IIT Bombay Alum On How To Find Right Co-Founder: 'Definition Of Success Should Be Similar'

Successful business ventures rely on collaboration among various individuals. Crucially, alignment between founders and co-founders on matters such as finances, annual objectives and the fundamental values of the team is paramount. Recently, an alumnus of IIT Bombay and CEO of a sales co-pilot company offered insights into selecting an ideal business partner or co-founder. In a recent post on X platform, Aman Goel, co-founder and CEO of GreyLabs AI, emphasised the importance of choosing a partner who shares your vision of success.

In a now-viral post, Aman Goel explained this statement, “For instance, if you come from a small, middle-class family, an outcome of Rs 5 crore might be huge for you. However, if your cofounder comes from a wealthy business family, for them, it might be peanuts. This might lead to a large difference in vision/outcome.”

He added, that if two people have different financial goals then it can hamper important decisions like pursuing clients. For instance, if one partner aims to earn one crore annually, they might view a client offering Rs 25 lakh as lucrative. Conversely, if the co-founder’s objective is a turnover of Rs 25 crore, the same client deal may not align with their goals. In their perspective, Rs 25 lakh would represent merely one percent of the larger target.

“Whether to pursue this client or not, will become a question of how large of an outcome the founders are looking for. Differences in appetite might lead to friction in taking this decision. Friction leads to co-founder conflicts. Co-founder conflicts are the easiest way to kill a venture,” he added.

This post got over 25,000 views since it was shared on May 2.

Commenting on this post, an X user wrote, “Your posts are very insightful. Never found you hesitant about sharing your pearls of wisdom with others. This will be immensely helpful for lots of budding entrepreneurs. Really admire you for this & wish you great success & future ahead. Thank you.”

“This plays even more strongly for downside risk. Some can chase a goal for 3 years without earning any salary, some would have major life style challenges in a year,” another one wrote.

The critics of Goel argued that one should be able to work with people who think bigger and have more ambitious dreams so that the business can grow as well. Working with like-minded people can be comfortable but it might stall the business growth.