• 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

  • Writing my memoirs

    Today I asked myself, what do I want to have achieved in life by the time I’m 50? I wrote down all the major things I would be proud to have...

  • Cool enough

    I find that many people my age are quite lost.  They don't know what to do with their lives, they don't know what their dream job is, they don't know...

  • Losing focus

    From an organisational point of view, it's better to focus on doing a small number of things right, than a large number of things wrong. In...

  • A regularly pleasant airport experience

    One day, as if overnight, all the airport check-in people and desks disappeared.  In their place appeared computerised self-tagging stations.  Across the...

  • YouthActionNet Global Fellowship Preparations

    On 17 May this year, over two months after I'd submitted my application, I received an exciting email in my inbox.  "Congratulations!  You have been...

  • How I won my battle against procrastination

    Just in the past 2.5 weeks, I've seen my productivity shoot through the roof, I have more energy and I feel great about myself (who wouldn't?)   No,...

  • In the news: Entrepreneurship in Australian universities

    My business partner Mark Parncutt was quoted in this article in StartUp Smart about the state of entrepreneurship in Australian universities.  Happy...

  • The most important thing

    … isn’t the car you drive, whether you earn more money than your neighbour, who you know, or what you know;  it is your health.  Without your health, you...

  • YouthActionNet Global Fellowship Day 0: The "best" and "better" plans

    A month ago, I came up with a list of the things I wanted to consider during my YouthActionNet Fellowship retreat.  In the 24 hours that it took me...

  • Learn so much from done

    Whenever I read a business book, I always think I've got the general gist of it and put it down sometime through.  Otherwise, I read it...

Enter your email address to receive my latest blog posts: 

 

Scroll to Top