Co-founding a company: what I learned

How it all started

If you’ve read my article about how I started selling on Amazon, you already know that in 2020 I participated in the Amazon Campus Challenge. What you might not know is that from that experience a chain of events started that led me to co-found a company.

During the challenge I met a person on my team with whom I stayed in touch even after the competition ended. It was this very person who, months later, introduced me to the people who are now my business partners. I didn’t look for them on LinkedIn, I didn’t post an ad. I met them in the most natural way possible, through a connection born from working together on a real project.

Looking back I realize this is one of the things I tell most often when someone asks me how we founded the company. There was no moment when I woke up and said “now I’m going to look for partners”. There was a journey made of shared experiences, people met along the way, and an opportunity that materialized at the right time.

Finding the right partners is everything

If I had to choose the most important lesson I learned co-founding a company, it would be this. Finding partners you get along with and who are on the same wavelength is the foundation of everything. Without this foundation nothing else holds, regardless of how good you are at your job or how great your idea is.

When I say “same wavelength” I don’t mean you have to think the same way about everything. I mean you need to share the same work ethic, the same vision of where you want to go, and the same commitment to getting there. If one person on the team works 12 hours a day and another disappears on Friday afternoon, that imbalance eventually explodes.

With my current partners I’ve been very lucky. We get along well, we respect each other, and most importantly we’re all rowing in the same direction. This is perhaps the main reason why the company works and continues to grow.

Red flags you shouldn’t ignore in a partner

Just as important as finding the right people is recognizing the wrong ones. And this is something you often learn the hard way or by listening to the stories of those who’ve been through it before.

The most dangerous signal by far is when someone on the team tries to leverage the work of others to coast. When someone contributes less but takes the same credit, or when there are those who push hard and those who just go with the flow, the dynamic becomes toxic very quickly. And the worst part is that you often don’t notice it right away, but only when the damage is already done.

Another important signal is misalignment on goals. If you want to build something big and your partner wants some extra income without too much effort, you’re not in the same boat. You’re in two different boats sailing in the same direction only for a while, until inevitably the paths diverge.

The value of working together

One of the things I appreciate most about having partners is the ability to see problems from different points of view. When you’re alone you risk getting stuck in your own perspective, while working in a team forces you to consider angles you would never have explored on your own.

And then there’s the matter of mutual support during tough times. I know it might sound like a cliché, one of those phrases everyone says when talking about entrepreneurship. But it actually makes a real difference and you only realize it when you’re in the thick of it.

Difficult moments in an entrepreneurial project aren’t rare. They’re the norm. Clients who don’t pay, months when the numbers don’t add up, hard decisions to make with little time and even less information. Having people to share the weight of these situations, divide the struggles, and also celebrate the successes when they come completely changes the experience. You’re not alone with your doubts and fears, and this allows you to keep going even when the voice in your head tells you to quit.

Difficult moments in entrepreneurship aren’t the exception. They’re the rule. Having someone to share them with is what allows you to get through them.

The chapter nobody wants to read

There’s an aspect of co-founding a company that gets talked about too little, and that’s the sacrifices. Not the romantic ones they tell in documentaries about Steve Jobs, but the real, daily ones you go through when you have a startup in its early stages.

Having a startup at the beginning means accepting a level of risk that most people aren’t willing to take on. It means periods when you don’t know if next month you’ll have enough to cover expenses. It means giving up weekends, evenings, holidays, and sometimes even sleep. It means saying many “no”s to things you’d like to do because you know the resources need to be invested in the project.

I’m not writing this to discourage anyone, quite the opposite. I’m writing it because I believe transparency about this aspect is fundamental for anyone considering taking the same step. If you’re not ready to make significant sacrifices, especially in the first months and years, perhaps the entrepreneurial path isn’t the right one for you at this point in your life. And there’s nothing wrong with that.

Employee vs entrepreneur

And here I arrive at what is perhaps the heart of the entire article. Despite the sacrifices, the risk, and the difficult moments, I feel a thousand times more fulfilled compared to any experience as an employee I’ve ever had.

I’m not saying this to belittle being an employee, which is a perfectly valid choice for many people. I’m saying it because for me personally, the fulfillment I feel in building something of my own, in making decisions that have a direct impact on the company’s future, and in seeing the results of my work translate into real growth is something I could never have achieved working for someone else.

When you’re an employee you contribute to someone else’s vision. When you’re an entrepreneur you’re building your own. And that feeling of ownership, of total responsibility for what you create, is one of the most powerful emotions I’ve ever felt professionally.

The lessons I carry with me

Co-founding a company taught me more things in a few years than I had learned in my entire previous journey. If I had to summarize the most important lessons in a few points, they would be these.

I didn’t co-found a company because I had a perfect plan. I co-founded it because the right people and the right moment met along the way.