniak and Paul Allen.

Entrepreneurs need their own partners not only to be in line with their own careers and values, but also to cooperate closely in many aspects. Unlike dating dating, entrepreneurs have difficulty getting effective guidance and rarely learn common methods from their predecessors’ experiences. Where to find this person, how to judge the “right person”, and how to work together to overcome difficulties and share achievements? The question of these souls makes it difficult for entrepreneurs to “take off the road”.

This article provides practical and systematic guidance for entrepreneurs who are interested in finding their peers to embark on a long road to entrepreneurship. No matter which stage of your business you are in, you can re-create the team of founders who are more likely to succeed through the methods provided in this article.

The story of most entrepreneurial partners is the cooperation of some former colleagues and the pursuit of a certain entrepreneurial idea. But the reality is not that simple.

The process of finding a business partner is often reminiscent of love, dating, from quarreling to marriage to divorce. Similarities abound.

One key difference is that most people have at least a real-life dating experience, and there are plenty of books to help you, give you advice, and some apps that make it easier for you to meet friends. However, entrepreneurs don’t know where to start when they find the right entrepreneurial partner.

When you start a business, you need to find the right field to pursue and find the right people to solve the problem together. Do not compromise on either.

In addition, you want to find a partner with similar values, but in terms of interest or personality, usually two different people will get along better. We will naturally gather around people with similar experiences, tastes and skills, but don’t overlook the diversity of the founding team, diversity is a huge force.

First step:Looking for potential entrepreneurial partners

Where can I find someone? This is the biggest problem.

You can observe people who have known each other for a long time and are introduced by a common friend.And people who have recently met at an event.

Joining a startup community and attending events is a great way to broaden your network, and if possible, you can even organize a community or event. Not only must we be open to opportunities, but we must take the initiative to create opportunities when necessary.

Step 2:Find out common points or say “no” quickly

After finding a potential candidate, what you are looking for is a signal that proves that it makes sense to invest more time.

You can use dialogue to find out if you have similarities. Have a cup of coffee and chat, talk about some basic topics, such as your story, work experience, areas of interest, etc. Topics in early conversations include:

Interests: Are you excited about what you are doing? What have you explored recently? Are we interested in the same industry and business model?

Multiple roles: Are we interested in exploring potential entrepreneurial partnerships together? What would it look like?

It’s important to note that maybe you’ve had a good time at first, but after you’ve got a deeper understanding, you’ll find that you might not be right, and you don’t need to waste time on each other. So you need to find inconsistencies in this step, actively looking for “negative” facts, in those places you will say: “Oh, actually we are not consistent.”

Step 3:Project Test

After initial consistency, you can try out a project directly with potential startup partners to explore specific ideas through brainstorming and lightweight prototyping. In the process you will get more information about this person and his work style.

You can use the least amount of resources to make an MVP (minimum viable product) that can be made in a week or two, and then put it on the market to see if there is a response. As you explore entrepreneurial ideas for the corporate market, you can try to communicate with customers.

Most of the “breakups” between the founders took place at this stage of the idea. Many of the ideas that you have generated together will not succeed. But if you find the right person, you can move on, enter other fields and do more experiments.

Step 4:Questionnaire

When you feel that the collaboration may have a play, you can take out the questionnaire, which is a bit like the founder’s “love test.” Just like dating, you have to solve some tough questions at the right time: Do you want children? Do you want to get married? How to deal with financial issues? The questionnaire is a very effective tool for the following purposes:

Make sure you are consistent in values: valuesDisagreements may have serious consequences in the future.

A vaccination: Many entrepreneurial partners parted ways, in part because they did not understand each other’s motivations and fears at a deeper level.

Exposing the differences within the founding team: This is useful for subsequent recruitment and discovery of their own growth space.

When you discuss the questionnaire with the candidate founder, there will be a question: How much consistency do you need? Is it 100% consistent or 75% consistent for each question? Finally, you should rely on your own experience and intuition to put a list of things that you feel are not negotiable, not more than three things. Deciding to build a company with others, you give up full control – no longer can act in the same way that a person opens a company.

You can fill out the Entrepreneur Partner Questionnaire with your potential partners and arrange three to four work sessions to share your answers. The questionnaire will mainly consist of six parts:

Foreword: Behavioral interviews. You want to know more about this person’s values, how he works, where problems arise and what are the disadvantages. How will he become the backbone of your team? What do you need to help him? What is his self-awareness? How vulnerable will it be?

Part 1: The role. After realizing the matching of products and markets, how do you view their respective role changes?

Part 2: Corporate Structure and Fund Management. The main disagreements in this section usually revolve around all the things that may turn into board battles, such as financing, investment exits, and equity. You don’t have to have a perfect answer, but you must think ahead and discuss it consciously.

Part 3: Personal motivation. Why do you want to start a company? Why is it now?

Part 4: Team Culture. Whoever has a specific idea in creating a diverse and inclusive environment, those who make more specific recommendations are obviously more serious about it.

Part 5: Partner Relationship. How do we deal with this situation in case we part ways? How to consider hiring a third (or N+1) co-founder?

Step 5:Strong heart, stick to the end

The last stop for entrepreneurial partners to find a trip is to establish relationships.

Do you have promised too early? Will there be better candidates? Dating rules in real life cannot be clearly reflected in the choice of entrepreneurial partners. You may have a hard time knowing when to stop looking, but when you have no more information to collect, you have to take risks. Entrepreneurship is like standing at the beginning of a maze. You don’t know where the road ahead will take you. But you need to put one foot in front of the other – you must move on.

Even if you establish an entrepreneurial partnership, you still need to use the founder relationship asPriority issues. Noam Wasserman, director of the University of Southern California Entrepreneurship Center, wrote a book on the subject, The Founder’s Dilemmas. His research found that after nearly six months of “honeymoon period”, any social relationship may face a variety of risks. Even if things go well, starting a business together will definitely affect your friendship, so entrepreneurs must be prepared.

You are easily trapped by the pressure of entrepreneurship. If you don’t continue to work hard to maintain this relationship, your agreement at the outset does not mean that you will continue to maintain consensus. Be aware that finding the right entrepreneurial partner only means that everything is just getting started.

Why do you need an assistant early in your career?

• Travel arrangements. Assistants make it easier for you to deal with complex situations and make you a more effective remote decision maker.

• Get ready. The assistant completes all the preparations and you are responsible for making decisions and delivering results.

• High emotional intelligence and strong communication. Assistants need to help you deal with a variety of stakeholders to resolve possible risks.

• Anti-stress. The assistant needs to take responsibility with you and handle highly sensitive matters.

4 ways to grow your team

• Macro management. Authorization does not mean handing over work and then exiting. Leaders must have sufficient knowledge of each part of the business to be able to give a reliable direction without over-provisioning.

• Free to play and watch. Provide resources and connections to help employees develop ideas. If the employee and his ideas are failing, you have to ring the alarm.

• Trust is a gift. Trust not only empowers people, but also promotes growth because they don’t want to live up to your trust and will redouble their efforts to prove themselves.

• Promote team achievements. Fuel each team member and provide personalized and insightful comments.