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  2. Friends as co-founders?

Friends as co-founders?

Ferran Martinez
2 replies
Hi there! I have always wondered this, as two of my best friends are also developers and we are all creative people... But we all joined to start a project that was exciting. This was almost three years ago. Project never launched. In this time I was able to ship a few solo projects, because I think that I can organize myself better when I am alone. The issues that I encountered while cofounding with my friends: No defined schedule, everyone codes from time to time (this sometimes meant once every 6 months...) I like to keep my code clean but they do not seem to care much. I try to hint them but dont wanna be rude with my friends I kinda took the lead since it was my idea and all, they were like yeah lets do it but they do not seem as excited as I am, so its more difficult for them to show up and code We all live abroad and separate from each other, so sometimes we have calls to decide things or code together, but end up just chit chatting and having fun. This is actually positive I think, as we have a motive to keep in touch and spend time together remotely. But not good for the project. Our git repository is a mess. Everyone commits without any clear pattern (branches, commit messages and so on). Many times we had to rollback changes or even re-clone the project And probably I am forgetting a bunch of things that are downsides of cofounding with your friends (probably same for family). Anyways, I do not regret embarking in this project since it made me an experienced Android developer which brought me some nice clients (I am full time freelancer, and part time indie maker). It was also fun and I guess it brought me a few life lessons. What are your thoughts about starting a project with your friends?

Replies

Andrea W
Pros and cons - have done both. If you are both completely aligned on your goals as well as who is contributing what that is helpful. It is never fun to feel like you are shouldering all of the work. Set clear milestones for your calls to make sure you are checking off some of the work before getting into the catch up talk. Good luck!
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I'd rather fail with my friends than fail with a stranger. This is my rationale, Startup is going to fail most of the time; the success rate is very low. Your strangers are also going to have issues that are different than your friends, at least, you know your friends' short comings and advantages ins and outs. There are huge upsides for starting a startup with your friends that I would consider founders' advantages. I know bunch of friends that I can start projects with who are professional and motivated. However, in your case, it's not matter of starting a project with your friends or not, it's more of starting a project with the right people. Whatever you have mentioned is not really the problems of starting a company with your friends, but more of starting a project with - who writes dirty codes - who doesnt set mile stones - who are not motivated .
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