When I co-founded my previous company, I had the hardest time interviewing candidates for sales positions. We went through four different VP of Sales in the first two years. One of them had no qualms about putting complete fabrications on his resume.
If you are like many software geeks, you find the company of business people a little awkward. But as you embark on the journey of creating a Fair business, making money is critical and a good business partner can make the difference between success and failure.
Steve Jobs is not a coder but everyone agrees that he turned Apple around single-handedly. The same truth applies on a smaller scale: your project can greatly benefit from being sold, marketed and pitched the right way to the right people.
But how can you pick the right partner?
To the untrained eye, all business and sales people look the same: they talk and present great, but you don’t know which ones to trust. It’s very possible that the most sweet talking salesperson will be the least ethical, most lazy and worst partner you could ever find.
References
The number one trick to choosing the right business partner is reference checks. If you can find a friend of a friend who will vouch for that person, you’re in great shape. That’s an element of trust. Tools like LinkedIn are great for that. I can’t emphasize this enough. Don’t take the potential partner’s word for it, listen to other people who have worked with the candidate.
Really. Pick up the phone and actually talk to them.
Do Some Comparison Shopping
The second trick is to compare. It’s easy to be impressed by “Joe”, the sweet talking business person you met at a tech MeetUp and feel you must hire on the spot.
Don’t. You are making the mistake of comparing Joe to yourself: sure, Joe has a ton of business contacts and looks great in a suit. Compared to you.
Instead, find a second potential partner. Then compare. Suddenly, Joe’s amazing contacts don’t look so great compared to Bill’s. But Joe understands your product better.
This process will help highlight differences and weaknesses in both candidates. Only then can you make an educated choice.
Trust But Verify
Finally, don’t give away the farm. Great business partners deserve all the equity they can get. But just in case they don’t work out, make sure there is vesting in place. If after a month you are not satisfied with the results, you can end the partnership and all you have lost is some of your time. But being stuck with the wrong business partner who owns significant equity for life, that could be the kiss of death.
Are there any other tips you encountered in that situation? Any horror stories you wish to share?
[EDIT: on the same topic, this post is a good read]
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