Working with a CoFounder with Tanis Jorge | E100
Helping people form successful partnerships.
On today's episode, Jason Pereira is going to talk to Tanis Jorge, founder of the CoFounders Hub. It is a resource for helping understand how to come together as CoFounders in order to enable success. For those of you who have been in successful partnerships, it could be great for those of you who have been in unsuccessful partnerships.
Episode Highlights:
01:43: Tanis explains how he built three data-driven tech companies over the course of the 10 years with his best friend Stephen.
02:16: Stephen later decided to go to Silicon Valley and Tanis managed a very small engineering team in Vancouver. They started the identity verification company utilizing cyber data. After 10 years later in 2021, they reached the Unicorn status. Basically, they have built four companies over 20 years with the same co-founder and that's what led Tanis to the journey where he is today.
03:48: Tanis is a big believer in free markets and innovation and disruption. When he realized that 65% of these partnerships are ruined by the relationship with the people who initially in the beginning had such dreams and visions together, that really made him sad.
05:07: Tanis shares what people should consider at an early stage before starting any kind of partnership.
06:37: Self-assessment is important, the first one is looking at yourself very deeply. Tanis has a product, and the Co-founders have called the self-assessment, and they walk people through the most in-depth self-analysis.
07:58: In any business it's the needs of the family and the spouses and everything else that come into it that may drive some short or long-term thinking depending upon where people's life stages.
09:18: The goal in the assessment is to really help you find out about yourself and sit back and go, how is this piece going to affect a partnership and where would it be?
09:43: Presumption is the death of any partnership; you really need to articulate and talk about what seems like obvious things but make sure you are on the same page.
11:12: People just seem to think that friendship is important, and, therefore, it will solve the problem.
12:06: Business partnership is like a marriage in many ways, or like a good friendship, you need to be touching base on a daily basis on a weekly basis monthly basis, and then something big on an annual basis.
13:19: Communication and being intentional with the partner is the biggest insurance policy.
14:00: Scaling is a big issue sometimes. As a company grows faster and faster, it gets bigger and bigger.
15:30: Tanis is a huge proponent about preparation. It's like a chess game. Business is like a chess game. If you can be 2-3 moves out and anticipate what these moves could be, then you can prepare for it ahead of time and be ready and not be caught off guard.
16:58: If you can put the business as the central figure in your relationship, then emotional decisions have less bite.
18:15: Be clear, having that Depersonalized question doesn't mean that both people are going to agree to that some.
18:39: Every partnership is going to end. At the end of the day, every partnership is going to end either by people willfully exiting, unwillingly exiting or just dying.
19:25: There are contracts and agreements and clauses that one can put into a partnership agreement, and you do that in the very beginning.
21:17: Tanis' friend Tom Dean's has written a book called Every Family's business, and at the end of it, there are some 12 questions that you should be asking yourself on an annual basis.
22:45: It is imperative that all the partners are involved in the selling process because they need to see, and they need to be sitting at the table when a potential buyer says why are you trying to get this much money for your company?
24:51: Tanis explains behavioral finance and the cost of the endowment effect, if you have something that you own, it is more valuable to you perceptively than if you were to basically make a bid for it.
25:23: If you encapsulate everything you do what you know, what are the key pieces of advice you are trying to sum it down to when it comes to basically getting involved with the co-founder.
27:40: Tanis shares his views on what's involved when the partnership goes wrong, and someone wants out.
28:46: Anticipate a rough battle ahead. Prepare the culture of your business. Understand that your employees, your investors, your suppliers, your vendors, all of them are going to figure out something's going on and you want to stop the rumor mill.
3 Key Points:
Tanis explains how he conducted a detailed survey and launched the book the CoFounders Handbook.
Tanis advises people to have a very clear picture of what they bring to the table and to really analyze how this will affect the partnership.
Tanis recommends building a trust in your partner where they know without a doubt that the person is getting things done as well, and they don't have to question and go what they do today.
Tweetable Quotes:
"I get asked to advise on frequently, and what happened was I was approached often by founders who were in partnerships, and they said, look, you've got a track record how is it that you and your partner are still friends?" - Tanis Jorge
"People invest a lot of money into their businesses, and you really don't want to just offhandedly jump into something where they will be a key factor in your success." - Tanis Jorge
"We really make people look internally who they are and get a big picture of where they excel and where the gaps are. You may get along with this person in a social setting and whatnot." - Tanis Jorge
"I think, first and foremost, I want people to have a very clear picture of what they bring to the table and to really analyze how this will affect the partnership." - Tanis Jorge
"As much as I love to see successful entrepreneurship, I hate to see things blow up, which can happen too often." - Tanis Jorge
Resources Mentioned: