Something I've learned is that in business, situations are always more complex than one-dimensional advice can ever account for. It's easy to form overly simplified conclusions e.g. "it's awlays best to do X" but reality will prove to everyone, sooner or later, that there is never a "best" way in many cases. It always depends on the situation.
Saying that, it's great that you're trying to focus on avoiding the landmines, especially the nuclear variety that you refer to!
For example, there's a whole "fail fast!" movement that encourages people (dangerously so IMO) to keep failing, not worry about the stress or all the money they're losing, because one day they'll be millionaires (they - unfortunately - wont) and it won't matter.
So if we're looking for anything that might resemble a "best business partner", it may not be someone that has previously failed, if for example the reason they failed is because they refused to take advice from anyone and never learnt from that mistake.
It always depends.
You could search online for checklists and whatnot, there are a million articles on the subject, but for those new to business partnerships I always advise exploring the reasons behind why you think you need a business partner first.
Because the honest truth is that if it turns out you really don't actually need one and it's just, say, a lack of confidence, holding you back, whatever those issues are will cause you massive problems in your business in the future.
It's best to start from day one being honest about your strengths and weaknesses (not just - "Oh I don't know marketing" but more like...
"My biggest weakness is that I've never done this before and I'm in the high risk "winging it" category of business owners"
Or...
"I'm quite conflict averse, which means I'm likely to let people suppliers, employees and business partners take advantage of me, even if - to me - it won't feel like I'm being taken advantage of, and this will put the business at significant risk."
Do you need to hire an expensive lawyer?
I would say no. Critical thinking + AI tools like Jasper or ChatGPT can help you build something if you ask yourself (and AI), and research online, questions like...
- What are the most common reasons business partnerships fail
- What are the most common weaknesses of business leaders and CEOs
- What typical scenarios do co-founders fall out over the most
If you do the homework and you're good with words, you can likely pull together your own laypersons agreement.
The act of simply talking through all the different scenarios with potential business partners, and how you want to navigate them will - in many cases - prevent the biggest threat of all...
Fall out between co-founders that leads to division, toxicity, in-fighting and everything else that will cripple or kill the business.
A fundamental concept for me is that either I'm "on the same team fighting the same battles" or we're at risk of fighting against and sabotaging each other. I will not work in any close capacity with anyone who is unable to work as a team, or who puts their own agenda above everybody elses.
If I asked a poential co-founder "what's your primary motivation for wanting to co-found this business with me?" most times I would expect to get back some BS that I'd need to dig through to get a real answer to the question.
Then you know they're selling to you - not being real with you. It's a yellow flag.
You should definitely try to dig deep into their
real weaknesses - and be prepared to talk about your own if you can be sure they aren't manipulating you.
If you pull something together RE the laypersons agreement, feel free to post it up here I'll be happy to take a look and I'm sure you'll get a lot of good feedback from the community too.
Is there an app to find a great business partner?
My opinion, rightly or wrongly, is that seeking deep, meaningful connections (like a business partner - someone who may become partially responsible for your ability to keep paying your bills) over an app is most likely to connect you to people looking for shallow, meaningless connection. Of course there are exceptions, but you don't go to a butchers hoping to find vegetarian sausages.
Maybe I'm getting old but trust and great, strong, resiliant connections are built in the real world, doing real things - months and years before you decide to launch into high risk joint ventures (like running a business or getting married!)
You could try Bumble Bizz. Or just get out there in the real world, go networking, start building relationships.
