• Blog
  • Archives
  • Bio
  • Awards
  • Speaking
  • Book
  • Contact

Sole founder or co-founders?

Published: Thursday, 31 January 2013

I was starting up my new start-up and I was finding it hard to get my desired co-founder to commit.  So I thought back over my experiences of the past few years.

I think the biggest asset of having a co-founder, is that you have another human being who is out in the world having experiences, learning new things, taking in feedback and data, observing how people react to things, processing how the world works, and then contributing their thoughts to the table.

Another brain thinking about the start-up when they're in the shower, doing exercise or commuting on public transport.

What I've found is that the problem I'm thinking about at all those times isn't necessarily the same as the problem my co-founder is thinking about.

So we either solve problems twice as quickly together, or we solve two problems at the same time.  And that's priceless.

About Me

Marita ChengForbes named me a world's top 50 woman in tech & 30 Under 30. I founded Robogals and Aipoly and was Young Australian of the Year 2012. Currently working on robotics company Aubot. I'm the youngest Member of the Order of Australia (AM) and I give speeches around the world.

I tweet @maritacheng and I'm on Facebook.

Subscribe

Enter your email address to receive my latest blog posts: 

 

Random Articles

  • Robogals 10-Year Anniversary Gala

    On 14 July 2008, I founded Robogals. At the Robogals 10-year anniversary gala in Melbourne, I gave a speech alongside Mark Parncutt, co-founder of...

  • Over-exposure

    Telling people your plans too early doesn't make you less likely to achieve them.  I know when I tell people what I plan to do the response I get...

  • Don't career plan

    No one knows what will happen in the future.  Just do your best at what you're doing now.  Then consider your options at the end of this project....

  • Dividing time - most time spent on highest priority item

    If you're not spending most of your time working on your highest priority, then it's time to reevaluate what you're doing. My mum worked as a hotel room...

  • #TechMyWay with Ashton Kutcher

    Spoke at a Lenovo event by myself for 12 minutes and then on a panel with Ashton Kutcher.  Met with Hollywood’s Steve Jobs and had a yarn about...

  • Phoenix, Arizona

    I love exploring new cities! So I was super thrilled to visit Phoenix in Arizona, and speak at ASQ’s Lean and Six Sigma Conference as their opening...

  • Reasons

    Why, excuses, rationale, justifications, explanations, verbal diarrhoea, reasons, etc. In the end, the myriad and infinite possibility of reasons...

  • Who says yes?

    I think it's important to have one person that says the final 'yes' to all the decisions in a start-up. That one person should be the visionary...

  • Piano lessons

    When I was younger, we couldn't afford a piano at home, so my mum would take me to my piano teacher's house each day to practise for an hour. I...

  • The Year of a Young Australian of the Year

    In 2008, I founded Robogals as a response to there being hardly any other women in my engineering classes. Our organisation is run by university...

Enter your email address to receive my latest blog posts: 

 

Scroll to Top